1995 Interview © Dr Jochen Bartschm &  may not be reproduced without permission

HM : Gary Taylor is a guy I know quite well. He lives around Perth and actually rents part of my studio. He and Trevor Spencer are a partnership and they write music for TV, commercials and jingles. Gary also does voice-overs. By the way, he used to be singer and bass guitarist of a band called Herd, which some people might still remember. Their leader was Peter Frampton, of course. He doesn't play a lot now, because he is mainly writing, using keyboards when he writes. But he is a good bass player, has a good solid feel.

Trevor Spencer is his partner, a drummer mostly, and used to be a member of the Tarney-Spencer band, has also been with Marvin, Welch&Farrar and played percussion for Cliff. Nunzio Mondia, who is obviously of Italian ancestry, was recommended to me by John Belani, who is studio manager of Planet. He is a very nice pianist with a lovely touch. The reason we booked him was his ability as an accordionist. We wanted an accordion on two tracks, "When the Girl In Your Arms" and "The Next Time". What you hear there is an actual accordion, not a keyboard trying to sound like one. You can't get a synthesizer to sound like that. You can get accordion sounds, but they don't sound like that. Believe me, we've tried. You simply can't get the impression that he gets out of it. He's a lovely player, only about 29. Who else? Gary Ridge is a local percussionist in Perth, very good drummer, too, but mainly specialises in percussion. He has got a whole variety of percussion instruments from Asia, Africa and particularly some very unusual ones from South America. He's very keen on South American rhythms and some of his instruments are very interesting to see and hear.

JB : Some of the arrangements on your CD were quite surprising, for example, . the lazy feel of "Summer Holiday", which, I assume, was meant to evoke summery impressions.

HM : That was Warren's concept. When we were looking at the material, I spoke to Warren and  told him about a few ideas I had, such as the arrangement of "The 12th of Never" to have this up-tempo feel about it, a bit like Ray Stevens' "Misty", where you have a country ballad with a very fast backing behind it. As it turned out, it is a bit The Pet Shop Boys, but that was more or less the idea and I think it's a terrific arrangement. With "Summer Holiday" I said, "Come up with a few ideas and see what happens", and he had this idea for it. Everyone in the studio agreed it was great,  so different and had a lovely atmosphere. So we decided to use that. I also had a different arrangement, which was based on the original, but heavier. But Warren's idea was so different.

HM : The list of songs was done by the record company, based on market research as usual, for what that's worth. There was a long list, and it was quite obvious to me that we had to do big titles like "Living Doll", "Travellin' Light", "The Young Ones". Going through the list, playing Cliff's records and remembering the tunes there were some pieces which simply seemed to lend themselves to my playing. That takes me back to "The 12th of Never", which now sounds almost like a western film theme. I really like the way we've done that. Another one is "The Next Time", a lovely tune. And I've always liked "When the Girl In Your Arms", a typical piece of music of the late 50s and early 60s, the sort of ballads that Elvis or Cliff would have done then. I thought that lent itself perfectly to a guitar treatment. Really it was a matter of going through the list, trying to choose big titles - that's important for the record's sales potential - but also choose titles that work well on a guitar. And everything I chose, I felt I could do something with as a production and as an interpretation on a guitar.

JB : "Move It" is a song that is bowls me over in its new version. The intro on the bass strings of your guitar is a veritable sound orgy to me.

HM : Ah yes, I love the atmosphere on that. I had the idea of using "Move It", but it was a question of how to treat it. I messed about with it at home and then wondered whether because of its structure it might work in that slightly swampy feel. I tried it out and thought it sounded great. But then I thought I'd just do one verse and kick into the full, on a proper off-beat and kick it up, perhaps even let it become a vocal. That's when I asked Cliff if he would sing it and it took shape. I came to the UK for a week in May to do some work in connection with the TV commercial, photographs for the album and the tour brochure. I spent a few days at Warren's, shared some ideas with him, e.g. for that reggae treatment of "In the Country". With "Move It", we had my demo, slightly modified my routine of it, eliminated some riffs here and there, tightened it up a bit, as it were. Warren introduced the idea of that little synth phrase in between guitar motifs and it came together quite nicely. But I like that slightly swampy feel of it. I think it's really good.

HM : Well, it's gone gold. I don't know how this will do eventually. Actually, this year has been a particularly competitive year in the Christmas market. It's probably one of the hardest years to sell records. We have a lot of compilation albums released with about 40 tracks on, and they're really hammering them on TV. So the value for money is really good for people who want to buy all these hits on an album. So there is  a lot out there for people to spend their money on,  and it's quite a competitive market. But having said that, the record company are very happy with the way it's going, particularly given the market as it is at the moment.

