Rock 'n' roll pioneer Bill Haley's son aims to entertain as well as educate his audience, writes Shane Gilchrist.
Bill Haley junior, the son of the father of rock 'n' roll, Bill Haley, used to resist the idea of playing his dad's famous songs.
However, about three years ago, while performing at a party to celebrate the release of an album of original material with his band, the Satellites, Haley jun (a songwriter and guitarist) was asked to perform some of those classics.
These included Haley senior's most famous track, (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock (written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers), which was catapulted to a No 1 hit in the United States by virtue of its inclusion in 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle. Coincidentally, Haley jun was born the same month.
But back to the future ... a smartphone video recording was made of Haley jun covering his dad's material; subsequently uploaded to the internet, it prompted an agent to make contact, suggesting he put together a band to play his father's music.
''I thought about it,'' Haley jun muses via phone from his home just outside Philadelphia as he and his band, the Comets, prepare for a New Zealand tour that includes several dates in the South.
''There's still a lot of interest in my dad's music. I know it well and have a strong interest in the history of music as well. I thought I could do a show that, number one, entertained people, and number two, was authentic, involving really talented musicians and instruments and equipment that was used back in the 1950s.''
Haley jun, who owns a magazine business and describes himself as ''a publisher, editor and author-journalist'', says for many years music has just been a hobby. Now, however, he is juggling the demands of his other pursuits with a busier musical schedule that's the result of revisiting his dad's songbook.
''We went back to all of the early songs, back to 1950, not just the big hits that people know about like Shake, Rattle and Roll and See You Later, Alligator, but some of the earlier stuff like Crazy Man Crazy.
''I wanted to make it a rock 'n' roll history show, to tell anecdotes and stories to let the audience know where this music came from and how it all came about,'' Haley jun explained.
''It just so happened that my dad was a programme director on a radio station that had a one-hour daily show playing 'race music'. My dad started playing those songs during his evening 'hillbilly music' shows and people liked it.
''My dad was experimenting with combining country music with other styles. He played 'hillbilly' music, and was doing a lot of yodelling and so on in the late '40s ... he then came up with a formula that proved successful. That all started around 1950.''
Haley senior, who went on to sell more than 40 million records around the world, came up with a musical stew that combined upbeat rhythm and blues with touches of big band brass, country swing and jazz.
''He initially used jazz session drummers who played what I describe as a trashcan-sound style, very syncopated, using a lot of snare, which was unique. My dad also had to tell his early guitar players to dumb it down a little bit, to make it simpler and that added to it.''
Bill Haley jun and the Comets' show therefore is both a celebration of Haley senior's songs and a reminder of a legacy that was overshadowed by those who followed, including Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.
''I think rock 'n' roll, that bringing together of different sounds, would have happened anyway, but my dad was on to it four or five years before others.''
Haley jun (Haley's second son, born to his second wife, Joan Barbara Haley-Hahn) has fond, albeit fractured, memories of his father.
''My mother was the middle wife (of three). She was there during this period when rock 'n' roll started. He moved [from New Jersey] to Mexico in 1962 and I was only 7 then. I do have memories of home life. One of my most cherished memories was going into the garage where Dad would practise and he would give me a couple of drumsticks and a cardboard box and I would drum along with the band.
''I lost touch with him until the last three years of his life but we got on pretty good in those last years.''
Haley senior died in 1981 at the age of 56. He was not a happy man, his son acknowledges.
''He began drinking more after the 1957 tour of Australia and Britain, where he discovered Scotch. Also, he went from making millions of dollars and being on top of the world to losing not only his popularity but all his money within about five years, due to bad management and other factors.
''As I said, I got to know him better in those last years of his life, but many times he was blind drunk. He had a bad problem. I think he drank himself to death. And I think he did have some regrets about alienating those who loved him.''
Playing
Bill Haley jun and the Comets perform the following dates in the South:
• Stadium Southland, Invercargill, tonight.
• Dunedin Town Hall, tomorrow.
• Theatre Royal, Timaru, Monday.
