The ShadowMusic Web Community

Good ole Alvin Stardust implies that The Fentones were on the scene before The Shadows and that his rhythm and lead players were better than our Shads heroes - and were around earlier! Read in for yourself in the new edition of Guitar and Bass...

Moreover, when I spent an evening with him a few years back, he asserted that Hank's Strat was not the first in UK, The Fentones lead player had one earlier...

Come on historians... prove him wrong...

Bob Rogers of The Ted Taylor Four had a sunburst Strat in 1958, although he didn't think much of it, instead preferring his Gibson L-5. Back then the import embargo was still very much in force of course, but brand new American instruments could be obtained with the help of staff on Transatlantic cruise ships such as the Queen Mary, who would buy what was required from New York music stores and bring it back into the UK. Apparently, a certain person, subsequently very prominent in the UK music industry, would tour the various London shops and sell them such 'unofficial imports' from the boot of his car, after the Customs & Excise people had carried out their routine inspections.

The late Malcolm Mitchell was another early Fender-equipped British guitarist, apparently acquiring a Telecaster in 1954!

Hi David,

Bill Bonney, Fentones bass player, should be able to throw some light on this. Bill has been known to attend Shadowmania - I remember having a long chat with him there some years ago.

I understand that he lives in Canada these days.

Is he a member here?

Kind regards,
Terry

Purely from memory and not able to confirm as I hav'nt got the book now, but I believe there is an old photo of someone playing an early sunburst Strat in Mo Foster's book ' 17 Watts the birth of British Rock guitar' which pre dates Cliff's purchase, if I'm wrong I'd probably been glue sniffing.
Tony

Tony,
Adhesive inhalation aside, your memory serves you quite well regarding Mo's great book, as the pic you have in mind is probably the one showing Chas McDevitt clutching his sunburst Strat. However, this is actually a later example featuring a rosewood fingerboard and therefore doesn't count, unlike Hank's obviously, although surely such a task is usually done by the drummer!

Hi Paul,
Thanks for that, I did'nt remember the Rosewood connection only reading and clocking early strat in UK. I'm not very often right but I'm wrong again.
Regards Tony

There are at least three different editions of Mo's book. The pagination is not the same.

JN

Hi Dave,
The confusion is caused by which copy of 17 Watts you actually own. The relevant picture is on page 81 of the original hardback book, which was published in 1997. However, the softback edition issued three years later was significantly smaller and unfortunately omitted more than a few interesting photos, including this one, as did its American equivalent, entitled 'Play Like Elvis'. In addition, the shots that remained were reduced to almost squint size, making useful details difficult to discern. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Foster was far from happy about his brush with the book publishing business!