Royal Variety Performance 1962

[drakula63]

Hadn't seen this before, until now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldjzBm-plXM

[Paul Childs]

That was when Hank's echo failed so he played without it.

[Derek Misselbrook]

You know when I listened to this just now, I must say I wondered what all the fuss has been about all these years with "That Sound"..........I remember when I was fifteen when it came out I thought WOW.........Funny how things have changed over the years, like the way "we think" about things, or should that read "just me"!

[Paul Creasey]

As one Corgi was heard, outside the Stage Door, saying to the other Corgi............"I say, old chap, I don't think THAT was "That Sound", eh?"
Echo or not, sounds good to me!
Thank you, Chris, for posting the clip.
Regards
Paul

[George Geddes]

... and Licorice with a Jazz Bass.

George

[Didier]

That was when Hank's echo failed so he played without it.

Guess why he later used two echo units on stage, one active, one spare...

Didier

[RayL]

The technology available at the time to make that recording would almost certainly have been film - essentially a film camera pointed at a TV screen (though the process was a little more involved than that). The sound would have been recorded separately and added to the pictures in a further process as either a common optical track (COMOPT) or common magnetic track (COMMAG). As it was the Royal Variety it is just possible that it was transferred to a magnetic film base for simultaneous projection (SEPMAG).

Whichever method was used, that poor old sound has been through a lot before it ever reached Youtube. What I am hearing on Hank's guitar is vibrato, a continuous frequency wobble, added somewhere in the mechanical film processes. It is very unfair to make any judgements about 'that sound' after the mangling it has had.

Interesting to me, as a 'thumb over' rhythm player is Bruce. No barré chords for him! It's thumb over all the way!

Ray

[rogera]

As you said Ray, Bruce's thumb is certainly prominent over the top of the fretboard although I don't think that he is using it to fret the bottom string.
Maybe just to damp it.

I remember hearing him mention in an interview that he plays mainly four string chords and that the bass player is there to take care of the bottom end !

[GoldenStreet]

Bruce's chord inversions is an interesting point... I doubt if he used all those we see here on the original recording (playing acoustic guitar, anyway).

Certainly, whenever I saw the Shads on television, he rarely (if ever) seemed to play full six string chords with barre, although the sound on early recordings (particularly his acoustic rhythm) suggests he must have done so at various points.

With regard to Licorice playing Jazz Bass, his repeatedly taking his hand off the neck perhaps betrays the fact it wasn't an instrument he was really comfortable with.

Bill

[George Geddes]

I think Licorice's 'hand-dropping' was part of his style, Bill. I remember watching him at the first Shadowmania and feeling the years roll back when he did it on a couple of numbers.

Personally, it was a relief to hear Bruce say in interview that he usually only played four string chords...

George