 |
| Record Mirror, 5th Nov 69 |
In the late sixties, after the Shadows' popularity had waned in the UK, they were still enjoying success in Japan, though nowhere near the level of popularity as The Ventures. I had never seen a Japanese Shadows(-related) album for sale in the UK, until a Japanese pressing of Hank Marvin's solo album showed up out of the blue on an Ebay auction about a year ago now. Now, I'm not someone who buys every rare/expensive record or other collectable thing she wants (otherwise I would have no money, haha...), but this was something I really wanted, and I will probably never see it again, and if I did, it would not be £36!
 |
| The original cover... |
The cover of the Japanese pressing is unique - it has a photo from The Shadows' 1967 tour of Japan and some cool, chunky sixties typography. Every other release of this album had the original cover here on the right, with a photo of Hank looking thoughtful and romantic, with his wife (then girlfriend) Carole in the foreground.
In total contrast... here's the Japanese one! It is pressed on red "Everclean" vinyl like many other Japanese releases from the late 1950s to early 1970s. Typically, the first pressing of a few thousand copies was on red and if there was enough demand for a record, it was pressed again on black vinyl.
 |
| My copy! |
The photo on the back is from 1966, when the Shadows were rehearsing for the Talk Of The Town show.
 |
| original press photograph (from my collection) |
The notes on the back were written by Kiyokuni Hirakawa, a Japanese radio producer for TBS Radio. Here's a very rough translation from Google Translate's text recognition, that I've then tried to put into coherent English.
The text on the left above the track listing reads:
"Wonderful guitar world" Hank Marvin's Japan visit commemorative edition
and on the right:
The band has continued to be very popular in the Japanese hit parade as an electric guitar group representing the British music world, and as veteran singer Cliff Richard's 'shadow men'. We present to you the first album by Hank Marvin, the lead guitarist of The Shadows, after going independent.
The Shadows are said to be the most musically superior guitar group in the hit parade, boasting a wide repertoire ranging from beat to mood music, Latin and standard numbers. Hank has continued to lead the group's sound for about 10 years, ever since he joined the band as lead guitarist during The Drifters' days, replacing [sic] Cliff Richard who concentrated on vocals. I don't think it's necessary to introduce Marvin's profile any further.
As you can see from The Shadows' many discs and their 1967 performance in Japan, Hank Marvin's playing does not overwhelm the audience with the ridiculous sounds characteristic of electric guitar, but instead is full of brilliant, brilliant sounds. It's not something to show off your technique. If anything, I get the impression that anyone who has played the guitar even a little bit can play it.
However, being able to make the audience feel this way and still be able to draw them into the charm of the performance without getting bored with it, is something that cannot be done unless one has outstanding technique. The so-called "Shadows tone" is wrapped in a soft sound with clear echoes, and although it sounds simple at first, it shows that Hank Marvin's guitar technique is outstanding.
Hank Marvin's extraordinary power is clearly conveyed in his first album, which we introduce here. Although the Shadows have disbanded, he continues to be active as an independent member of the former group. In more than 10 years since their debut under the name of The Drifters in August 1958, it can be said The Shadows' music continues to live on.
---
A lot of the pieces on this album are film themes, a Shadows staple throughout their career. As many fans know, the Shadows started working on an album of film themes in late 1968, but the project was abandoned. Only two tracks were recorded: Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (which was later used as a single release), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which went unreleased at the time. Other film themes were part of the Shadows repertoire at the time too: Theme from Exodus was played live on the 1969 Japan tour. Lara's Theme, which features on Hank's album, was being played as early as 1967 with the Shadows, down the page you can see a clip of the Shads playing it on TV.
Some of the themes on this album could have been possible choices for the Shadows album: Born Free, The Windmills Of Your Mind, The Big Country, and Lara's Theme again. The Shadows could have started working on the arrangements for these titles, and then when the project was shelved, Hank carried on developing the ideas for his solo album and recorded some of these themes. He also recorded Midnight Cowboy as a solo artist, which was used as the B side to The Shadows' Slaughter On Tenth Avenue single.
Hank thought about working on another solo album in 1970 but the idea was dropped, probably because of Shades Of Rock and the formation of Marvin, Welch & Farrar.
