Bill Haley Part 3
b'On June 27, 1956, Bill Haley and the Comets played Vancouver\'s first real rock\'n\'roll concert at Kerrisdale Arena. Almost forgotten in this day and age, but in a historic sense Bill Haley was the Granddaddy of rock\'n\'roll. \\n\\nIt\\u2019s hard to put a finger on the first rock\'n\'roll record, but there is no doubt Bill Haley made it happen all over the world. The novel part of Bill Haley\'s music \\u2015 its rhythm \\u2015 was the dominant factor that made rock\'n\'roll. At Bill\'s first session with Decca, he recorded "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which were to transform the concept of what popular music could be. "Rock Around the Clock" was featured in a youth-oriented movie called "Blackboard Jungle" and all hell broke loose. This movie and the song "Rock Around the Clock" became the focal points of the young and gave greater thrust to the popularity of this new hybrid of blues and country music. \\n\\nRed remembers: "The show had been sold out for weeks before his arrival. Local favourites Les Vogt and the Prowlers opened the show. I stepped out on to that stage and felt the electricity in the air immediately. I thanked Jack Cullen for asking me to MC the show and introduced Bill Haley. The screams started just after I said \'And now the man you\'ve been waiting for...\' I thought the roof was going to be ripped off by the sheer weight of the noise. While Bill played through his set I waited backstage for my first interview with the man who brought it all together.\\n\\nBill Haley was an utter surprise to me. He was kind and friendly, he was aware of my nervousness in his presence, but made me feel comfortable instantly. We talked for about an hour, had a few photographs taken together (by renowned Vancouver photographer John McGinnis) and he vanished into the night like so many of the stars I was to meet over the years. Those magic moments together will always be with me. I don\'t mean that I was in a swoon like a teenage girl; I knew then that here was a man of significance in the history of North American music. I knew within my soul that I was part of his story and he was part of mine.\\n\\nOne of the most fascinating stories from that meeting was his almost prophetic offering to me. Bill said in the midst of the conversation, \'Red, we have just about reached the end of our time in the spotlight.\' I could not understand this thinking; he was at the height of his career and the hits just kept on coming. Yet, he insisted that he and the Comets were about to be overtaken by a young man from Memphis that he called \'The Hillbilly Cat\'. Haley said, \'Red, the next giant of rock\'n\'roll is going to be Elvis Presley. He\'s got the looks, the talent and the magic to make him very, very important in the months and years ahead.\' \\n\\nBill Haley was right. You know that, I know that, but in that dressing room at the Kerrisdale Arena during that hot summer night in 1956 standing there with the world\'s number one rock\'n\'roll artist, it was hard to conceive of anyone bigger than Bill Haley and the Comets."\\n\\nBill and Red met again just over a decade later at Vancouver\'s Marco Polo restaurant where Bill gave what Red felt was one of the best interviews he\'d done. Bill was articulate about this music and music in general.\\n\\nIn this episode, Red and Bill talk about all the hits, starting with Rock Around The Clock and finishing up with the story of Crazy Man, Crazy; Bill moves into the Sixties to talk about his foray into Spanish music.'