From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Jun 23, 2002  2:13 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Niki Sullivan
 
NIKI SULLIVAN (By Jean-Marc Pezet)

Born 23 June 1937, Southgate, California

Although born in California, Niki was raised in Texas and developed
interest in hillbilly and R&B music, playing guitar and singing. He met
Buddy Holly (in fact he was a distant cousin of Buddy) and was invited to
take part in the next recording session in Clovis, yielding The Crickets'
first records "That'll Be The Day"/"I'm Looking For Someone To Love".
Not bad for a start!

Niki stayed with The Crickets from March 1957 to December 1957,
touring, recording and performing on the Ed Sullivan TV Show where he
can be seen playing rhythm guitar behind Buddy Holly. He then left, due
to "personality conflicts". His 5 minutes of fame were over.
He returned to Lubbock and cut a single for Dot, the Hollyesque "It's All
Over", which got nowhere and continued in the music business for a while
(he was even at one time managed by Buddy Holly's father), running music
stores in LA and performing on a semi-pro basis, playing clubs. He
eventually got a day job in finance.

He sometimes gets out of his music retirement to perform as an ex-Cricket,
usually at Buddy Holly commemorative events.

Recommended listening:
- 1957 recordings by Buddy Holly & The  CCrickets and Gary Tollet
- "It's All Over" is currently availabllee on "Dot Rock'n'Roll" ACE CDCHD
592 or "That'll Flat Get It Vol 5" BEAR FAMILY BCD 15711

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P.S.: Niki Sullivan died 6 April 2004 in Sugar Creek, Missouri