the Shadows

the Shadows



The Shadows in 2004 (from left to right):
Bruce Welch, Brian Bennett, Hank B Marvin
Background information
Origin England
Genre(s) Rock and roll, instrumental rock, Rautalanka
Years active 1958–1999
2004–2005
2008-2009
Label(s) Columbia (EMI), Polydor,(Universal Music), Eagle Records.
Associated acts The Five Chesternuts, The Vipers Skiffle Group, The Railroaders, The Crescent City Skiffle Group.
Website theshadowsofficial.com (http://www.theshadowsofficial.com/)
Members
Hank Marvin
Bruce Welch
Brian Bennett
Former members
KenPavey
Ian Samwell
Terry Smart
Jet Harris
Tony Meehan
Brian Locking
John Rostill
Alan Hawkshaw
John Farrar



Formed in London in 1958/9, The Shadows are the most successful British rock-instrumental and vocal group from the 1950s to the 2000s with an aggregate total of at least 69 UK hit singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and The Shadows'. Many of their EPs charted in the now (since 1968) defunct EP chart and most of their original studio albums charted in various UK album charts during their career. Along with Cliff Richard they effectively snuffed out skiffle music by 1959, but were themselves (not Richard) increasingly sidelined by a multi-pronged combination of Beatlemania, Merseybeat, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and many other major British 60s groups during 1963-64.

Five years ahead of Beatle-mania, The Shadows, along with Cliff Richard, laid the foundations of British rock-n-roll music during 1958-1962. During that five year period they were the UK's only major rock group with no significant home grown competition. Notwithstanding their popularity in the early 60s, in the wake of a 'Golden Greats' marketing ploy by their UK record label EMI, then and as separate entities, but unlike no other chart acts before or since then, The Shadows and Cliff Richard enjoyed a massive 2nd wave revival spell of success and interest in their music from the late-1970's until disbandment in 1990. In the 1960s The Shadows paved the way for many thousands of similar guitar-based groups in the wake of their 'Apache' hit single. Their eponymous debut original studio album, The Shadows (album), remains a benchmark standard rock-instrumental album of 'classic' status proportions. Their unique guitar sound was produced by American guitars made by Fender in conjunction with British amplifiers made by Vox with an Italian made SFX Meazzi echo unit.

Selling many millions of records worldwide, but unlike no other hugely successful group, The Shadows have generated so many polarized opinions on the merits of their type of music. However, The Shadows are consistently appreciated by instrumental fans, guitar enthusiasts and musicians both professional and amateur. In the 21st century they continue to enjoy the dedicated patronage of a loyal hard core of worldwide fans. When they tour the UK and abroad, their good-humoured concerts always sell out at premier division venues. They last toured the USA in 1959 with Cliff Richard.

The Shadows were pioneers of the rock group format in the UK and as such they were subject to a steep learning curve without the benefit of a previous British group to emulate. Conventional wisdom in these matters was subsequently gleaned out of the Shadows experience. Thus in a minority of cases those groups in the UK whose original line-ups were assembled by an outsider, such as a producer or manager with a specific project in mind, have enjoyed only limited success.

Since then, based on the Shadows experience, virtually all other UK-based pop/rock bands have formed their own foundation line-up from within using a non-Shadows methodology adhering to now well established principles as used by other groups who self-created either at high-school eg The Jam or college or university or outside education eg The Beatles, but whose musical directions and influences (eg Elvis or Chuck Berry etc) and geographical origins (eg Liverpool) were all similar thus minimizing potential areas of friction within the band during its lifespan.Contents
1 Introduction
2 History
2.1 1950s
2.2 1960s
2.3 1970s
2.4 1980s
2.5 2000s
3 Formats
4 Songwriting
5 Selected discography
5.1 Albums (UK)
5.2 Bootleg Albums
5.3 EPs (UK)
5.4 Singles (UK)
6 Live albums
7 The Shadows - Partnership members
8 The Shadows - N/P members
9 Producers
10 Engineers at EMI
11 Management
12 Auxilliary Shadows (Studio)
13 Auxilliary Shadows (Live)
14 Session musicians (Studio)
15 Film Appearances
16 Pantomines
17 Radio Performances
18 Unissued tracks (EMI)
19 Fan Club
20 The Shadows'-'walk'
21 Fender Guitars UK launch
22 Comparisons
23 Youtube
24 Influences
25 Guitars (Lead)
26 Amplifiers
27 Guitar SFX
28 Tribute Bands
29 Other Careers Responsible for
30 Band Logo
31 All time Top 50 UK chart singles sales
32 Annual Convention
33 Presentation
34 Legacy
35 Politics

Introduction

Due to the fact that this pioneering combo of musicians was formed at a critical juncture in the development of modern pop music an extended explanation for the importance of The Shadows is provided below.

With a 5 year delay behind the USA, the country that invented "pop-music" and the "teenager", from a UK viewpoint, 1958 is THE pivotal year due to Cliff Richard's immediate and massive success but in the formative preceding 5 year period in the UK from 1954-1958 the only home grown groups making any commercial music specifically for teenagers were primarily making Jazz inspired skiffle music led by Lonnie Donegan and his band to counter the massively overwhelming influence of rock-and-roll and pop-music from the USA at that time.

During 1954-1958 all other home grown music made in the UK was supplied by a mixture of crooners (mostly copying similar USA acts), pop singers (mostly copying similar USA acts), novelty acts (UK comedians and pre-WW2 stars, et al.) and band leaders with their orchestras eg Norrie Paramor all with well established careers going back to WW2.

The Shadows were unconventionally formed out from the embers of two halves of two early 1958's UK-pop groups: The Five Chesternuts who supplied Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch from Newcastle and both inspired by USA-pop music; and The Vipers Skiffle Group who supplied Jet Harris and Tony Meehan from London and both inspired by UK-jazz/skiffle music.