HM : I don't know at the moment. It could be another one, it could be another three.

HM : Not exactly. There are a limited number of Buddy Holly's most  famous tracks, so you  haven't got a great deal of choice there. Warren and I were talking about this last year. We came up with about 17 potentials. The record company came up with about the same number, with only one different track among them. There might be a couple of LP tracks. Talking to different people I found one track mentioned several times, "Reminiscing".

HM : Oh yes, the whole bunch.

JB : And after "Buddy", what next? "Hank Plays the Rock Classics", comprising Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, going further back to your roots?

HM : (laughs) Oh, I don't know. There are a lot of good writers out there, you can look at contemporary writers like Sting, it is just a matter of trying to choose the right material, the right vehicle. It's got to be something that has a market appeal, looking at it purely from a commercial bias, but then it also has to be something that I feel I would like to play, I would enjoy playing, I would have a rapport with, a feel  and respect for. And clearly it would have to be something that lent itself to an interpretation on a guitar.

HM : Not at the moment, but it's certainly an option, a very good option. Again it is music I have respect for, it has got commercial appeal and a lot of it is very playable on guitar. Good tunes!

HM : No, not really. Last year the tour was a good learning experience. Although Brian was there and obviously there was a sort of moral support, I still had work out front on my own. This year it is more focused. The difference is in the presentation. Last year, you know, we had Ben and Mark on either side of me, and I actually had trouble now and then on some smaller stages, because I couldn't get past Ben, as he had his pedal board and monitors around him. I was very restricted in my movements, when stages weren't deep enough.  So it was decided to present things differently this year and try to make it more obvious, if you like, that I was out front. I'd like Ben to come to the front a little more, but he has got a problem then with the pedal board, even though he has got an extension. He seems reluctant to come forward, anyway. He quite enjoys lurking at the back. 

HM : Yes, you're right. He's a year older, he's done it before now, he's got more confidence probably as a person and as a musician on a stage. I think it shows in his demeanour. But the overall question you asked before about responsibility and so forth.  I feel quite comfortable having done the tour last year, knowing I can handle it. We're getting all those  great comments about the music, the way the show is presented. It's obviously encouraging, so I don't feel under any undue pressure, in fact under no more pressure than I did performing with The Shadows. Really, that brought its own pressures. You still had to get out there and perform, and albeit you were mentally spreading the load, there was enough pressure there. In fact I feel under less pressure now, because I can take things in the direction I want to take them. If I'm talking at the audience or something goes wrong or I have a bit fun with the audience, I am not having to share it with someone else or be at the mercy of what someone else wants to say or do, that might be embarrassing for me or someone else on that stage. So there is something to be said, if you can handle it, for doing such things on your own.

HM : There is Pete on the drums now. He's a good drummer, I like the way he plays, a very solid drummer, plays good fills and is a terrific guy to have around on a tour, very cheerful person, no trouble, just gets on, does his job very confidently. With him I think the band sounds good and plays together well. But I wouldn't expect him to play a drum solo. Brian Bennett used to play the solos because he was Brian Bennett. As one of The Shadows it was natural to feature him as was the case with Tony Meehan before him. But with Pete it's a different situation. He's a drummer in a band situation, he's backing me. So one wouldn't want to put that kind of pressure on him and I don't think it's advisable to do that anyway. He's able to do quite a lot of drumming now that he wouldn't  play in Cliff's band, where he would play things more simply. He has got the chance now to play more ambitiously, so that's good for him, anyway. As for songs like "Nivram", when you're putting together a two-hour show like this, there are only so many songs you can include. We had about another fifteen minutes of music in rehearsals.

At the end of the day you've got to decide what you want, which can be difficult. "Nivram" was never in it in the first place, but other things had to go. "Kon-Tiki", for example, or "Limited Slip" from the "Heartbeat" album. We actually did "Nivram" on this tour on the opening night, when we had problems with the synthesisers. So we did "Nivram", "Kon-Tiki", Dance On", while we were getting things fixed. We had a lot of fun with the audience then. But those songs are a good standby in case something goes wrong. I think it's important to try and keep the show living and moving forward each time I do a tour. That doesn't mean I will not do Shadows numbers. I enjoy playing them and obviously the audience enjoys hearing them. It's a question of which ones to do. They almost sell themselves again. But there are other things we could do but haven' t done, things like "FBI" and "Man of Mystery". Maybe next tour I'll do those again. I have just heard Brian May' s version of "FBI" on that tribute album that Sting is doing. It' s terrific. It starts the first verse very Shadows-like, then goes into a big shuffle with his heavy guitar sound. Very interesting. It' s given me an idea how perhaps to do "FBI". I wouldn't do it as normal, but start as normal and maybe then add another minute or two of something different.