| Name |
Bruce Welch |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
English |
| Date of Birth |
2-November-1941 |
| Place of Birth |
Bognor Regis, England |
| Famous for |
Singing |
Bruce Welch is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer and singer, best known as a member of The Shadows. His parents (Stan Cripps and Grace Welch) never married but his mother relocated him to 15 Broadwood View, Chester-le-Street: she died when Welch was aged 6. Welch grew up with his Aunt Sadie in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.
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. On moving to London Bruce and Hank Marvin briefly operated as the Geordie Boys before enlisting in an outfit called The Drifters. In the late 1990s Welch formed Bruce Welch's Shadows (originally known as The Moonlight Shadows), a Shadows-style band with Phil Kelly taking Hank Marvin's place on lead guitar. The group played a series of mini-tours (the last being in 2003) and at various Shadows-style conventions such as Shadowmania. Daniel Martin and Justin Daish shared lead guitar duties for Bruce Welch's Shadows in place of Phil Kelly at Shadowmania 2012 due to illness. Welch organised Shadowmania annually from 1998 to 2012, missing just two years: 2004 (due to the Shadows' Final Tour) and 2009. He regularly featured his own band as well as Shadows-style bands including The Rapiers, The Shadowers, The Reflections and The Foottappers amongst others.
At Shadowmania 2011 he included a Tribute To Jet Harris which featured himself alongside The Rapiers, Phil Kelly, Alan Jones, Cliff Hall and Daniel Martin. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2004 Birthday Honours list for services to music. Welch has been married (and divorced) twice. His only son, from his first marriage to Anne (née Findlay), is Dwayne Welch who currently works within the music industry as a record label executive. Welch divorced his 2nd wife Lynne Welch in the 1990s.
