The Thing About Hank - BBC Radio 4

[cmwatts67]

If you follow this link http://www.sugarproductions.co.uk/ and click the gallery link you can see some pictures about the BBC programme.

Regards
Chris

[Rosemary]

It was a great programme and I was very pleased we could hear it out here in Australia too on the BBC site.
Best wishes
Rosemary

[drakula63]

Well... Despite the best efforts of the D.I.Y. madman next door (!!!), I have just listened to the programme with my mate Darren at his house.

To be honest, I (we both) thought it was very, very good indeed. One of the best Shads-related programmes I have heard. It was short, yes, too short, but it did at least put it into perspective. When you have Jimmy Page, Mark Knopfler and Phil Manzenera saying things like "The Shadows were in a class of their own", etc, you know they were special. My only criticism is that it should have been on the TV - when the hell are we gonna get a TV documentary about the Shadows? Loooong overdue.

So, yes, very big THUMBS UP from me. A very good programme which actually contained a few things I didn't know. I had no idea, for example, that Wonderful Land was the record from the 1960s that spent the longest time at number one! I didn't know that. And, to my knowledge, this programme featured the first explanation by Hank as to why he declined his OBE.

All in all, a programme that EVERY Shads/Hank fan and serious musician MUST hear.

Nice one. Well done and thank you very much!



P.S. I loved the bit about Manzenera and Dave Gilmour getting their picture taken with the Great Man. Priceless. And that says it all...

[captainhaddock]

Hear, hear !
It really is time that there was a TV documentary about The Shadows. I don't know if it's because I am biased, but there seems to be more Shadows tribute acts or copyists on you-tube than there are for any other band and they seem to come from all over the world surely that is worthy of a programme in itself ?.

[Rosemary]

Absolutely! The terms 'apache shadows cover' on YouTube show 4,670 results at present and that's only the searchable videos.
Best wishes
Rosemary

[Jay Bass]

So, yes, very big THUMBS UP from me. A very good programme which actually contained a few things I didn't know. I had no idea, for example, that Wonderful Land was the record from the 1960s that spent the longest time at number one! I

Wonderful land spent 8 weeks at No1 in the uk from March 22nd 1962 untill May 17th 1962
it was replaced by B bumble And The Stingers Nut rocker.
But there were 2 other records which also spent 8 weeks at number 1 in the 60's
1960 Elvis Presley Its Now or Never, 1969 The Archies Sugar sugar.
so im not sure that statement is 100% correct?

Regards
Jay

[dave robinson]

Very nice and it's good to hear stuff about Hank & The Shadows on the BBC, but it's same old, same old . . . . . . . but maybe they are finally realising that massive influence and quality that Hank and the guys possessed, which is always overlooked by the TV guys putting together the history of British pop music, which invariably only seems to go back as far as The Beatles.

[captainhaddock]

Very nice and it's good to hear stuff about Hank & The Shadows on the BBC, but it's same old, same old . . . . . . . but maybe they are finally realising that massive influence and quality that Hank and the guys possessed, which is always overlooked by the TV guys putting together the history of British pop music, which invariably only seems to go back as far as The Beatles.

Obviously It didn't tell us anything we didn't know already, apart from confirmation about why Hank refused his gong. But it maybe went a little way to educate the rest of the population and just give a little idea that music was not necessarily invented in Liverpool in late 1962. The sad thing is that most documentaries on popular culture are probably put together by twenty-somethings who believe that British popular music was invented by Simon Cowell.
One point that has been missed imo is the lack of any input from Bruce or Brian, were they too busy?

[Zaanse Shadow]

It was pleasure to listen to, great

Fred

[franz]

The best bit, I thought, was a single question to Jimmy Page by the guy presenting the programmme -"Are they easy to play?" "NO" came back the emphatic answer "not if you play them properly" That has finally nailed the dismissal of hank's playing as something of a joke amongst the so-called guitar cognoscenti. So all of us who have struggled for hours (or years!) to work out and play the nuances, paticularly on the early stuff, are vindicated by an international guitar god. Thanks Jimmy.