Amongst other reasons, the musical influences and the geographical origins of all four founder members may have proved to be one possible catalyst for the original line-up's then well hidden instability and thus premature demise in 1961-2 with Marvin and Welch remaining within The Shadows but Harris and Meehan moving onwards a year later to form their own band, Jet Harris & Tony Meehan.

The Shadows were originally and primarily marketed throughout the world as an instrumental combo-unit, but in the USA and Canada they were briefly marketed as a 'surf' group with two special compilation albums, eg "The Shadows Know", to compete with the Ventures and the Surfaris to name but a few. Both these two USA albums failed to chart but nonetheless are significant releases.

The Shadows original line up was essentially modeled on the Buddy Holly and the Crickets' using 2 guitars, bass and drums requiring the then minimum of only 4 musicians. In more recent years until permanent disbandenment they added a 5th member on keyboards having once briefly experimented as a 6 member group during 1973-5 using John Farrar as a 3rd guitarist.

The fact that the Jet Harris and Tony Meehan instrumental combo in 1963 was successfully competing against the Beatles, had all four original members of The Shadows remained intact well beyond 1961-2 then they might have better outlasted the crushing effect of the combined force from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones et al. during 1963-1970.

To date the original line-up with Harris and Meehan still remains an iconic memory in the minds of their own and Cliff Richard's fans. UK pop music history is littered with groups with one founder member quitting after a debut single or debut album but to date no other major UK group has since suffered a major 50% haemorrhage of two out of the four founder members departing so soon after the debut studio album.

Unlike The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or The Ventures, for that matter, their unorthodox creation arose out of Cliff Richard's urgent need in 1958, after the success of his Move It single, using an unbalanced mixture of session-players and backing musicians from within, to own a set of more permanent backing musicians thus avoiding the then preferred or more conventional route of forming from within a group via either (i) NME type adverts by a key founder member or (ii) auditions (ad-hoc) by some key-members or (iii) forming at high school or college or university. Not unsurprisingly, according to Norrie Paramor, their first producer, their first studio album was aggravated throughout its creation by clashes within the band.

Although all four founder members were intensely loyal to Cliff Richard, this externally constructed group lasted only three years (1959-1961) before Harris(constructive dismissal++) and Meehan(persistent lateness++) were ousted. Since the departure of Harris and Meehan, the nucleus of this band was slimmed down to three key members and has remained the much same throughout until permanent disbandment, viz: Marvin, Welch and Brian Bennett supplemented by various bass-guitarists and keyboards-men rather than session musicians. John Rostill was the longest serving bassist whose departure in 1970 resulted in a somewhat revolving-door type policy to this band-position from then on.

As a interesting career move, Harris and Meehan in late 1962 teamed up and re-formed as a new duet bass-and-drums instrumental combo as Jet Harris and Tony Meehan, thus giving The Shadows some brief spiced-up extra competition during the start of the Beatlemania pop music history period until Harris's car accident in 1964 when this duo suddenly collapsed. Coincidentally, in 1963 Harris and Meehan had a short run of 3 hit singles with chart positions at nos. 1, 2 & 4.

In mid-career, the Shadows disbanded in 1970 to form a vocal trio Marvin Welch & Farrar but reformed in 1973 due to low-sales and the questionable but inevitable attitude of British fans demanding Shadows numbers at MW&F gigs thus severely dampening the morale of the three musicians leading to hastily rearranged gigs supplemented by extra Shadows favourities. They permanently disbanded in 1990 but temporarily reformed in 2004-5 for a UK and European tour and again during 2008-10 to tour with Cliff Richard.

History

1950s

Formed as a backing band for Cliff Richard, under the name The Drifters. The members were founder Ken Pavey (born 1932), Terry Smart on drums (born 1942), Norman Mitham on guitar (born 1941), Ian Samwell on guitar and Harry Webb (before he became Cliff Richard) on guitar and vocals. The original Drifters had no bass player. Samwell wrote the group's first hit, "Move It" which is often mistakenly attributed to "Cliff Richard and The Shadows". Two session players, guitarist Ernie Shear and bassist Frank Clark play on Move It / Schoolboy Crush tracks on producer Norrie Paramor's insistence to ensure a strong sound.

The Drifters signed for Jack Good's Oh Boy! television series. Producer Norrie Paramor of EMI signed Richard, and asked Johnny Foster to recruit a better guitarist. Foster went back to Soho's 2i's coffee bar (famed for musical talent performing there, particularly in skiffle) in search of guitarist Tony Sheridan. Sheridan was not there but Foster's attention was caught by another musician, who was tall, good looking, played guitar well and had Buddy Holly glasses.

Hank Marvin was playing in a skiffle band with Bruce Welch. The pair had travelled from Newcastle and were surviving on little money. Foster offered Marvin the job, and he accepted on condition that Welch would also join. New manager Franklin Boyd could see the pair worked well and they were employed as lead and rhythm guitarists. Ian Samwell was moved to bass until he was replaced by the Most Brothers' bass guitarist, Jet Harris. Drummer Terry Smart left shortly afterwards and was replaced at Harris's suggestion by Tony Meehan. The Drifters' professional lineup was now complete, and they became The Shadows in early 1959 to avoid confusion with the contemporary American R&B vocal group The Drifters. None of the original UK Drifters were in the group when they became The Shadows. Johnny Foster continued for a time as Richard's manager, and Samwell wrote additional songs for The Drifters and The Shadows before writing and producing for others. Meehan recalled that Richard, backed by Marvin, Welch, Harris and himself had played together a year beforehand at least once at the 2i's.

