Bruce Welch

Bruce Welch OBE born 2 November 1941 as Bruce Cripps is an English guitarist songwriter producer singer and businessman best known as a founding member of the Shadows Bruce Welch was born in Bognor Regis in 1941 His parents Stan Cripps and Grace Welch moved him to 15 Broadwood View ChesterleStreet County Durham shortly after Welchs mother died when he was aged six and he grew up with his Aunt Sadie After learning to play the guitar he formed a Tyneside skiffle band called the Railroaders when he was fourteen His Rutherford Grammar School friend Brian Rankin later to be known as Hank Marvin joined the group and they travelled to London in 1958 for the final of a talent competition Although they did not win they joined with members of other entrant bands and formed the Five Chesternuts with Pete Chester born 1942 son of comedian Charlie Chester on drums Upon moving to London Bruce Welch and Hank Marvin briefly operated as the Geordie Boys before enlisting in an outfit called the Drifters In September 1958 Welch and Marvin joined the Drifters later to become the Shadows as Cliff Richards backing band As well as success with the Shadows Welch acted as producer for among others Richard and songwriter for his exfiancée Olivia NewtonJohn He also released a solo single Please Mr Please which was not commercially successful though the song has been covered by several recording artists most notably NewtonJohn who would take it into the top 10 of the US pop and country charts in 1975 Welch wrote several number 1 hit singles for Richard and for the Shadows Among tunes or songs written or cowritten by Welch are the Shadows hits Foot Tapper Theme for Young Lovers and The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt Marvin Welch Farrars Faithful and My Home Town and Cliff Richard hits Please Dont Tease In the Country Summer Holiday I Love You and I Could Easily Fall In Love with You He was the musical consultant for the West End musical Buddy The Buddy Holly Story After the Shadows disbanded in 1990 with Marvin deciding to tour with his own band Welchs plans for his own tours did not fully materialise until 1998 when he formed Bruce Welchs Shadows originally called Bruce Welchs Moonlight Shadows a name that was dropped after 1998 The group featured former Shadows bassist Alan Jones and keyboardist Cliff Hall with Bob Watkins on drums Phil Kelly and Barry Gibson owner of Burns Guitars shared lead guitar duties until Gibsons departure in 2000 Daniel Martin replaced Phil Kelly for the 2012 Shadowmania In 1998 he produced Shadowmania a oneday show comprising various Shadows tribute bands with his own band topping the bill Due to the events success he presented it annually until 2012 missing only 2004 and 2009 due to tours with the reformed Shadows At Shadowmania 2011 he included a Tribute to Jet Harris his former band member who had died from cancer in March of that year At Shadowmania 2012 Phil Kelly could not appear because of illness and was replaced by session guitaristsongwriter Daniel Martin and Justin Daish leader of The Shadowers Jet Harris final backing band Source Article Bruce Welch from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30