Hank on Jools Holland Later

[drakula63]

In various interviews since the Cliff / Shads reunion tour, Hank has stated that during that tour Bruce admitted he had borrowed the strat. I seem to remember him also stating that Cliff has left Hank the guitar in his will, so if anything was to happen to Cliff before Hank and Bruce things may get interesting!
It is a bit disappointing that Hank seems to be having a go at Bruce about this while he is plugging the new CD, ironic as clips of the Shadows are being shown to help plug it! Pity he couldn't say that Bruce has done a great job in looking after and maintaining the guitar over the last 40 years or so!

I never got the impression myself that Hank was 'having a go at Bruce' - just having a laugh and trying to inject some humour into the same old, same old topic of conversation.

My understanding is this:

The original Strat went back to Cliff when the Shadows started using Burns guitars, as it must have been a fair assumption that they would not be needing it again (either Hank or Bruce). So this must have been in the mid Sixties.

Bruce asked for the guitar back after his Burns guitar (and various others) were stolen from their van in around about 1971.

I cannot imagine that either Hank or Cliff would be at all bothered as to who actually owns the guitar or has it in their possession.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers.

[JimTidmarsh]

Not that it matters much who 'owns' the guitar, but I thought Cliff had given 'the Strat' to Bruce in the mid-70s as a thank you gift for resurrecting Cliff's career with the two successful albums that Bruce had produced and found the songs for (Miss You Nights & Devil Woman for example).

[AlanMcKillop]

Not quite accurate, it was Hank's guitars that were stolen during a MW&F stint at the Palladium and Hank borrowed the 'white' strat (as it was then) before returning it to Cliff.
During a Guitarist interview, Bruce was quoted as saying that he was visiting Cliff at home after some success producing his records and Cliff reportedly said, if there's anything I can do (by way of favour to Bruce for his help) and Bruce then mentioned the guitar. Cliff found it in a cupboard under the stair and gave it to Bruce, where it's been ever since.
There were a couple of minor niggles in the interview, for example, Bruce said he was shocked when he'd seen it had been resprayed white, yet tv footage and pics show Hank and John F playing it when it was white just a few years earlier. Hope this helps.

Sorry, comment to Chris post.

[JimN]

My understanding is this:
The original Strat went back to Cliff when the Shadows started using Burns guitars, as it must have been a fair assumption that they would not be needing it again (either Hank or Bruce). So this must have been in the mid Sixties.

In fact, it's more likely that the guitar went back to Cliff in mid-1961, when Jennings supplied The Shadows with matching red (r/n) guitars. I vaguely recall a photo around on the web somewhere which shows Cliff playing a white m/n guitar (presumably his) sitting with an early line-up of the group, perhaps in an airport lounge, or maybe a dressing room.

Bruce asked for the guitar back after his Burns guitar (and various others) were stolen from their van in around about 1971.
I cannot imagine that either Hank or Cliff would be at all bothered as to who actually owns the guitar or has it in their possession.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Cheers.

See Alan McK's comments above.

[bgohara]

Hank did an interview yesterday with Judi Spiers (I think Radio Devon) which said that there had been a rumour going round that Bruce was going to give the guitar back to Cliff, who was then going to give it to Hank. Hank then said that the rumour was being put around by himself!

[StuartD]

Hi

They certainly did use the guitar in MWF. In fact it was in the Volkswagen van when the Burns were stolen. Both Hank and John as well as the Roadie, Roy Lemmon, conformed that to me at that time. They also used it on a MWF tour just after that as Hank said, in his own words, 'I didn't own an Electric 6 string guitar!' He bought the Barrett's Strat just after that.

Bruce certainly had it before producing Cliff as he used it on a tour of the UK in 73 and then again in Japan in 74. I saw the tour at Leeds Town Hall and spoke to Bruce. It was around the time of the Eurovision. Brian Lewis was on guitar and told me that Bruce was using the original Strat on both those tours, strung with heavy strings.

Regards

Stuart

[GoldenStreet]

Also, the crap about Cliff wanting to buy Hank a good guitar - if he bought it for Hank, then why did he want it back?
If I buy something for somebody it's theirs to own forever. They're an odd bunch and not like the folks I was brought up with. Doesn't anyone else see this ?

I imagine that Hank could well have afforded to buy the instrument from Cliff (or whoever actually paid for it), especially after Apache in 1960, but for whatever reason it merely remained 'on loan' to the man with whom it would always be associated.

Possibly, the subject of 'the guitar' (and its replicas) always has to be raised due its continued prominence as a marketing feature on virtually every album cover issued over the past twenty-five years or so!

Bill

[AlanMcKillop]

Stuart's post puts to bed another aspect of Bruce's Guitarist interview, which I think was from either 1994 or 1996.

[drakula63]

I'm sure that in the late '50s it would have been extraordinarily difficult and expensive to get your hands on a top of the range Fander Strat. So we must all thank Cliff who, at the time, was one of the few people who could afford to do so. I suspect that it wasn't long into their careers, however, that every member of the band would have had the money and the means to do so. The earliest photo that I think that I have seen of Bruce playing the repainted (white) original Strat was in early 1974 on the Cilla Black show on BBC1.

As a bit of a '70s rennaissance man, I personally think the guitar looked great in white (or blonde) and always made a striking image when contrasted with Hank's black Strat. I know that Bruce had it resprayed in 1983, but he didn't quite get the colour right, did he? Maybe now would be a good time to have another go - before Hank gets it back!!

[dave robinson]

Regarding that Strat 34346, Cliff needs attending to with a rag man's trumpet for having it sprayed white and devaluing an iconic guitar. If he wanted a white one they were common back then, he could have picked one up for a hundred quid. The colour now is way out, it looks dull.