The group started recording and performing with Richard and released two singles in their own right in 1959. ("Feelin' Fine"/"Don't Be A Fool With Love") and ("Jet Black"/"Driftin'"), The first two tracks were vocals and the second pair instrumental. Neither charted. A further (vocal) ("Saturday Dance"/"Lonesome Fella") also failed. The instrumental "Chinchilla" was included on a four-track soundtrack EP by Cliff Richard and the Drifters called Serious Charge released in early 1959 with the film of the same name.

1960s

In 1960, the band released "Apache", an instrumental by Jerry Lordan, which topped the charts for 5 weeks. Further hits followed, notably "Wonderful Land", another Lordan composition with orchestral backing, at the top of the charts longer than "Apache" (8 weeks). This, and "Kon Tiki" six months earlier, reached number one (1 week). The Shadows played on more chart-toppers as Richard's band. This group, referred to subsequently as "The Original Shadows" had seven hits.

In October 1961 Meehan was replaced by Brian Bennett and in April 1962 Harris was replaced by Brian Locking, also known as Licorice. Bennett and Licorice were friends from the 2I's and had all played together, mainly with The Krew Kats. This Shadows line-up produced seven hits, two of which, "Dance On" and "Foot Tapper" topped the charts. The Marvin-Welch-Bennett-Locking line-up lasted 18 months and held its own in the face of Merseybeat, headed by The Beatles. (The first original song ever recorded by the Beatles, somewhat ironically, was an instrumental homage to the Shadows entitled "Cry for a Shadow.")

In October 1963 Locking left to spend more time as a Jehovah's Witness. The band had met John Rostill on tour with other bands and had been impressed by his playing, so they invited him to take over. This final and longest-lasting line-up was also the most innovative as they tried different guitars and developed a wider range of styles and higher musicianship. They produced impressive albums but the chart positions of singles began to ease. The line-up had 10 hits but the most successful, "The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt", was also the first.

During the 1960s the group appeared with Cliff Richard in the films The Young Ones, Summer Holiday, Wonderful Life, Finders Keepers and as marionettes in the Gerry Anderson film Thunderbirds Are GO. They also appeared on stage in pantomime. Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp was in 1964 at the London Palladium with Arthur Askey as Widow Twankey, Richard as Aladdin, and The Shadows as Wishee, Washee, Noshee and Poshee. Cinderella at the Palladium in 1966 featured Richard as Buttons and The Shadows as the Broker's Men, The film and stage roles allowed the group to develop as songwriters. They wrote only a few songs for the earliest movie, 1961's The Young Ones, but by Finders Keepers in 1966 almost the entire soundtrack was credited to Marvin-Welch-Bennett-Rostill.

The line-up split in December 1968, after the 10th anniversary album Established 1958, a mixture of tracks with Richard, and instrumentals featuring just The Shadows. All were written by the group. Welch left. This was almost the end, although an album (Shades of Rock) and a tour of Japan followed with Alan Hawkshaw on keyboards; in Marvin's words, they did it 'for the Yen'. The tour was not artistically successful, and the live LP is not held in high regard, though it does feature a long version of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" in which Marvin plays acoustic and electric guitar.

1970s

During the early 1970s, Marvin and Welch had a second career as vocal group Marvin Welch & Farrar with Australian John Farrar as third vocalist. Farrar provided a high voice and skill as an arranger. They recorded two acclaimed albums and several singles and, without Welch, a third album Marvin and Farrar, which Marvin described as "Frankenstein meets The Beach Boys". Live performances were hampered by audiences expecting the Shadows' greatest hits. Marvin said (interviewed in Guitar Greats by John Tobler), "In the Batley Variety Club we walked off stage to the sound of our own footsteps!"

The Shadows reformed in 1973 with Welch on rhythm guitar and Farrar on guitar and vocals. Following the death of John Rostill, the group booked session bassists for recordings and tours. Dave Richmond and Alan Tarney, who had each provided bass for Marvin, Welch & Farrar, continued for the reformed Shadows. An album, Rocking With Curly Leads featured Marvin using vocoder to modify his sound. Some tracks used Farrar as second lead guitarist, giving this album a very different sound from previous recordings.

The group were chosen by BBC Boss Bill Cotton to perform the Song for Europe in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. The Shadows recorded six options, seen each week on a weekly television show "It's Lulu", televised on BBC1 and hosted by former Eurovision winner Lulu. Unusually for the format, instead of presenting each song live in the studio on a weekly basis and then presenting all six songs consecutively in a 'special' edition on week seven, the group recorded all six performances separately in the TV studio, before the series itself began, with the pre-taped video then being cut into the weekly show. For the presentation of the songs on week seven and the announcement of the result on week eight, the pre-recorded performances were run again. Two of the songs ("No, No Nina" and "This House Runs On Sunshine") were co-penned by members of the group themselves. The public however voted for "Let Me Be The One" by Paul Curtis to go to the Eurovision final in Stockholm. There, the group came second to Teach In's "Ding Dinge Dong" (later released on single as "Ding-A-Dong"). Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor notes in The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History that they were not a popular choice to represent the UK and the viewer's postal vote was the lowest recorded in the 'Song For Europe' history.[1] But the contest re-established The Shadows. Other records followed.

The packaging of the group's greatest hits in Twenty Golden Greats by EMI in 1977 prompted the group to reform yet again for a tour featuring Francis Monkman from Sky on keyboards, leading to a number one album and a top ten hit single "Don't Cry for Me Argentina". Francis left after that tour and the line-up settled as Marvin, Welch and Bennett, supplemented on records and gigs by Cliff Hall (keyboards) and Alan Jones (bass).

