Moderne wrote:drakula63 wrote:Who was the first guitarist to really capture your imagination?
I loved Hank Marvin in The Shadows as a kid....
I'm sure Bernie Marsden is a lovely bloke etc. etc. but I do have a slight problem with people who pay tribute to Hank and The Shadows but then imply that it's something they were into when they were really young...and then they grew out of it - like Dinky Toys and Enid Blyton. I'm 56 and I'd rather listen to Hank Marvin than Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck etc. Then again, I'm not an internationally renowned rock star...
To be fair, I think this is just due to his age at the time... he was genuinely a kid when he first heard Hank. Also, in Bernie's defence; did you know that in the late 1980s he almost joined Cliff Richard's band? I gather he was genuinely excited about this and would have been the new band leader. He rehearsed with the band a few times and says it was a great thrill to play the solo to 'Livin' Doll'. In the end, of course, it didn't happen, because Cliff felt that the direction Bernie wanted to take the band in was a bit too heavy for his fans. Probably true. Mind you, if it had happened ten years earlier, who knows. I get the feeling that Bernie is genuine in his regard for Hank and is just telling it like it is.