In 1970 in the very early days of Queen, Queen used to play a Cliff Richard and the Shadows song ‘Please Don’t Tease’. The Shadows co-founder and guitarist Hank Marvin tells Noise11 that he wasn’t aware of that fun fact but he has recorded with Sir Brian May over the years.
Watch the Hank Marvin Noise11 interview:
Hank said, “I’ve met Brian a few times. He is a real gentleman. He is very polite. I did a track with him. The first solo album I did in the 2000s. Brian May asked if he could appear on it so we did a version of ‘We Are The Champions’. (fact check: It was actually 1992).
Hank could not believe how loud the session with Brian got. It was ear-piercing. “He came into the studio. He set his stuff up. I had done the tune fairly straight because I knew his guitar sound. I wanted me to sound completely different. I did it relatively straight forward as a tune and he was going to do all the stuff he does on a Queen record. He plugged himself in and he is standing two metres away from a huge monitor with his right ear. He kept saying to the engineer ‘excuse me Dick. Would you please turn up’. Dick looks at me. It is already loud. Eventually it was ear-splitting. We were sitting against the back wall and our ears were starting to limit. It started to get painful. But it didn’t seem to bother him at all”.
Brian and Hank’s version of ‘We Are The Champions’ was on Hank’s 1992 album ‘Into The Light’. “He did some great guitar work on it though,” Hank says. “I got a chance to play his guitar and he played mine. His has incredibly light strings so he can bend them up. It’s like fuse wire. He has a very light touch when he plays the guitar. He is a nice man. I’ve met him a few times over the years. When they come to Perth, he invites me to come and see the show. It’s always a good show, Queen. It is a brilliant show”.
Hank Marvin will play two shows with Hank Marvin’s Gypsy Jazz this Saturday and Sunday in Melbourne at Memo Music Hall. Gypsy Jazz features Nunzio Mondia on accordion and Gary Taylor on guitar alongside Hank.
https://hankmarvingypsyjazz.com/live-dates/
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