(I can't remember where I read this information, but I heard that the follow-up was possibly going to be a vocal album? Maybe tracks in the same vein as Break Another Dawn, Would You Believe It, etc. Keep in mind that I might be totally making that up, as I can't find any mention of it anywhere, and I'm beginning to think that I read it in a dream! But, it's an interesting thing to ponder.)
The other musicians on the record were, according to Hank himself: Vic Flick and Alan Parker on guitar, Herbie Flowers and Dave Richmond on bass, "either" Pete Willsher or B.J. Cole played the pedal steel guitar, Alan Hawkshaw played piano, and Rex Bennett (no relation to Brian) was on drums. The orchestra was conducted by either Norrie Paramor, Nick Ingmann, or Brian Bennett depending on the session - see the credits on the record.
The orchestral backing is a welcome addition to a lot of the pieces, but at the same time I feel some would maybe work better without it, especially Tokyo Guitar. However, all the tracks feel very cohesive with each other, and they really fit together well in the sense of an album. About half of the album I really love, the other half I just like, I've only mentioned a few tracks below that I actually have something to say about besides "it's good!".
This Guy's In Love With You is sublimely beautiful, starting off with a soft, slightly dampened acoustic guitar and a subtle backing, leading up to a wistful, almost 'crying' electric guitar.
The whimsical Chameleon was written by Brian Bennett, who released his own version on The Illustrated London Noise album and also arranged and conducted the orchestra on Hank's recording. He shows off his nimble virtuosic picking and gets a very nice acoustic sound. The middle section is my favourite part. Overall it's one of my favourites from the album but the entire piece seems too short - it really sounds like it should develop further but then it just ends.
Next is a dreamy version of Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago. This was one of John Rostill's favourite pieces and it is a perfect choice for Hank's style. You can see The Shadows playing it on the Val Doonican show in 1967:
 |
| Hank in the studio |
The Big Country is another good pick, I love the arrangement, and as well as Hank's guitar, Rex Bennett's drumming (both on a kit and the timpani) sounds amazing. While listening to it to write this I heard something very interesting. I have never noticed this before but it's quite a big mistake to leave into the final master of a recording...
If you listen carefully at 1:29, near the end of the middle section, you can hear Hank start to play the first couple notes a few bars too early before quickly shutting up!
Sacha is my favourite of Hank's solo recordings, and a lot of other Shadows fans' favourite too. What a fab heavy sound so uncharacteristic of what the common perception of his playing is, contrasted with the elegant classical guitar. It came about when Jerry Lordan, Roger Greenaway, and Roger Cook started to write it as a song for French singer Sacha Distel, but they thought it
worked better as an instrumental and offered it to Hank to record, hence the name Sacha. It was released as a single in June 1969, backed with Sunday For Seven Days. In Australia Sacha ended up being no. 1 for six weeks, unfortunately over in the UK it didn't chart at all.
For the guitar sound used on Sacha and other tracks from this period like Throw Down A Line, Hank used a rotary speaker cabinet, probably a Jennings Gyrosonic. This thread on the ShadowMusic site describes the effects he uses on this album much better than I can.
Amazingly, there's surviving footage of Hank playing (a slightly abridged) Sacha on The Cliff Richard Show from 31st August 1970! Yes, he is miming, but this version of Sacha is totally different to the studio version, so this was probably a specially recorded track for TV. I like the acoustic flamenco-style outro he plays on this version. The cuts to stock footage of a beach seem to be to hide the awkward transition between playing one guitar then quickly switching to another...
The last track is High Sierra, a great tune with a Spanish/Western flavour that Hank wrote with Petrina Lordan. Sounds like it could have easily been a Shadows number from 1965 or so, and also has a similar sort of rhythm to Fandango.
The album was reissued on CD in 1998, which if you like this album and Hank's early solo career, is really the thing to get. It also includes his singles released in the late sixties and 1970. In my opinion many were better tracks than what's on the album. The very rare vocal track Would You Believe It is included, which was only released originally as a B side of the first issue of a promo version of the Break Another Dawn single, before it was quickly replaced with Morning Star on subsequent issues. The booklet has a fascinating write up about Hank and the album by Rob Bradford, with some rare photos too.
 |
| Something I got the other week - a press photo of Hank! I believe it was taken at the NME Pollwinner's Concert in May 1969. (The photo is so incredibly glossy it's difficult to get a good image of it.) |
Comments
Post a Comment