Hank Marvin
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Hank B. Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, October 28 1941, Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is the lead guitarist of the (mainly) instrumental group The Shadows, formed initially as a backing band for Cliff Richard.
The Shadows inspired guitarists like Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Brian May, George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Pete Townshend and are therefore considered to be Britain's most influential band before the era of The Beatles.
As a youngster, he played the banjo and the piano. Hearing one of Buddy Holly's songs made him switch to the guitar, although he occasionally played both instruments in recordings. At the age of 16, he travelled with his friend Bruce Welch to London, where he met John Foster (Cliff Richard's manager) at the Two Is Coffee Bar in Soho. Foster was looking for a guitarist for Richard's imminent tour of the UK, and Hank agreed to join as long as there was also a vacancy for his Newcastle band-mate, Bruce. Foster had actually been looking for guitarist Tony Sheridan at the Two Is and so had encountered the 16-yr-old Hank by the merest chance. Hank and Bruce both joined The Drifters (as Cliff's group was then known). This started their careers as professional guitar players. They actually met Cliff for the first time at a nearby Soho tailor's shop (Cliff was having a fitting for a pink stage jacket) and had their first rehearsal with him after travelling with him to his parents' home in Cheshunt, Herts, by Green Line bus.
Hank Marvin was the user of what is thought to have been the first Fender Stratocaster in the UK and this guitar with its tremolo arm contributed to the Shadows' distinctive sound. The guitar was imported from America by Cliff Richard for Hank to use. Looking through a Fender catalogue, they were trying to find the guitar played by James Burton, Ricky Nelson's lead guitarist, and assumed that it would be the most expensive, the "Strat". Burton however played the Telecaster as the Stratocaster was a relatively new product. Although Hank famously used that guitar between 1959 and 1961, it remained Cliff's property and was returned to him when the importers of Fender guitars outfitted the whole group with new matching red guitars. The instrument is now (as at 2005) owned by Bruce Welch - a gift from Cliff to Bruce in the 1970s as a mark of gratitude for his production work on several hit albums by Cliff.
Although neither Hank Marvin nor the Shadows were ever well known in the United States, despite several appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, Marvin is nonetheless listed by Frank Zappa as an early influence on the first Mothers of Invention album, and Afrikaa Bambaataa cited the group's first UK number one single "Apache" as a big influence.
As well as playing with The Shadows, Hank Marvin has enjoyed a successful solo career as a performer and a recording artist. He has been willing to experiment with styles and material, doing some purely instrumental albums, some with only vocals (e.g. All Alone With Friends), one with only acoustic guitars, and one with a guitar orchestra (The Hank Marvin Guitar Syndicate).
As a songwriter he was responsible for "Geronimo" for The Shadows and "The Day I Met Marie", and as co-writer with Bruce Welch, Brian Bennett and John Rostill he penned other hits mainly for Cliff Richard such as on "I Could Easily Fall in Love with You" and "In the Country".
In 1988 Hank Marvin had a guest role at a concert by Jean-Michel Jarre in front of the industrial backdrop of London's East End Docklands, in a concert entitled Destination Docklands.
Hank Marvin has lived in Perth, Western Australia since 1986.
See also
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