by Rocky » Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:41 pm
When I began writing "Ferriday Fireball" in 1957, I had already began amassing as many Jerry Lee showdates I could find from Cashbox, Billboard, newspapers, Kay's publications, magazines, and other sources. Through the years it was an impressive list but of course there were many gaps. By the time the first edition of "Ferriday Fireball" came out, with the help of fan club journals and first-hand show reports mixed in with shows I've seen (over 120) from 1962-1990, it was 75% acurate. This is the copy that Wolfgang received. When the second edition came out it was 82% correct because of newly found date info from sources and fans around the world. Then a big thing happened that made the third edition almost bang-on. I was able to receive the complete booking files from the Ray Brown office who handled all his bookings throughout the 60s and early 70s. Thousands of missing dates were included in the 3rd edition. Then contracts for bookings showed up from Al Embry's days with Jerry in the 80s. The fourth edition of "Ferriday Fireball" has just been released and with the help of Robert Porter (who owns a third edition), he booked Jerry for twelve years, it contains hundreds of new dates and then a guy in California sent me TV guides from the 50s and 60s listing tv shows we never knew Jerry had ever guest on like Town Hall Party and others. As Pierre Pennone says, this book is a never ending process but it's getting closer to the full story of places Lewis played. It's now got about 95% of them, but there are still blank areas. It's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Info comes in from so many different sources. Just this past week I was in Connecticut and ran across a guy with some old posters and tickets of rock 'n' roll shows he had attended as a teenager and there was a couple of shows from Jerry I never knew about...plus Carl Perkins and Fats Domino. E-Bay is a great place too with ticket stubs and old posters as someone has stated earlier.