1980s

The Shadows Live At Abbey Road

The group performed and recorded until 1990, with most of their 1980s albums performing well in the charts. With the exception of Guardian Angel, an album of new material, most of 1980s albums featured covers of pop songs, with little original material. The group moved in 1980 from EMI to Polydor with Change of Address. EMI would not agree to a tape leasing scheme, whereby the group would retain copyright of recordings, but the company would be licensed to publish them for individual albums. This resulted in the group re-recording much of its catalogue of EMI hits for Polydor . The recordings were made using analogue equipment, but digitally mastered, but with instruments, amplifiers, and arrangements close to the original. This has allowed the group to package and market their own compilation albums, featuring old hits as well as new. Other albums, such as Diamonds, feature no new material, being compiled from recent albums. The line-up remained until Jones had a car accident and Mark Griffiths of the Cliff Richard band and originally from Matthews Southern Comfort was brought in on bass. He shared bass duties until 1990 when the band stopped touring and Marvin played solo again.

EMI released a compilation album in the early seventies called "Rarities" covering various recordings from 1962 to 1970, at least one of which, "Goodnight Dick" can be found nowhere else in the discography of the group, and, as far as can be ascertained, has never been played on the radio anywhere. (NUT 2 stereo/*mono OC 056-06 250).

2000s

Roger C. Field, a guitarist friend of Marvin presented Welch and Harris in 2001 with his idea to reunite The Shadows, winning their support, Harris addressing Field's intention in a newspaper article (Otago Daily Times, New Zealand, June 2, 2001) and writing "Good luck, Roger" on Field's Fender. Field contacted Marvin with suggestions and guitar arrangements to motivate him to return to the band and is the instigator of the reunion. The group re-formed in 2004 (with Bennett mediating between Welch and Marvin) healing a rift of over 10 years - to mount a farewell tour, and they recorded a new track - "Life Story" (written by Jerry Lordan)- to accompany a new greatest hits package of the same name which featured 1980s re-recordings of all their 1960s and 1970s hits. This opportunity to see Marvin, Welch and Bennett, joined on keyboards by Hall and bass by Griffiths, was so successful that they extended the tour in 2005, this time of Europe. The line-up was almost the same, but Warren Bennett, son of Brian, came in on keyboards instead of Hall. On 27 November 2008 a concert tour, with Cliff Richard, for 2009 was announced.[2]. On 11 December 2008, Cliff Richard and the Shadows performed at the Royal Variety Performance.

Formats

Until the arrival of the CD format in 1983, they originally released their music on all 3 major vinyl formats: LP(12"), EP(7"), single(7"). Unlike all notable 1960's bands eg The Beatles, from 1961 to 1970 all their original studio albums do not feature any hit or miss singles tracks at all. From 1973 onwards their A-side singles tracks were often 'ripped' from studio albums supplemented with occasional non-album track B-sides and album tracks. Only one of their 7" singles was transferred to the 1980s fashionable 12" format. Their last few singles were released on the CD-single format.

Their EPs were a curate's-egg affair in terms of composition and consistency. Some carried new original tracks but were mostly used to promote the first 4 studio albums or carried twinned 7" recent hit singles. By 1968 the EP format was discontinued due to dwindling sales in the UK as the album became the major vinyl format. Since 1985 all original studio albums, live albums and music from EPs and 7"/12" singles have been re-issued on the CD format. Some of their more popular albums are now available as computer file downloads on the ".mp3" format.

Songwriting

All their early 1960s hits were written by Jerry Lordan or Norrie Paramor and one-off contributions from old-fashioned British tin-pan alley songwriters. From the single Foot Tapper onwards The Shadows themselves penned most of their hit singles. During the 1970s the Shadows again wrote most of their A side singles under the influence of John Farrar.

By 1979 onwards they became increasing reliant on cover versions of recent hits with only sporadic self penned originals on the B sides. Throughout the 1980s both BBC and Independent UK Radio stations became increasingly reluctant to pass The Shadows' current single onto their play-list especially if it was a cover of a previous charted hit record.

Selected discography

From British Hit Singles & Albums, 17th Edition (Except Life Story)

Albums (UK)
1961 The Shadows (UK #1)
1962 Out of The Shadows(UK #1)
1963 Greatest Hits (UK #2) [compilation]
1964 Dance With The Shadows (UK #2)
1965 The Sound of The Shadows(UK #4)
1965 More Hits! [compilation] (UK #did not chart)
1966 Shadow Music (UK #5)
1967 Jigsaw (UK #
1967 From Hank, Bruce, Brian and John (UK #did not chart)
1968 Established 1958 [with Cliff Richard]
1970 Shades of Rock (UK #30)
1973 Rockin' With Curly Leads (UK #45)
1975 Specs Appeal (UK #30)
1975 Live at the Paris Olympia (UK #did not chart)
1977 Tasty (UK #did not chart)
1977 20 Golden Greats (UK #1) [compilation]
1979 String of Hits (UK #1)
1980 Another String of Hot Hits (UK #16) [compilation]
1980 Change of Address (UK #17)
1981 Hits Right Up Your Street (UK #15)
1982 Life In The Jungle/Live at Abbey Road (UK #24)
1983 XXV (UK #34)
1985 Guardian Angel (UK #98)
1986 Moonlight Shadows (UK #6)
1987 Simply Shadows (UK #7)
1989 Steppin' To The Shadows (UK #
1989 At Their Very Best (UK #12)
1990 Reflection (UK #5)
1993 Shadows In The Night - 16 Classic Tracks (UK #22) [compilation]
1994 The Best of Hank Marvin and The Shadows (UK #19) [compilation]
1997 The Shadows play Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (UK #41)
1997 The Very Best of The Shadows - The First 40 Years (UK #56) [compilation]
1998 50 Golden Greats (UK #35) [compilation]
2004 Life Story (UK #7) [compilation]
2004 The Final Tour (UK #??)
2005 Platinum (UK #30) [compilation]

