In the 1980s a friend had an old beat up USA Atlantic album called "Surfin' With The Shadows" and he played me the original APACHE. Having only heard the song in the USA version I flipped out for the "cleaner" arrangment and great Fender guitar sound. I had heard of the Shadows (mainly from the Beatles song "Cry For A Shadow") but didn't know anything about them except that they came right before the Beatles. Of course I went in search of Shadows records. When I was in France in 1982 I bought (NOS from the early 1960s) beautiful 10" Shadows LPs, EPs, etc. and lovingly carried them home with me. When I got back I went to the wonderful import section at Tower and bought a bunch of in print Columbia UK LPs, the Greatest Hits and their first album (with the cream Tele on the cover), etc. I guess these came back in print around that time on LP for a short while. Boy did they sound wonderful.. Needless to say I am a rabid SHADOWS fan. I love how Hank Marvin plays his red Stratocaster in this clip from the movie THE YOUNG ONES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAheCG0lKU0 I love the "choking" sound he gets. When I got the DOT LP of THE YOUNG ONES I was amazed to hear the Shadows sound I loved so much backing Cliff Richard. Of course I branched out to Cliff Land and got a bunch of original UK Columbias. Just last year I grabbed every UK 45 off of a dealer I know over there. When I want to smile I play Cliff & The Shadows APRON STRINGS. Best sound? The green label Columbia UK 45's. Nothing can top 'em. So I discovered the Shadows in March of 1982 and Cliff Richard just a few months later. Late, I know but take pity on this American. They had NO air play over here at all and nothing in print for many years. Better late than never..
Believe it or not that "Surfin' With The Shadows" LP is the only place the stereo mix of F.B.I. was released until a few years ago.
That is a great clip indeed, Steve. I may have to sometime go on Amazon UK and buy The Young Ones and the other 1960s Cliff Richard and the Shadows movies including Summer Holiday on DVD.
Didn't even know Atlantic issued the album in stereo. Tape is probably still sitting in the file. Are these different stereo mixes than what appeared on the UK Greatest Hits? It was my understanding that the early 7" single stuff (Man Of Mystery, etc.) had their FIRST stereo mixes for the Greatest Hits UK release in 1968 or so. If that's so, the Atlantic stereo mixes from 1962 must be one of a kind unique! Since it's not the Beatles, no one cares, darn it!
Steve, I think The Shads stuff was available in stereo in the UK from the very beginning. The story with "FBI" was that after they compiled the "Surfing" album, the FBI stereo master was filed under the wrong name, and thats why FBI was always fake stereo. The true stereo "Wonderful Land" is like, one of the best records ever. The original version had no strings. The Norrie Paramour decided to jazz it up and overdubbed the orchestra and thats what made the record. great stuff from The Shads and the EMI recordings are sonically amazing. The way they used the Fairchild units to make the lead guitar "pop" out of the mix is pretty awesome.
That's easily the best clip from that cheese-tastrophe of a film (apologies to Cliff film fans). ("I know.Why don't we do the show right here,YEAH!"). When isolated from the rest of the film that part makes such a great 'promo' clip for the 'The Savage' (and I love the garish set,no doubt to take full advantage of the Technicolor film stock - much like the similarly garish 'The Girl Can't Help It') Cheers, RC
BTW- Eagle eyed viewers will see the crowd shots from this part of 'The Young Ones' spliced into a few other music films/docs (the one that springs to mind is 'The Compleat Beatles')
Great. Now I'm going to have to dig out my Cliff Richard DVD box set and give it a viewing. Cheesy? Who cares. They are fun. Gonna have to give my live Cliff Richard and The Shadows cd a spin too.
Brad, this is the set that I have but I wasn't aware that it was out of print and going for such a ridiculous price. http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Colle...=sr_1_11?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1306897660&sr=1-11
I discovered The Shadows by accident about the same year you discovered them when I went into Earth River Records in Eugene, OR and picked up a new, sealed EMI Australia copy of The Shadows Greatest Hits Vol. 3. I bought it cold -- I was on a UK/German/Australia import binge because of the vinyl quality. I saw the year the album was released and took a $7.98 chance. Wow. What fantastic sound. Been a fan ever since. If you ever see a copy of the particular LP I'm talking about it's worth picking up. Has a great rocking acoustic 12-string tune called My Grandfather's Clock that I never tire of and a wonderful, rare vocal tune called Mary Anne that's one of the best and most underappreciated tunes of the era. Beautiful harmonizing and ringing 6- and 12-string acoustic playing. It's been mentioned many times before, but if you're new to The Shadows and don't have the coin for vinyl, the CD comp The Shadows Are Go! on Scamp is a great introduction and has some of the best mastering outside of Steve's. Worth picking up. Dale
Oh yes. The purple labels. As far as I know these were the original releases. Columbia switched to green later. Glad to see so much appreciation for Cliff and the Shads. "Please Don't Tease" was the record that really started me listening to popmusic. Especially the sound of Hanks guitar.
