How I turned my holiday drama into a potential chart hit - Sunderland composer

A Sunderland composer has come up with his contender for a holiday hit - 50 years after he had his own Spanish adventure.

Derek Buckham has looked back on the year that he and four other young Wearsiders rented a Spanish villa.

His reflections come at the same time as he released his latest song on social media, called Have A Holiday.

A 1,150 mile drive from Sunderland

Five decades ago, five Sunderland lads didn’t have enough money to fly to Spain despite having booked a villa there.

So they took a car on the 1,150 mile journey to Lloret de Mar during the Shipyard Fortnight.

“We set away on the Thursday night, broke down in York but managed to get to Dover on Friday morning to catch the hovercraft to France,” said Derek, now 71.

The lads decided to save money by not using the motorways. “What a mistake to make but we saw France,” Derek added.

Finally there but the villa had been wrecked

When they got to the Spanish border, it was shut and they had to take a detour.

But worse was to follow.

“We drove through Spain to Lloret de Mar only to find our villa was a flat in a residential area which had been smashed up by the previous holiday makers.”

The drama was not over.

One of the lads got lost for 3 days

“We couldn’t wait to get out on the night. The place was packed and buzzing. We split up only to lose one of the lads for 3 days. He couldn’t find his way back to the flat. We eventually bumped into him.”

The holiday experience was great as a whole, but there were more incidents on the way home.

“This time, we used the motorways only to witness a 300 mile traffic jam. We got lost and ended up in Paris.”

What an experience and it inspired a song

The boys found themselves on the Parisienne ring road system in the days before there were sat navs.

It was quite the experience but undaunted Derek has not been put off holidays.

Instead, he has composed this catchy tune and said: “It is making an impression on the holiday music scene.

“It brings back memories of those holidays years ago when we first went to Spain and there was always a Summer hit.”

Derek, a former piping engineer who worked in the nuclear industry at Plymouth, Sellafield, and Dounreay for more than 20 years, has had a lifelong interest in music.

But he began travelling the country to work when music couldn’t provide him with a living to support his family.