Bootleg Albums
1979 Would You Believe It (limited to 50 copies)

Would You Believe It (B side, Hank Marvin demo single)/ Evening Comes (Hank Marvin b-side, released in Australia and New Zealand only) / Genie With The Light Brown Lamp (unreleased acoustic version, only available on 1965 Italian compilation) / Omoide No Nagisa / Kimi To Itsumademo / Gin Iro No Michi / Londonderry Air (Only released on 1967 Japanese LP)// Shazam / Guitar Boogie / Sleepwalk / F.B.I. (Only released on 1961 South African EP 'Live at the Coliseum') / Jean Dorothy / Teenage Love (The Chesternuts single)/ Chicago (unreleased live recording from TV 1966)

EPs (UK)
The Shadows. ($)
The Shadows no.2.
The Shadows no.3.
The Shadows To The Fore.
Spotlight on the Shadows.
Out of the Shadows.
Out of the Shadows no.2.
Wonderful Land of the Shadows.
The Boys.($)
Foot Tapping with the Shadows.
Los Shadows. ($)
Dance on with the Shadows.
Shindig with The Shadows.
Those Brilliant Shadows.
Dance with the Shadows no.1.
Dance with the Shadows no.2.
Dance with the Shadows no.3.
Alice in Sunderland.
Sound of the Shadows no.1.
Sound of the Shadows no.2.
Sound of the Shadows no.3.
Rhythm & Greens.($)
Themes from Aladdin.
Those talented Shadows.
The Shadows on Stage and screen.($)
Thunderbirds are go.($)

Live albums
1959 Cliff (live album w/Cliff Richard) as Cliff Richard and The Drifters - LP/CD
1961 Live at Colosseum (in South Africa) - EP/CD
1962 Live at the ABC Kingston (w/Cliff Richard) - CD
1967 Live in Japan (unissued)
1969 Live in Japan - LP/CD
1973 BBC-Radio-2, John Peel Session (unissued)
1975 Live at Paris Olympia - LP/CD
1978 Live at London Palladium("Thank you very much") - LP/CD
1983 Live at Abbey Road - LP/CD
1984 Live at NEC Birmingham - VHS
1987 Live at Liverpool - VHS/CD
2004 Final Tour - CD/DVD.

The Shadows - Partnership members
1959-1961: Hank Marvin,Bruce Welch,Jet Harris,Tony Meehan.
1961-1962: Hank Marvin,Bruce Welch,Jet Harris.
1962-1969: Hank Marvin,Bruce Welch.
1970-1970: Hank Marvin.
1973-1976: Hank Marvin,Bruce Welch.
1977-1990: Hank Marvin,Bruce Welch,Brian Bennett.

The Shadows - N/P members
1961-1976: Brian Bennett.
1962-1963: Brian Locking.
1963-1970: John Rostill.
1969-1970: Alan Hawkshaw.
1973-1975: John Farrar.

Producers
1959-1966: Norrie Paramor
1967-1979: Peter Vince
1980-1982: Hank Marvin+Bruce Welch+Brian Bennett
1983-1983: Bruce Welch
1985-1985: Stuart Coleman
1986-1990: Dick Plant

Engineers at EMI
Malcolm Addey
Peter Vince

Management
1960-1979: Peter Gormley, Peter Gormley Mgt, Central London.
1980-1990: Brian Goode, Outrider Mgt, Gerrards Cross, Bucks.

Auxilliary Shadows (Studio)
1973-77: Alan Tarney(bass)
1970-75: Dave Richmond(bass)
1979-90: Cliff Hall(kb)
1978-89: Alan Jones(bass)
1990-09: Mark Griffiths(bass)
2004-09: Warren Bennett(kb)

Auxilliary Shadows (Live)
1973-75: John Fiddy(kb)
1973-76: Alan Tarney(bass)
1974: Mo Foster(bass, John Peel session)
1977: Francis Monkman(keyboards, 20 Golden Dates tour)
1977-84: Alan Jones(bass)
1978-78: George Forde(bass)
1979-90: Cliff Hall(kb)
1985-09: Mark Griffiths(bass)
2004-09: Warren Bennett(kb)

Session musicians (Studio)
Cliff Richard - Chinese drums on Apache(single).
Norrie Paramor and his orchestra - various singles & album tracks.
Paul Ferris - various singles.
Brian Hodges - bass, Shades of Rock(album).
Herbie Flowers - bass, Shades of Rock(album).
Graham Todd - Keyboards on 'God Only Knows', on Specs Appeal(album).
Adrian Lee - Keyboards, Love Deluxe / Sweet Saturday Night single).
Clive Hicks - Acoustic guitar, Don't cry for me Argentina(single).
Steve Gray - String arrangements on String Of Hits album.
Dave Lawson - Synthesiser on String Of Hits / Change of Address albums, 'Riders In The Sky' single, 'Black Is Black'(on Another String of Hot Hits album).
Alan Hawkshaw - Piano on 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' and 'You're The One That I Want' (String Of Hits album) and keyboards on 'A Whiter Shade of Pale (XXV album)
Harry Bogdanovs - Keyboards on 'The Modern Way'(XXV album).
Tony Catchpole - Keyboards on 'Liverpool Days' (XXV album).
Tony Rivers - Backing vocals on 'Liverpool Days' , (XXV album), and on vocal tracks from 'Guardian Angel' album
Paul Westwood - bass, Moonlight Shadows(album)
Mark Griffiths - bass on 'Themes From Eastenders/Howards Way, (Simply Shadows album), 'At Their Very Best' album, 'Reflection' album

Film Appearances
Expresso Bongo
The Young Ones (film) (aka It's Wonderful to be Young)
Summer Holiday (1963 film)
Wonderful Life (1964 film) (aka Swingers Paradise)
Finders Keepers (1966 film)
Rhythm & Greens (short B-movie)
Thunderbirds Are GO (as puppet-marionettes)

Pantomines
Aladdin (appeared with Cliff Richard)
Cinderella (appeared with Cliff Richard)
Babes in the Wood (music written for Frank Ifield)

Radio Performances
Luxembourg 1959-63. Includes: Barneys Blues; Three-30 blues.
BBC 1959-68. Includes: Cerveza; Dooby dooby wah; Guitar Boogie; Walk don't run.

