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--- In , "Brian Neal" <bneal@i...> wrote:
> Another question I had: Did you get to talk to Bruce about the
> upcoming Shadows reunion tour? Is it really going to be the "last"
> one? When was the last time Bruce and Hank played together? Why
> doesn't Hank come to the Shadowmanias?
Brian, good questions. I did talk to Bruce about the tour. I think
he fully expected it to be their last. in fact, I think he was quite
surprised that it's even happening (apparently, it was Brian Bennett,
the Shadows long-term drummer, that put the wheels in motion).
There's a lot of bad blood between Bruce and Hank. Bruce is very
open about his perspective. He felt very betrayed by Hank when what
started off as a holiday from the band during which Hank would record
a solo album, it turned into the end of the Shadows and the beginning
of Hank's solo carreer. The last time they all played together was
in '90. Bruce was under the impression that they were all going to
pursue some projects separately for a year, at most two, and then the
Shadows would do another album and tour, in short, continue. That's
not the way it happened, and later Bruce found out that neither the
record label, nor the management, nor Hank intended it to happen that
way. All along apparently they intended to end the band, and
concentrate on Hank. So, understandably Bruce felt quite mad and
betrayed. They've spoken only TWICE since '90! Once after Bruce had
undergone the prostate cancer surgery three years ago, and then again
several months ago when they talked about the upcoming tour. So,
there's the bad blood. From Hank's perspective, he's been very mum
about these things, and never talks about them. However, as he
himself will acknowledge, Bruce is not an easy man to work with.
He's a perfectionist, is very demanding, and isn't very tactful about
it, often being called Sargeant-Major by the others. Though Hank and
Bruce were best of friends since they were something like 13, lived
and struggled together for many years, and always worked togeher, I
guess after 33 years or so of it, Hank had had enough.
Hank does NOT attend Shadowmania. Several reasons, probably. He
would overshadow (no pun intended!) Bruce, and this is really his
event. Also, since they haven't had any contact for such a long
time, it would be quite presumptuos to just show up. They need to
iron out their differences in private, which is on the agenda before
they start practicing for the tour. I asked Bruce if they'll be
recording anything for the tour, and he said that if they did, they
would certainly break up before the tour even starts! To me that
says that Bruce considers their differences irreconcilable, and they
will simply learn to tolerate each for this final hop through the
memory lane, the epilogue to this great chapter. But these things
change, who knows what will actually happen....
There you go.
Ivan
