This now should not be necessary in the first place. LINK WRAY is a name you should know, even if you are only remotely interested in the history of rock music.
Okay, so you've been living on another planet. How to begin explaining Mr Link Wray to the innocent reader?
He recorded "Rumble" in 1957 and that was the first song that had a "distorted" guitar sound. Without Link Wray, rock (or rock'n'roll) would not have been what it is today. Lots of famous guitarists (and others) name Link Wray as a major influence, like Pete Townshend (The Who), Elvis Costello, Poison Ivy (The Cramps), Neil Young, Lemmy (Motörhead), Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols), Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd), and Bruce Springsteen - who wrote the song "Fire" for Link Wray & Robert Gordon...! After million-selling instrumental hits in the fifties and early sixties, he kept a low profile for a while, but when punk 'happened' the kids recognized the raw rebellious sound of Link Wray all over again. With NYC vocalist Robert Gordon, he scored another huge hit: "Red Hot"...
Link kept playing, raising holy sonic thunderstorms on stage, until shortly before his death on November 5th, 2005.
REST IN PEACE, LINK... WE WILL NOT FORGET.

Way back in the fifties...

...and in the nineties!

However... there came a phonecall from Music Trust (then Link Wrays agency), who called Ace-Tones guitarist Andre first - looking for these two Dutch guys who had played Link Wray stuff with Rudi Protrudi. So, Andre drops in at Spod (the rehearsal studio) and says "hey man - I don't know what's going on but it seems they want you and Rob to play with Link Wray!" To which the reply was "yeah right" again, but Andre insisted: "I'm not kidding, it was a bloke saying he's Link Wrays manager who called me, it sounded serious enough, so..."

Well, guess. A month later, Link arrived in Holland to do one-and-a-half rehearsal before the first show...

The first show of Link Wray with his Ace-Men:
September 28, 1995 at "De Gigant", Apeldoorn (NL)

(Photo taken by Diederik Hoogenbosch)

The ValveMobile, outside...

...and inside!

Basically, the whole idea was to play a couple of shows in Holland and Belgium - and maybe some in Germany if things worked out. Things did work out, in a way that Link decided to have these new guys on the to-be-recorded new studio album for Ace Records in England. The message to Ace was loud and clear: "Cancel the British musicians you had hired, and get these two guys a plane ticket 'cos I want them on the album!"

Rob and Eric flew to London, and went to the hotel in Stevenage; there, they hooked up with Link (and his wife Olive...) and met Ted Carroll of Ace Records. The first recordings were made at The Priory, a beautiful farm building in Little Wymondly; later on, the equipment was moved to the Hermitage Ballroom in Ricksmansworth. The recording engineers, Paul and Ricky, had an old BBC truck converted to a mobile studio with all kind of vintage equipment. Inbetween, Link and his Ace-Men played two London shows, one of them on Ace Records' 20th anniversary. "That was pretty strange, I mean, Link was headlining and we were there as the Link Wray Band... And I'm walking around on this party, seeing people like Shane MacGowan and Dave Vanian... and Billy Bragg... and I'm thinking, like, bloody hell, what am I doing here?!"

Keith Morris watches Eric - recording "Moped Baby"

Sleeve credits on Shadowman

Utter concentration by Eric changing one of Link's strings on stage; meanwhile Link sometimes started telling stories about the old days, or singing a "slow song" unaccompanied, or maybe even playing the guitar - which makes changing a string not the easiest job in the world...

Down under

Usually, when a guitarist like Link Wray goes touring as far away as Australia, there's a couple of Australian musicians that get a call from Link's manager - the way Eric and Rob got a call. Not this time! Link wanted his new band to join him to the other end of the earth... literally. A two-week tour of Australia followed, and since it was the first time for Link to be 'down under', the press hailed Link and his band in classic 'The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread' way. (A translation of Eric's tour diary may follow later on!) After this tour, the deal was that Link's new management would give Rob and Eric a call as soon as the possibility of new tour dates would arise, but unfortunately when a call came it was on such short notice that Eric had to skip a couple of dates in Finland. Pretty lame, because Eric sure wanted to play whatever gig whenever wherever, but this new manager simply forgot to make that phone call ('Link said Olive would call you' - well, she didn't!). Rick Finck, bassplayer of Rob's rhythm&blues/pubrock band Rough'n'Tumble, replaced Eric (and quit his job to do so), the dates were played - but Link misunderstood Eric's absence (or maybe his wife, Olive, misinterpreted it), Rick also played a show in England, and that was it.

The last Link Wray studio album 'Barbed Wire' however has Rob and Eric playing on it, including two live tracks and some thrilling acoustic tracks. Rob, Eric and Rick have started their own band playing Link Wray songs and related 90% instrumental, hi-octane rock'n'roll: The X-Ray Men. Link continued touring, in the US, with musicians from the American band Dieselhead; his last performance was a month before his death (in November 2005).

Eric and Rob (along with Link Wray's American family, friends, 'celeb fans', and everyone else), were informed about the death of their friend Link by means of internet rumours.