Hershey & The 12 Bars (page 2):

Two goldmines: two e-mails from Richard ' Hershey ' Shirman:

Nov. 27 2000:
Dear Christer
this morning I received an e-mail from a good friend, Sam Kelly, in which it told me of your site. Naturally, I had a quick peek and was greatly impressed with what I saw so I thought that I'd drop you a quick line and update you on one or two things.

Our album, HERSHEY AND THE 12 BARS GREATEST HITS Volume 2, was released earlier this year on the A New Day Records label, catalogue no. AND CD43.

I was, in the 'sixties, with a group called The Attack and, in the early part of next year, UNIVERSAL are releasing a complete recordings of the group which, hopefully, will include tracks never released before.

Since its inception in 1981 ( yes, it's our twentieth birthday next year ! ), there have been a number of very well known people who have been an integral part of the band.

Most of these were when the big band was in full swing and include the likes of Mel Collins, Snake Davis, Molly Duncan ( ex Average White Band ) on saxes, Ashley Slater ( Freak Power ) on trombone and keyboard players such as Damon Butcher ( Beautiful South ), Django Bates ( Loose Tubes, etc. ), and Richard Simmons.

Others who spring immediately to mind are the late Steve Waller ( ex Manfred Mann's Earthband, Gonzales ) on guitar and the likes of Ian Ellis ( ex Savoy Brown ) and Mark Smith ( Morrisey-Mullen ) on bass.

On the drummer front they have included those such as Sam Kelly, Brendan O'Neill and the late Dave Early ( ex Van Morrison, Sade, etc. ).

Indeed, the band has earned the reputation as one of the biggest musical social clubs in the world !

I hope that this information will be of interest.
Yours sincerely
Richard ' Hershey ' Shirman

Nov. 30 2000:
Dear Christer,
At some point in the next few moths I shall be compiling a near complete list of people who played with the band from 1980 / 1990.

A couple who have come to mind are Rod Demick, bass , ex Yellow Dog, Ian Gomm, David Essex and currently with Paul Lamb and The Kingsnakes who's idea the whole thing was in the first place.

Ricky Buckley, tenor sax ( Van Morrison ), Alan Wakeman on tenor sax who, as well as playing with David Essex was one of the leading lights of the 'seventies avant garde jazz movement playing with the likes of Mike Westbrook, etc. as well as making acclaimed solo albums, and other such as Sam Kelly, drums, who is now almost famous in his own right.

Let me thank you for your interest and keep up the good work !
Richard

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