Hank Plays London
What a wonderful show at the Palladium last night! What a genius Hank Marvin is! What an audience as well! But was it really the final show of the final tour? Read on!!! I had the most perfect evening at the Palladium last night, watching our hero on stage. I was lucky enough to have stalls seats quite near the front, which contributed to the best Hank show that I have ever been to, and the best atmosphere since Shepherd’s Bush Empire gig in 1997. I wasn’t alone, as a sell out crowd, including standing room only at the back, enjoyed the hits.
Two of my personal favourites
“Atlantis” and the lovely “Sacha” were played consecutively, along
with a great version of “Shazam” and the best version I’ve ever heard of
“Foot Tapper”.But look at what else we were given! As well as classics
from the Shads we also had selections from “Hank Plays Cliff” and “Hank
Plays Holly”, plus acoustic stuff and vocals. Plus of course the jokes!
We had the “1869” one again, and the one about “the best band around….
in their price range!” The joke about the Japanese party meeting
“Lionel”… “Urinal” reminded me of the time I complained about my
food in a Japanese restaurant. I told the waiter “this food tastes
rubbery” to which he smiled and said, “thank you berry much!!"
You will guess that I had a wonderful
time, as always, and so did the whole audience. As always, at a Hank show, when you
look at the crowd you see every age range possible. His music really does appeal to
everyone. But was it the final ever show then? I must admit to being surprised, if
not a bit shocked by the end of the show. All around the Palladium were rumours of
Cliff coming on stage at the end (like he had done at the Royal Albert Hall in 1995) to
duet “American Pie”. During the interval a member of the theatre staff
said that Cliff was indeed backstage, and also that Brian Bennett and Brian Locking were
in the building. It also seemed set for an emotional farewell at the end.
The group came back to encore with
“Flingel Bunt” and “Apache” and then it was over. No final
speech, although (ominously?) Ben and Warren had taken photos of the crowd, and not even a
final blast of “FBI”. I think this abrupt ending caught most of the
audience by surprise since the standing ovation at the end was quite short. We
really were expecting him to come out again. But now we will just have to wait and
see.