The ShadowMusic Web Community

I don't remember where or when I heard this, but there was a UK radio programme about the Shadows years ago, of which I was sent a cassette tape copy years ago, where someone interviewed Jim Burns, asking about the Marvin guitars..

Hearing Jim speak, it was obvious Jim was evidently a Geordie, as were Hank and Bruce (essentially- although born in Bognor!) so that may be why they approached him to build them new guitars which were an alternative to the Strats, with the tuning problems they were then having...he was a fellow Geordie that they could relate to and trust, not one of these smart arse Londoners..!

Jim was obviously a bit of a lad, and his comments were very funny and spoken with a broad Geordie accent..
He mentioned how Hank and Bruce locked him up in a room to make the guitars and wouldn't let him out until he got the guitars right...and how they 'pushed his tea under the door' etc.. (like he was in a prison cell!)

Anyone else remember this?

August Bank Holiday Monday, 1980. BBC Radio 2.

The title was "It Was In Tune When I Bought It" and it preceded and foreshadowed the Radio 1 series "Guitar Greats".

I still have a cassette recording of it.

That would be a nice listen....Jim.
Any change to dig it up and put it on this side?
Cheers Rob

I'll see what I can do. I have an idea that I've already digitised it.

OK...

The recording is just under an hour long. Less than half of that is directly about Hank (there's just as much about Pete Townshend).

Not all of the Hank stuff is about the Burns Marvin, either.

But some time ago, I edited together (with all the pauses taken out) all the stuff related to the Burns guitar. It's here:

https://soundcloud.com/jnugent/iwitwibi-burns-extract

Happy listening.

Thanks Jim,
I enjoy it very much!
Cheers

Wow, Jim - thank you! That sounded so familiar although I can't have heard it for over 30 years - I used to have a cassette copy of it too. Hank went on to play a bit of Apache if I remember rightly - although it wasn't clear (to me!) which guitar he was playing. The knife-edge vibrato, "metal on metal...." Fascinating to hear it again... I met Jim Burns a few years later in Andy's Guitars in Denmark Street and had a nice chat with him, and a couple of years after that I bought my own Burns Marvin - also from Andy's - for £600. It still sounds great and stays perfectly in tune. Worth every penny!!!