Unissued tracks (EMI)
1959: (1)C'mon baby; (2)She's Gone.
1960.
1961: (3)She Wears Red Feathers; (4)March Of The Shadows; (5)Blues In An Unfurnished Flat; (6)Happy birthday(un-overdubbed version).
1962: (7)Groanin'.
1963: (8)3 for B.
1964: (9)Australia; (10)Yugga Dugga; (11)Blue Tango.
1965: (12)The Shark; (13)Not Yet; (14)You Came A Long Way From St Pancras; (15)All Right Be That Way; (16)Super.
1966: (17)Lavish; (18)Lavish(pt2).
1967: (19)Hang on Sloopy; (20)Danny boy; (21)Working title; (22)Flowers; (23)Let's rock; (24)Two minutes of sh??? You know what.
1968: (25)What's behind the eyes of Mary; (26)Schnoedocon.
19??: (27)Memories of you.

Source(book): "That Sound" by R.Pistolesi, M.Addey, M.Mazzini.

Fan Club

Due to misgivings from within the group concerning the likelihood of any official Shadows fan-club going bust, The Shadows' founder members never 'encouraged' any official or unofficial fan club in the UK during the 1960s, thus perhaps resulting in inevitable lost opportunities and other consequences (qv non-charting 1967 studio album: "From Hank Bruce Brian and John"). Thus fans had to source the UK music press or the official Cliff Richard UK fan club for group news or new release information.

During the period 1970-85 "The Record Scene" shop in Ashford in Middlesex managed by a fan, in lieu of any fan club acted as a focal meeting point for committed fans keen to plug gaps in their collections. This shop gained kudos when the members of the group made occasional appearances. In more recent times their attitude towards any Shadows based fan club has relaxed somewhat.

In more recent years unofficial fan clubs have been created to act as a data source and debating forum. In Australia, The Shadows circle of friends, and in the UK, Shadsfax. After the collapse of the Record Scene shop, another UK based record shop, Leosden took over from where Record Scene left off until it became an internet only dealer in the mid/late-1990's.

In the 21stC, up-to-date CD/DVD releases and news bulletins are currently handled by www.leosden.co.uk.

The Shadows'-'walk'

Ever mindful of how they appear on stage as a band with or without Cliff Richard, The Shadows developed themselves numerous movement sequences using their bodies and guitars as visual enhancement devices in all sorts of different manners in tempo with the music played such as a 'walk'. As seen on BBC's Top of the pops this 'walk' has been copied by numerous groups as part of their TOTP presentation eg Mud (band), The Rubettes, Showaddywaddy, etc.

The Shadows were inspired by The Treniers wild gig routines to include the 'walk' routine as part of their live act both with Cliff Richard and without him. Used throughout their illustrious career, it simply consists of a 3 step walk contained within a 60-60-60 degree triangle formation with a reverse right-heel back-kick with optional can-can finale. This simple choreographed routine was varied throughout a typical gig to great affect during certain numbers (qv track: FBI).

During the 1980s during an instrumental number, rather than playing their instruments in a static posture or using the Shadows' walk, their live act was further refined (qv Equinoxe V) to include another stage movement routine effect featuring Marvin, Welch and the bassist synchronizing all their guitars in unison as a threesome to move them in time or in sequence with critical note or chord changes.

Occasionally, during other instrumentals, this guitars in-step presentation mode is re-engineered with Marvin and Welch acting out of sequence or alternating with each other. As a spectacle this is a visual feast for guitar enthusiasts and fans alike.

For vocal numbers they act more conventionally and play their instruments close up to their microphones with minimal guitar movements except when Hank Marvin plays any mid-song guitar-break.

Fender Guitars UK launch

The Shadows were launched in 1959 at a time when most imported goods into the UK were prohibited by law as a consequence of the UK govt repaying the USA govt for the UK's WW2 war debt. Cliff Richard bought Hank Marvin a red Fender Stratocaster guitar costing hundreds of pounds to improve the sound of his then backing group. As a consequence of the success of the Apache single, thousands of instrumental groups suddenly sprang up overnight throughout the UK and then Europe during 1960-61. Sales of all types of guitars throughout the UK soared leading on to a surge of quality guitar sales later on in the UK.

Once all 3 guitarists in the Shadows acquired 3 Fender guitars in 1960 sales of all Fender guitars in the UK took off exponentially. It is generally reckoned that the Fender telecaster and stratocaster are some of the most widely played guitars on the market due to their versitility.

Comparisons

Obvious comparisons between the Shadows and the Ventures are both awkward and complicated by unique circumstance as the Shadows' worldwide record sales have not, so far, been aggregated by EMI records and Polydor records ie Universal Music or by the Official UK Chart Company. This situation is likely to remain so for some time to come due to prior commitments by all parties who hold the raw data.

This situation is complicated by the fact that The Shadows spent their first 10 years assisting Cliff Richard's successful career helping him to amass sales figs of 260m around the world. The Shadows' career mostly concentrated on singles releases but reverted to albums during the 1970/80s. By contrast the Ventures focused mostly on albums throughout their entire career.

