HANK ON "ONE SHOW" ON THRSDAY 29TH MAY

[John M]

It looked to me as if he would rather have been somewhere else.

[George Geddes]

Ta, Bernie!

George

[Detailed Infinity]

It looked to me as if he would rather have been somewhere else.

I don't know why he does this stuff. The dopey bird had jokes flying over her head as did the dopey bloke. Hank looked as though he was past his bed time, he had no rapport at all in the 'interview'. He's from an era that's gone I'm afraid and the cringe worthy shot of the 'dance steps' just shows how farcical and dated the whole Shadow brand has become within the present idiom of music.

You can tell by the cheesy smile that Hank is jumping through hoops for the publicity of his new material. The audience cheered the runners and he was not really being noticed. Do yourself a favour Hank and don't lower yourself having to explain your past glories.

Ps anyone noticed Bruce resembles Norman Collier these days or conversely Norman Collier resembles Bruce?

[chippy71]

It looked to me as if he would rather have been somewhere else.

I don't know why he does this stuff. The dopey bird had jokes flying over her head as did the dopey bloke. Hank looked as though he was past his bed time, he had no rapport at all in the 'interview'. He's from an era that's gone I'm afraid and the cringe worthy shot of the 'dance steps' just shows how farcical and dated the whole Shadow brand has become within the present idiom of music.

You can tell by the cheesy smile that Hank is jumping through hoops for the publicity of his new material. The audience cheered the runners and he was not really being noticed. Do yourself a favour Hank and don't lower yourself having to explain your past glories.

Ps anyone noticed Bruce resembles Norman Collier these days or conversely Norman Collier resembles Bruce?

spot on, all looked a bit awkward and corny

[MikeAB]

As a 55 year long fan I've always hated Hank being interviewed and it usually makes me cringe and want to hide. Maybe it's because as a fan I am particularly sensitive but then I always thoroughly enjoy Bruce in interviews. The only exception that comes to mind was the Pebble Mill programme with Ben and Warren when Hank went solo - and even then Cliff had to come on at the end and the audience was visibly all there for him, not Hank.

There are many reasons - I don't think Hank fundamentally is at all comfortable doing it and maybe his beliefs are a small part of that (self promotion etc). This leads to his usually awful, dated, (non) humorous and rather self-conscious asides which often interrupt and destroy any flow that the also usually awful interviewers might just finally be getting started. We as fans don't want to hear him say 'everyone is better than me' when it was sufficient to say Ben was! We need a Parkinson special with him I fear!

Also the video intros always seem to show him just playing notes that my little Grandson could knock out (eg the black and white clip with apparently no echo and I suspect a slightly fluffed note (?) ) and so his brilliance is never actually showcased. Young folks must think he got away with murder with the apparent simplicity of the playing (which of course has its place as we all know).

Leave these things out Hank - surely someone would issue your music without demanding the excruciating promotions. People who buy your 'normal' music are either fans already or (probably) blokes killing time in supermarkets who see the CD and think '' yes I'll have that - time for some proper music!''. Keep the TV ad maybe but otherwise you don't need to promote like this at all.

[bgohara]

Sorry guys - I just can't agree with some of the negative comments above. Sure, he can make inappropriate or off the wall jokes - but that's part of who he is. I thought when he turned a comment about what was in the Queen's message in the Commonwealth Baton into a shameless plug of his new album, it was a stroke of genius, that made me laugh out loud! Sure, of course I'd prefer to see him play, rather than just be interviewed - but he's not touring and has no band ready to support him on tv appearances. As for his jokes and comments, at least he is showing an honesty and lack of 'scripted / guarded / PR friendly' banal responses that you might get from someone like, say, Mick Jagger. Some jokes land, some don't, and some go over the heads of the interviewers!

In the absence of touring, he needs to make media appearances to let people know he has a new album out. Of course people are going to ask him the same old stories about the old days - that is, after all, the reason he is a 'guitar legend', but it is also the reason he is still able to make albums today - and some of us, like myself, are delighted that he is still fit and well, and able to bring us new music every now and again, imprinted with his own unique sound, style and creativity. I'm happy that there is new material to add to his vast catalogue (personally it doesn't matter to me that he is not recreating his 1961 sound, or delivering new self penned tracks), and I'm also happy (as I'm sure he is), that he is getting good media exposure - he did appear twice on BBC 1 yesterday for live interviews.

[MikeAB]

Well I've always hoped people don't see it the way I do - so it's great that I'm disagreed with!!

[bgohara]

Mike - I can see your point - up to a point!
Bernie

[JimN]

Also the video intros always seem to show him just playing notes that my little Grandson could knock out (eg the black and white clip with apparently no echo and I suspect a slightly fluffed note (?) ) and so his brilliance is never actually showcased. Young folks must think he got away with murder with the apparent simplicity of the playing ...

That part of the clip compilation was from the 1962 Royal Variety Performance, for which Hank actually didn't use an echo machine. A few weeks earlier, exactly the same thing had happened for a 30m TV performance on ATV (entitled "The Shadows"), with live performances of Wonderful Land, Guitar Tango, Perfidia and Bo Diddley, none of which feature echo, though the lead guitar on Perfidia is drowned in reverb (which probably wasn't audible in the studio).

I assume that the Meazzi machine was prone to breakdown just around that time - perhaps Hank should have kept a Copicat as a spare.

[dave robinson]

I agree with Mike AB and Brian. Hank is a superb guitarist and performer but he's no comedian.
Every time he is interviewed he trys to be 'clever' and it doesn't come off, whether or not he's uncomfortable doing it I don't know, but he made a massive gaffe yesterday mentioning blade runner Pistorious in the current circumstances.
I once had the luck and privilege to have a three hour chat with him and he's a great bloke and was quite humerous in that situation, but TV interviews do not do him any favours compared to the way I saw him one to one. The people doing the interviews are partially to blame as they need to do their homework, but the only good thing is that he is in the public eye.
I mention all of this because two or three 'normal' music fans who were at last nights gig mentioned this to me and echoed my own thoughts, without any prompting from me - so how many others think the same ?
I wish him every success with the album, but please, let his playing do the talking.