Dino Buttarazzi ( Lets Hang On ) Interviewed 2007

Presenter - WHY FRANKIE VALLI AND THE FOUR SEASONS?

Dino - Back in 1992 I was at home watching TV when I saw advertised, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons live in concert at 9 o'clock so I thought I'll watch that, there's nothing else on, so I did, and that's how it all began for me. I was mesmerized, it was an incredible display of musicianship and, the vocal harmonies in a word were Perfection!!! and from that day on I said to myself, one day I'll be in a band playing this fantastic music.

Presenter - SO THEN WHAT DID YOU DO?

Dino - Well not a lot really, at the time I was already playing guitar in a busy show band and before you know it time fly's by and you lose track of what you really want to be doing and settle for the easy life. But 14yrs later things were about to change. I'd been stopped playing for around 5yrs and one day said to myself, right I'm going to have a go at creating my dream and somehow make it a reality, so that's exactly what I did. I spent all my time researching the business and going to watch shows just to see how good the top tribute acts actually were and more importantly how much better we'd have to be to make it. So back in January 2006 LET'S HANG ON was born.

Presenter - WHAT WAS THE NEXT STEP?

Dino - The next step was some how I needed to find 3 more musicians, 3 lads who could play and sing and that were willing to dedicate their lives to the intense rehearsals a show like this would require. I already knew who I wanted on bass guitar and vocals, Mr. Martin Peat, I had played in bands with Martin in the past and knew he would love to be in this show, plus he was a great player with a fantastic voice so I asked him and straight away he said yes, so now there's 2 of us, now I need a drummer who can sing.............unheard of :-) so I placed a load of adverts and after sifting through them all I came to a CD that was sent to me by Mr. Scott Walker, as soon as I heard him I knew he was the man for the job, his drumming was first class and amazingly he could sing too, so there was no question about it he was in, so now there were 3!!! Now was the hard bit, I now needed a Frankie, and what a nightmare that proved to be, I needed a showman, a reliable hard worker with a four octave voice that could recreate the mind blowing falsetto sound of the man himself, so once again the adverts were placed and the auditions began, it was unbelievable (in a bad way) I felt like Simon Cowell on a bad day, I said to the lads were never going to find our Frankie until one evening when into our studio walked Mr. Robin Maughan, it was like a breath of fresh air, such a confident and willing lad who was so excited to be there, then he began to sing, he was reaching notes most singers could only dream of, and with such ease, we all got on really well too which is very important, so after a few more  rehearsal  I knew we had finally found our Frankie, and now had the final line up for LET'S HANG ON.

TO BE CONTINUED..........................                                              BACK