Youtube

On Youtube website the Shadows 'Apache' single has had in excess of over 1,000,000 hits to be compared against the Ventures 'Walk Don't Run' single.

Influences

Many major British, European, Australian, American, Canadian guitarists and other musicians have identified The Shadows as a key influence in their choice of career in music eg Elton John; Brian May (Queen); Roger Taylor (Queen); Eric Clapton; Peter Frampton; Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead); Neil Young (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young); Pete Townshend (The Who); Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac); Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits); Paul McCartney (The Beatles); Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath); Jean-Pierre Danel, Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple); Francis Rossi (Status Quo); Rick Parfitt (Status Quo); Andy Summers (The Police); Randy Bachman (The Guess Who); etc.

George Harrison (The Beatles) wrote the Beatles' first original composition, an instrumental, "Cry for a Shadow", released on Polydor in 1962 as a B side.

Guitars (Lead)
Antoria
Fender Stratocaster (red, black, white).
Burns Marvin (green, white), 6/12 strings.
Martin D-28.

Amplifiers
1958: Selmer Truvoice Stadium.
1959-1985: Vox AC-15, AC-30[Normal, Treble, Top Boost].
1985-1990: Mesa Boogie, Vox AC-30.

Guitar SFX
1960's: Meazzi Echomatic

Tribute Bands

Whereas every well known successful group has at least a few tribute bands eg Led Zeppelin, today, perhaps their greatest legacy (one of many) is that The Shadows can lay claim to have possibly more tribute bands than any other instrumental band eg The Rapiers, etc.

To enable any tribute band to function, there are several companies around the world that still make echo and reverb units in both analogue and digital domains to enable budding lead-guitarists try their hand at the Hank Marvin Shadows' style of guitar playing.

So far logged from the internet: Bruce Welch’s Shadows; Tangent; Echoes; The Rapiers; The Runaways; The Foot Tappers; Reflection; UB Hank Band; The Apaches; The Bootleg Shadows; Out of the Shadows; The Moonlight shadows; The Five O’clock Shadows; Bungelflint; Shadtastic; Lost For Words; The Evening Shadows; Shadoogie; The Young Ones; The Midnight Shadows; The Shadows tribute band; Legend; The Epitones; Guitar ZZ; Los Jets; The Saunters; FBI; The Vibratos; Indra and Move it; The Local Heroes; ‘1961’; The Silhoutes; The Shadsfaxers; The Lefties; Sentone and the shadow caster; Nivram; The Backbeats; Guitar Syndicate; Shotgun Ltd; The Beat-Shadows; The Marvingers; The Ryders; Fiesta Red; The Red Strats; The Sleepwalkers; The Shadmasters; The Light Valley Shadows; Atlantis; The Past Masters; Shadivarius; The Shadowcasters; The Sangrounders; Shaboogie; Shazam; The Shadders; The Shudders; The Silver Shadows; The Shadtones; Tom Jet and the MTGs; The Delsonics; Beyond the Shadows; Cliff Richard and The Shadows Club Italia band; Rich Clifford and The Saddows; Wodash (pre-internet); The Secrets; Zoe McCulloch (solo); Matilda (solo); James McSkimming (solo); Chris Watts (solo); Peter Williams (solo); Pierre Teodori (solo); Guitar George (solo); Jean-Pierre Danel (solo); Mark Griffiths (solo); Warren Bennett (solo); Cliff Hall (solo).

Other Careers Responsible for

Aside from assisting Cliff Richard's hugely successful career as his backing group from 1958-1968 and as major song writers, Bruce Welch and John Farrar can also lay claim to effectively having launched the career of Olivia Newton-John whose emerging career in 1971-4 required John Farrar to quit the band in 1975, six years later, having formed Marvin Welch & Farrar with Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch in 1970. Olivia Newton-John has sold in excess of 100m records worldwide.

Band Logo

As pioneers in British rock-music The Shadows were naive in terms of commercial exploitation opportunities such as self-promotion via artwork etc. The Shadows allowed Vox amplification to produce small metallic badges, using an italicised Tahoma type font, with the group name to be positioned on the front bottom right corner of all three Vox cabinets sometime during the early 1960s for gig usage. This Vox made badge became a 'default' band-logo which was never commercially exploited by The Shadows.

Moreover, unlike The Beatles et al., The Shadows never used this Vox-badge band-logo on the front of the bass-drum preferring to allow their 2 drummers, Tony Meehan and Brian Bennett, to use their names on the bass-drum. Belatedly the band-logo was used only once on the artwork front of their 1975 original studio album, Specs Appeal. To date this band-logo remains untrademarked and uncopyrighted.

By contrast, thanks to its proactive management, The Beatles' band-logo with its dropped-T (qv The "BeaTles") was commercially exploited to great effect, not only on the kick-drum but also as an artwork icon in its own right, such as on stationery, posters, album releases, etc. Since the invention, and subsequent wide ranging usage, of this band-logo by the Beatles (created by Eddie Stokes in 1963), all successful UK bands have, with the aid of graphics or art-work specialists in this field, produced a band-logo often as an artwork piece of work (eg The Who with an arrow-head on top of the 'h') to further promote their group throughout its career often trade-marking it to protect it from copyright infringement.

All time Top 50 UK chart singles sales

In 2005 the Official UK Charts Company with Channel4 TV published an all-time top 50 UK singles chart based on career aggregate sales of both hits and misses of the top selling 50 artists/groups of all time.

