In late September 1958, Cliff Richard’s manager John Foster – in an attempt to find a lead guitarist for Cliff’s first professional tour – came to Soho looking for Tony Sheridan, who had been recommended. Fortunately, John heard Hank play and told him, ‘The gig’s yours if you want it.’ On hearing they also needed a rhythm guitarist, Hank recommended his friend Bruce Welch, and they, along with Jet Harris and Tony Meehan, became the Drifters. However, in 1959, to avoid confusion with the American vocal group of the same name, they renamed themselves the Shadows. Following the phenomenal success of their first number one, ‘Apache’, they also had a long career in their own right. Hank’s Stratocaster, bought for him by Cliff in 1959, was purportedly the

first to be imported into the UK, and Hank became the most copied and influential British player in early rock and roll.

Knowing how much Hank had wanted a Stratocaster, Cliff brought a fiesta red one back from the States as a present for him. It was an inspired gift. Hank used it to create an instantly recognisable tremolo sound and between them, Cliff and the Shadows went on to dominate the UK charts for years to come.

‘That first Strat made an appearance in 1959,’ said Hank later. ‘My guitar had a horribly bent neck, so Cliff wanted to buy me a good guitar. We decided that the Fender was the way to go.’ And why was that? Why did Hank and so many other young players dream of owning that magnificent instrument? ‘Because we’d seen Buddy Holly with one on the Crickets album cover!’

In the mid-1990s Hank recorded Hank Plays Holly, an instrumental album of Buddy Holly and the Crickets songs, including ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’, ‘Peggy Sue’ and ‘Raining in My Heart’. Fittingly for the original iconic Strat player in the UK, Hank’s Buddy Holly guitar is entitled ‘You’re the One’. 

Mike Read