I know.I've watched those Cliff films everytime they've been on the telly and it was with affection I called TYO a cheese-tastrophe.In fact it's probably my favourite of his films,a very nice period piece. If any of you have ever seen 'Take Me High' then you'll know that's the real cheeser.But Tony Cole's songs save the day for me. Well there's my secret guilty pleasure out of the bag now. Cheers, RC
I have been a fan of Hank Marvin for many years. In my opinion he's one of the greatest guitarists. I have most of his albums from the 1960s to his gypsy folk album from a few years ago. One thing I feel is a big regret is Marvin never made a serious album of originals after the Shadows broke up. Almost all his records after 1966 were covers albums. His guitar tone remains untouchable in my opinion. Any ideas why he couldnt create better/original music after the golden era of the shadows? Met and jammed with the man in 1988 in Perth WA If anyone wants to hear him at his best listen to Sacha
Hank Marvin is an excellent guitarist. Although it saddens me that The Shadows retired as a band, I'm glad that he remains active as a touring and recording artist. Hank certainly has aged well in body and mind.
I have not heard so much recent music from him as a guitarist but he has a recognizable tone and style that I can hear in my head if I think Hank Marvin. Or if someone else play "Shadows music".
My first real music passion. My Dad had a copy of the Shad0ws 20 golden greats which I heard in 1979. I am convinced the driving ryhthm of Apache and FBI woke the Rock Fan in me. This album is always in my life time top ten. I am mainly a rock fan now but have seen Hank a few times. Captivating every show!
Hearing the Shadows for the first time, circa 1960, was the event which set my course to become a guitarist. What a brilliant sound: a Fender Stratocaster into an AC30, wreathed in echo and reverb. I was strongly influenced then, by the clear thematic melodicism of Hank's playing as well. To this day, one of my favourite sounding players; and those early tracks represent Hank at his best. I was lucky to play in a band with Mark Griffiths, a onetime member of Cliff Richards band and a latter-day Shadow, who showed me exactly how to "do" Hank (Mark is a great guitarist in his own right).
Hank has done a few solo albums, mostly his original material has been his vocal albums (which had the odd instrumental track on each) 'The Hank Marvin Guitar Syndicate' - which saw Hank team with a number of fellow guitarists including Kevin Peek of SKY and Herbie Flowers on bass, Clem Cattini on drums - is worth checking out, it has a few covers but a number of notable original instrumentals including 'Syndicated' written with Shads drummer Brian Bennett I think after John Farrar departed The Shadows in 1976 they were more or less led into becoming largely a covers band after 'String of Hits' topped the UK album chart in 1979 building on the big success of '20 Golden Greats' in 1977 Hank had enjoyed a superb creative bond with Australian guitarist John Farrar as the Shadows album 'Rockin With Curly Leads' (1973) - one of Brian Bennett's fav Shads albums - and instrumentals on 'Specs Appeal' (1975) and 'Tasty' (1977) display 'Shadstrax' is a strong later CD of just their own original instrumentals - mostly used as 'B' sides and a few album tracks such as 'Summer Love '59', 'Shoba', 'Elevenis', 'Fender Bender', 'Spot The Ball', 'Stack it', 'Mountains of The Moon' etc - these tracks show Hank at his most creative in The Shadows final era and clearly here was enjoying his playing I've heard Hank loathed - or at least became tired of - just covering often very unsuitable for guitar pop hits of the 70's and 80's on those Polydor albums, merely putting his guitar in place of the vocal on the original hit etc
Hank's new album, 'Without A Word' is released in June apparently. I'm expecting it to be all cover versions sadly. But here's hoping for at least a couple of originals. I'd quite like a couple of vocal tracks too, to vary things up a bit, but with the album title being what it is, I think that's unlikely!
The Shadows, following John Farrar's departure in 1976, could have done with bringing in someone like Mark Griffiths on second (supporting) guitar alongside Bruce's rhythm guitar (which just got fainter and fainter in their mixes over time - if he was there !) and with say Mo Foster or Paul Westwood on bass guitar - and done more originals besides the stronger covers such as 'Imagine/Woman', 'Nights in White Satin', 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', 'Every Breath You Take' etc instead of very 'poppy' 80's hits that were never written with a guitar instrumental in mind at all...