Cliff Richard came 1st, not unsurprisingly to the considerable annoyance of many influential insiders and movers-and-shakers within the UK pop-music industry, with aggregate sales of 20m. The Beatles came a very close 2nd with 20m. The positions might have been reversed if the chart had included the Beatles single "Ain't she sweet" credited on the label A side to: "Tony Sheridan and The Beatles" on Polydor to the Beatles aggregate career total. Prior to this chart's worldwide publication, it was widely anticipated that the Beatles with 1,000m sales would walk to the no.1 position in this chart with consummate ease.

The Shadows with only 5m sales were 43rd in this chart but were not credited at all with any of their joint-collaboration 34 hit singles with Cliff Richard (qv "Cliff Richard and The Shadows" or "Cliff Richard and The Drifters"). Coincidentally, The Supremes, without Diana Ross written on the label, with career sales approaching 5m also finished in the bottom 10 places of this chart despite having had considerably more than 30 hit singles during their career both as "The Supremes" (including Diana Ross within the trio but not named on the label) and "Diana Ross and The Supremes". Other UK pop-music publications interpret these joint-collaboration matters differently. These anomalies are 'corrected' in the later (eg 16th and onwards) editions of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles and Albums published by Guinness Books and in fact several other well known UK chart type books published in the UK follow the Guinness methodology.

In this chart, all other joint collaboration-singles were duly credited to both parties: qv 'and', 'feat(uring)', 'with', etc, on the label A side. Groups and soloists in this top 50 chart that have had at least one or more joint-collaboration, either as the 1st or 2nd named artist on the A sided label, singles include: Queen, Status Quo, Cliff Richard, Elton John, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Olivia Newton-John, Phil Collins, Shaking Stevens, Tom Jones, Celine Dion, Robbie Williams, etc.

An obvious example is the hit DJM single "Slow Rivers" by Cliff Richard and Elton John which is double-counted in this chart. Elton John's, Cliff Richard's (post-"Cliff Richard and The Shadows" career) and Diana Ross's (solo; and as an un-named member of The Supremes trio and "Diana Ross and the Supremes") careers, to name but a few, heavily feature numerous duets with many famous other pop-stars.

Annual Convention
1998-2008 Shadowmania. This annual convention for the benefit of about 1,000 dedicated Shadows fans is organised by Bruce Welch and is held at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Frimley, in Surrey in late September every year. Jet Harris, Cliff Hall and Alan Jones regularly attend as performing artists. Tony Meehan appeared until his untimely demise. Mo Foster and other ex-Shadows occasionally attend. Brian Bennett has also appeared live occasionally.

Elsewhere, there are other annual Shadows type conventions in Germany, Italy and other European countries at which Bruce Welch and others perform live.

Presentation

Unlike all USA pop-stars, during the late 1950s in the UK many pop-stars were forced to undergo a somewhat pointless and now outdated (sur)name change into a 'stage' name eg Billy Fury as part of the indoctrination process into show business British style. This process was initiated by either the manager or the producer or the record label who signed the pop-star. The general opinion at that time was that a pop-star without a stage name would fail to excite fans to listen to the music or buy records or attend concerts.

Unlike their contemporaries such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones or any USA band during that era, several members of the original Cliff Richard and The Shadows line up changed their birth names into old fashioned stage names. Harry Webb became Cliff Richard; Brian Rankin became Hank Marvin; Terrence Harris became Jet Harris. But Bruce Cripps became Bruce Welch and Daniel Anthony Meehan became Tony Meehan. Subsequently these were all confirmed permanent by deed poll. By contrast, as if to draw a line in the sand, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all other groups post-Beatles continued to use their birth names throughout their career in music with only a few notable exceptions during the glam-rock (eg David Bowie) or punk-rock (eg Johnny Rotten) eras.

Throughout their career The Shadows' approach to all live appearances was to adhere to a somewhat outdated presentation style with expensive stage suits of various designs. The original mohair suits during 1959-1962 became dinner-jackets in 1962 until 1970. This pattern was only broken during 1970-1976 while the line up included John Farrar when normal street clothes were worn. The Shadows reverted to stage attire from 1977 until 1990. The Rolling Stones were the first UK rock band to ditch the somewhat pointless use of stage costumes.

Legacy

Hank Marvin is considered by most major British rock guitarists to be the most significant and important lead guitarist of the 20th century. In second place is guitar soloist Bert Weedon, whose major contribution remains as the author of "A tune a day" book. Number 1 selling hit singles "Apache" and "Wonderful Land" remain as masterpieces for all time as do many of their other commercially successful hits eg FBI.

As per the Ventures in the USA, The Shadows legacy is summed up in words and phrases such as "pioneers", "originators", and "prototype" etc in terms of the rock group. In the succeeding years into the 21st century most other groups have taken the original 4 piece instrument format line up and modified it to suit their own needs and aspirations. Most British rock and heavy metal rock bands who began their careers in the 1960/70/80's recognise The Shadows as being important influences.

Politics

As consistent with the dominant success of the Beatles from 1963-70, it is no secret that the Shadows have been consistently out of favour since 1963 with many sections of the British pop music's opinionated and highly influential journalists, press, award-givers, movers and shakers etc. From 1960-62 The Shadows regularly received awards and honours from the UK pop music industry.

Collectively these entities now prefer to acknowledge the supreme importance of the Beatles as the group that kick started British Rock music in 1963 which is ironic given John Lennon's noted opinion on the significance of Cliff Richard's Move It hit single in 1958. No immediate UK based organisations by name immediately spring to mind although individual members of the Shadows are aware of specific examples of such distortions and misinformation by those UK industry bodies who are supposed to be above such politics.

During the late 20th century and early 21st century the Shadows importance is only fully recognised when Cliff Richard is nominated for a major award and The Shadows are only then recognised as an important appendage to his career in pop music. However, it is unlikely that The Shadows will ever receive such pop music industry awards in their own right.