Nov. 25, 2008
Mark Shurilla and The Greatest Hits
perform Rocking 50s tribute
Relive the music of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens,
the Big Bopper and many others with Wisconsin native Mark
Shurilla and his band, The Greatest Hits, who will perform
“Shurilla’s Rockin 50’s Party: The Day the
Music Died Tribute”
at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Shurilla and his band kick off the New Year with a performance
on Thursday, January 29, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., at the Sentry
Theater in Stevens Point. Sponsored by Centertainment Productions,
admission is $28 plus appropriate service fees. Reserved seating
tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at the Dreyfus
University Center Information and Ticket Center, 715-346-4100
or 800-838-3378, or online
at
www.uwsp.edu/centers/uit/ordering.asp.
His 2009 performances will give special attention to the 50
th
anniversary (Feb. 3, 1959) of a tragic plane accident that shook
the music world. On a cold winter’s night in 1959 a small private
plane left Clear Lake, Iowa bound for Fargo and never made its
destination. That plane crash took the lives of young rock legends
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and others. Singer Don McLean later
immortalized that fatal day with his early 1970s classic,
“American Pie,” penned for “the day the music died.”
Shurilla is famous for playing the music of The Winter Dance Party,
a tour that starred Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and
Dion, which kicked off in Milwaukee, Shurilla’s hometown, on
January 23, 1959. Shurilla’s tour stop in Stevens Point will
include special guests presenting songs by Elvis, Johnny Cash,
Brenda Lee, the Ronettes and more from an all-star lineup of the
best performers in the Midwest.
