“That was also where Mitch Mitchell brought Jimi’s white Woodstock Strat for me to set up, prior to him selling it”: My afternoon interviewing Hank Marvin over beans on toast and chickening out of a Paul McCartney 'audition'

Hank Marvin of the Shadows plays his red strat and wears and orange and black graphic shirt.

The first person I interviewed for Guitarist was indeed The Shadows’ legendary lead guitarist. It was before I joined the mag and was working for Fender in London. Hank had come down to try out some Strats, and the year was 1985.

The Shads were rehearsing at Nomis Studios, the brilliant but ultimately doomed brainchild of Simon Napier-Bell. It was a luxurious rehearsal complex around the corner from Olympia, and all the big bands rehearsed there.