By Dave Hansen
CLEAR LAKE, IA–“It’s going to be a crazy, special weekend. We’re just going to show up and celebrate.”
That is the way Jay Perry Richardson is summing up his visit to Clear Lake, Iowa with his family members to remember his father and grandfather.
It will be a first visit to the Surf Ballroom for the 23-year old, his brother Thomas and sister Ashlyn.
Wayne Christgau & J.P. “The Big Bopper Junior” Richardson
Their mother Patty will be along too. She has been to the Surf before and attended more than a few dates over the years with her late husband Jay Richardson as he toured to keep the legacy of his famous father, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson alive.
But the man who billed himself as “The Big Bopper Junior” died last August following a long illness at a Houston hospital. He was 54.
Richardson spent his life protecting the legacy of his early rock-’n’-roll performing father Jiles Perry Richardson.
The man he never met recorded the hit single “Chantilly Lace” and also wrote two other hit songs. “White Lightning” and “Running Bear” were number one records for George Jones and Johnny Preston respectively.
His career was cut short following a show at the Surf Ballroom in early February of 1959. Richardson, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and pilot Roger Peterson were killed when their single engine plane crashed just North of Clear Lake.
Jay Perry Richardson who was born a few months later, took up a musical career and was a performer on the “Winter Dance Party” tour featuring Buddy Holly Impersonator John Mueller and Sting Ray Anthony as Ritchie Valens. Richardson’s family says it meant a lot to their father to be able tour with them and they were also family to him.
“The Big Bopper Junior” on stage at the Surf Ballroom
He eventually worked on some of the very stages where his father performed. The venues included the Surf Ballroom, which remembers the 1959 show with a special Winter Dance Party weekend each year.
Bopper Junior also restored and released for sale, copies of three videos his father recorded in 1958. He was a music video pioneer who believed the future of music was on television.
Now the torch has been passed to a new generation of Richardsons.
“We just want to do the things he would do,” said Jay Richardson. “Whether it’s speaking or shedding some light, we’re gonna continue the legacy and do the best we can.”
Even though he is studying to earn a degree in electrical engineering, Richardson admits the music bug has been biting at him, and he said his younger brother enjoys singing and playing around with sounds.
It’s unclear whether fans will get a taste of that this weekend, but it is certain that organizers at the Surf are planning to recognize Bopper Junior on Saturday night.
Neither the Surf, nor Richardson is saying much about what will happen.
“We have something in store for Saturday night,” said Richardson. “The family will likely end up on stage. If they ask us to say something, or go beyond that, we’re prepared.”
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