Brian Bennett on Face To Face

[BrianD]

I am sure many of you will have seen this and, I suspect there has been a posting about it on this site before, however, for those who either, like me, missed it first time round or have forgotten and would like another look here is the link to Brian Bennett's interview with Rick Wakeman. Well worth a look - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p671Y__w8U

[Uncleboko]

Many thanks, fascinating interview. I played at the 2 Is coffee bar a few times around 1963-64, but not the same then, my band was a Downliners Sect clone at that time!

[JimN]

Youtube followed that with Solstice from the Voyage LP.

The comments were a bit of an eye-opener:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao5uiWUzMx4

[dave robinson]

Great interview !

[MeBHank]

Youtube followed that with Solstice from the Voyage LP.

The comments were a bit of an eye-opener:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao5uiWUzMx4

[GoldenStreet]

I admire Brian's refreshing down-to-earth and totally non-showbusinessy attitude - a true great in popular music.

Interestingly, he mentions encountering Hank and Bruce et al at the 2i's, following his return from his summer season in Largs, although Bruce recounts in his autobiography their first meeting being at the Easter 1958 final of the talent contest at the Edmonton Granada (Brian was with Errol Hollis and the Velvets) that brought the Railroaders to London in the first place.

With regard to the start of Brian's career in orchestration, I expected him to cite Slaughter On 10th Avenue, from 1968, rather than Cliff's Silvery Rain almost two years later.

Bill

[Moderne]

In the sleeve notes to the With Strings Attached CD, Brian's only recollection of Slaughter...was that Peter Gormley had thought it was "bloody boring"! He had actually orchestrated a few things before that - three songs on the Established '58 LP, for example. I guess Silvery Rain was his first orchestration that he felt proud of, looking back.

[Fenderman]

I watched these on original broadcast and actually recorded both Brian and Bruce's direct to my PC (audio only) and i still have them somewhere.
I also watched the Jon Lord and Tony Iommi ones and both are fascinating interviews, they all seem relaxed talking to a fellow musician and it was good that they managed to tell full stories without constant interruptions like so many interviews today.
New career for Mr Wakeman?

[Twilight Ranger]

they all seem relaxed talking to a fellow musician and it was good that they managed to tell full stories without constant interruptions like so many interviews today.
New career for Mr Wakeman?

Indeed! Being a non-native speaker of English, I also appreciate the fact that Brian Bennett has no accent, which makes it easy for me to understand his English. Whether a speaker has an accent or not is often of no consequence for native speakers, but we foreigners are a different breed. Mr Wakeman seems to take a genuine interest in Brian Bennett's career, which is conducive to a good result.

I am not familiar with many of the names mentioned in the interview, but I do know some of them. I have a couple of Tommy Steele EPs, for example, which I bought in the late fifties.

[RayL]

I also appreciate the fact that Brian Bennett has no accent, which makes it easy for me to understand his English.

Interesting comment. Brian certainly speaks clearly, but there many traces of the North London where he grew up. A North London accent is not cockney - cockney is a much stronger accent that originated from the East End of London but, for example, listen to Brian leave the 'g' off the word 'something' so that it becomes somethin' . Brian's son Warren, however (educated at Mill Hill, a school in North-West London, but an independent paid-for school) would say something and sound the 'ing' at the end of the word. For any of you who have the Pipeline DVD for 2003 (when The Vibratos played at the Pipeline Convention), you can see and hear my interview with Warren.

In the same way that Bruce and Hank refined their playing in a very short time (from skiffle in The Railroaders to the gem that is Apache) so both of them chose to virtually lose their Newcastle accents when they came to London and stayed. There are always, of course, a few vowel sounds that don't go away like the short 'a' in words like 'bath or 'castle'. By contrast, Brian (from the South of England), will say the same words as 'barth' and 'carstle'. Interestingly, despite living in Australia for many years, Brian Rankin has stayed true to his 'Hank Marvin' voice.

If I came to FInland and learned your language, would I find that there are many different accents for different parts of the country>
Ray