Anonymous
7/23/2025, 8:26:00 PM No.127146906
WITHOUT THE SHADOWS THERE'D BE NO BLACK SABBATH
> “Without The Shadows and their guitarist Hank Marvin as idol, my playing might have developed into a completely other direction, and Black Sabbath would not have been the band it became.” Iommi was drawn to the power of Marvin’s instrumentals, and as recently as 2021’s ‘Scent of the Dark’, has continued producing his own.
Iommi connected so much to Marvin’s sound that he appeared on the 1996 tribute album, Twang!: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & The Shadows. Paying homage to Marvin saw him cover ‘Wonderful Land’, and he was nestled next to fellow Marvin fan Brian May, who covered ‘F.B.I.’. Reflecting on the work, he said: “Me and Brian May both loved Hank,” Iommi recalled. Joking about the difference in their sound compared to his trademark rattle, he said: “We’re not widdly diddlies. Brian and I have done a few things, played together on albums. We were in the studio together once and we started playing Shadows stuff.”
While the difference between Marvin’s sound and his was vast, Iommi picked up on something strange in the surf-style instrumentals. “They had a real sort of demonic sound in some ways – ‘Frightened City’ and stuff like that had an eerie feeling to it,” he said. In the early days of Sabbath, back when they were still called Earth and struggling to find their sound, Iommi found The Shadows were the only band that appealed to him. “There was rock ‘n’ roll, but I liked the idea of an instrumental band,” he told Total Guitar.
So he and drummer Bill Ward initially set about recreating Shadows’ songs, and it had the unlikely effect of pushing them towards a more “raw, basic sound” that borrowed from jazz and blues. As Iommi admits, it was Marvin who had a vital hand in guiding them towards their signature sonic doom: “It went into what we are playing now”.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/tony-iommis-favourite-guitarist-of-all-time/
> “Without The Shadows and their guitarist Hank Marvin as idol, my playing might have developed into a completely other direction, and Black Sabbath would not have been the band it became.” Iommi was drawn to the power of Marvin’s instrumentals, and as recently as 2021’s ‘Scent of the Dark’, has continued producing his own.
Iommi connected so much to Marvin’s sound that he appeared on the 1996 tribute album, Twang!: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & The Shadows. Paying homage to Marvin saw him cover ‘Wonderful Land’, and he was nestled next to fellow Marvin fan Brian May, who covered ‘F.B.I.’. Reflecting on the work, he said: “Me and Brian May both loved Hank,” Iommi recalled. Joking about the difference in their sound compared to his trademark rattle, he said: “We’re not widdly diddlies. Brian and I have done a few things, played together on albums. We were in the studio together once and we started playing Shadows stuff.”
While the difference between Marvin’s sound and his was vast, Iommi picked up on something strange in the surf-style instrumentals. “They had a real sort of demonic sound in some ways – ‘Frightened City’ and stuff like that had an eerie feeling to it,” he said. In the early days of Sabbath, back when they were still called Earth and struggling to find their sound, Iommi found The Shadows were the only band that appealed to him. “There was rock ‘n’ roll, but I liked the idea of an instrumental band,” he told Total Guitar.
So he and drummer Bill Ward initially set about recreating Shadows’ songs, and it had the unlikely effect of pushing them towards a more “raw, basic sound” that borrowed from jazz and blues. As Iommi admits, it was Marvin who had a vital hand in guiding them towards their signature sonic doom: “It went into what we are playing now”.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/tony-iommis-favourite-guitarist-of-all-time/
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