| The day the music died on 17:58 - Feb 4 by dickythorpe |
A policeman picked up his Gretsch guitar from the crash and taught himself how to play. Owen money mentioned it today. |
IT was Eddie Cochrane sorry
UK tour and death (1960) Edit
Memorial plaque at Rowden Hill, Chippenham
On Saturday, April 16, 1960, at about 11.50 p.m., while on tour in the United Kingdom, 21-year-old Cochran was involved in a traffic accident in a taxi traveling through Chippenham, Wiltshire, on the A4. The speeding taxi blew a tire, the driver lost control, and the vehicle crashed into a lamppost on Rowden Hill, where a plaque now marks the spot. No other car was involved.[9] Cochran, who was seated in the center of the back seat, threw himself over his fiancée (songwriter Sharon Sheeley) to shield her and was thrown out of the car when the door flew open. He was taken to St Martin's Hospital, in Bath, where he died of severe head injuries at 4:10 p.m. the following day.[10] Cochran's body was flown home, and his remains were buried on April 25, 1960, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.[11]
Sharon Sheeley, tour manager Pat Thompkins, and singer Gene Vincent survived the crash, Vincent sustaining lasting injuries to an already permanently damaged leg that would shorten his career and affect him for the rest of his life. The taxi driver, George Martin, was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50 (and in default of payment six months imprisonment), and disqualified from driving for 15 years (although by some accounts he served no prison sentence).[12] His driving licence was reinstated in 1969.
The car and other items from the crash were impounded at the local police station until a coroner's inquest could be held. David Harman, a police cadet at the station, who would later become known as Dave Dee of the band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, taught himself to play guitar on Cochran's impounded Gretsch.[13]
A memorial stone commemorating Cochran was placed on the grounds of St Martin's Hospital, in Bath.[14] The stone was restored in 2010 (on the 50th anniversary of his death) and can be found in the old chapel grounds at the hospital. A memorial plaque was also placed next to the sundial at the back of the old chapel.[15] |  |
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