Sauce

When SAUCE caught up with the former lead guitarist for The Shadows – a band that can be credited with influencing none other than The Beatles – Hank Marvin delved into his style, what brought him to create it, and the two-way street of musical influence.

Now I’d like to start [by saying], a lot is made of the influence you’ve had on people like Pete Townsend, Clapton, Naomi and Harrison, but I guess, what do you think it is about your sound that you were making at the time, that caught the attention of these artists?
Oh gee, that’s a hard one to answer… because it was clearly a sound that had a great impact – now I’m not sure why it had a great impact, but it did. You know, it seemed to capture the imagination of lots of people at the time, who were either encouraged to start taking up the guitar, or if they already played, they used me as, you know, to copy and so forth. So it’s a bit of a hard one to really answer, because [I was] playing it, not sort of on the other side. I’m just really glad that they did – I’ve heard different comments from different people… for example, Brian May said that for him, he just loved the sound itself, and he loved the way I played. You know, the use of the whammy bar, and some of the hard stuff The Shadows did at the time, which he said for them, was like heavy rock in those days. You know. It was quite hard music. Things like FBI and The Savage and things like that. And also it was commented on the melodic pieces we played, and the way I sort of expressed the emotion and the… things. Getting some emotion, and things like that. And those things, really Tom, started to reach people. If you put some passion into your playing, which I always try to, and emotion, I think that comes across, and clearly touched people. I’m glad it did, but that’s as far as I know, really.

Did you … at the time, kind of notice that influence coming out? Would you hear something on the radio and go, “Bugger me – that sounds a little bit like a song I wrote?”
Well, there was a lot of tunes, well not tunes, there was a lot of guitar sounds through that sixties period that were sounding a lot like The Shadows, or instrumentals, or even guitar sounds on records which were featuring vocals. It’s just the way it goes, I guess. Even in later years, in the seventies, and even now sometimes, I still hear records that sound very much like the sound I was using, in the early sixties. I guess it’s still a good sound, that’s the thing. And it still works, depending on the treatment of the song. You know, some songs might demand a heavier guitar sound. But then sometimes you know, they don’t. It sounds better using a cleaner sound, the sort of sound I use, with the echo and everything.

Okay. Well like I was saying a lot is made of the influence you have had on these people, but what about the other way around? Throughout your career, what are some of the, I guess, the musicians and the songs that have really struck you, and how do you think they might have influenced your own playing?
Well obviously … when I first got a guitar, I was listening to mainly folk-blues music, and traditional jazz. Then I started to listen to the early rock and roll. Like early Presley, Gene Vincent… that sort of stuff. And it was the guitar sounds on those records that really excited me, and in terms of playing electric guitar, that style, and that sound was very exciting in those days. And it made me want to try to copy what they were doing. And do rock ‘n’ roll, which I started to do. So I was trying to copy that style, it was a style, it was a sound quite different to anything we’ve heard in the UK or Europe before. Something new. So I was trying to copy that, which obviously gradually led on to be developing my own style; fortunately. And, off we went. But of course, then there are some great songs too that hit you, I remember hearing in a little coffee bar, hanging with some friends in 1957 I believe it was, or was it… no, ’57. I think. And I heard the opening sound of That’ll be the Day, the first hit by Buddy Holly and the Crickets. I found it incredible on this jukebox. Just for a minute everything stopped. Wow, that was just enormous.

Guitar Man is out now.

Listen to an MP3 of the full interview Below