In the mid-1950s, when entertainers such as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley were recording songs like "Rock Around the Clock" and "That's All Right Mama," a fast-paced mix of country, R&B, bluegrass and swing emerged known as rockabilly. As these artists and others like Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly ruled the charts, rockabilly became a lifestyle among the young and disaffected. Suddenly, teens in towns like Peoria, Illinois, were painting sideburns on their faces and rolling up their jean cuffs and T-shirt sleeves. Unfortunately, almost as quickly as its rise, the trend was over. Perkins nearly died in a car crash, while Cochran actually did, and Holly suffered a similar fate by airplane. Meanwhile, Presley joined the Army and reemerged two years later, singing songs better suited for those teens' fathers, as corny as Perry Como, but with too much grease in his hair.
Fifty years on, 3,000 to 4,000 people will descend on the Gold Coast for the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender to celebrate this brief but bright period. In the five decades since its beginning, rockabilly has continued to attract followers from around the world. One such devotee is the Weekender's organizer Tom Ingram, who was initially drawn to the music as a youth in England. As he began DJing, Ingram encountered fellow rockabilly enthusiasts and started holding club events dedicated to the music. As those grew in popularity, Ingram decided to stage weekend-long events celebrating the whole 1950s lifestyle.
After years of organizing such festivals in his native country, Ingram moved to Southern California and began holding similar rockabilly-themed Weekenders, choosing Las Vegas as the site. "When I moved over here, I decided that Vegas would be the best place because of its 24-hour bars," he says. "When people go away for the weekend, they don't want to go to bed at 2 o'clock in the morning."
This will be the seventh straight year rockabilly obsessives have traveled to Vegas, and Ingram has seen his event nearly double in size. He has a simple theory for the movement's continued appeal. "It was the first time we had a more popular modern music that was aimed at the younger crowd," he says. "But it comes from so many things. It's not just music. It's cars, it's clothes, it's homes. It just comes as everything."
More than 30 rockabilly bands will perform at this year's festival, including some from Sweden and Holland (a Japanese band canceled at the last minute because of illness), as well as a few classic acts like Ray Sharpe ("Linda Lu/Monkey's Uncle") and Gene Summers ("Straight Skirt," "School of Rock 'n' Roll"). Ingram is clearly enthused to see all of them. "If I don't get excited about the band, I tend not to book them," he says. "It's not being selfish. What it is, I have to think the band's worth booking to play the event."
The weekend also features an exhibit of vintage automobiles, and one of the more popular events, a burlesque show during which audience members are encouraged to striptease.
A new attraction this year, which Ingram promises will excite those interested in vintage Vegas, is put on by Charles Phoenix, co-author of Fabulous Las Vegas in the '50s. "He just goes around to swap meets and picks up all these slides and does a show," Ingram says. "And it's very funny, as well, the way he commentates it."
After a couple years of leveled-off attendance which he blames on 9/11 and the Iraq war, Ingram has strong hopes that this year's festival will be marked by larger crowds. With that in mind, the British promoter stands like a rockabilly Statue of Liberty, inviting all into the fold. "Occasionally, we get people who feel left out because they don't know how to fit in," Ingram says. "People who don't wear '50s clothes think that the people who do don't want to know them. And that is totally wrong. It's quite a friendly scene. People are welcomed into it."