TAU sixties music- The Shadows
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The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group. They were Cliff Richard’s backing band from 1958 to 1968 and on numerous reunion tours. The Shadows have placed 69 UK charted singles from the 1950s to the 2000s, 35 credited to the Shadows and 34 to Cliff Richard and the Shadows.
The group, who were in the forefront of the UK beat-group boom,were the first backing band to emerge as stars. As pioneers of the four-member instrumental format, the band consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. Their range covers pop, rock, surf rock and ballads with a jazz influence.
so how did this backing band became such a hit and influence?
Formed as a backing band for Cliff Richard under the name The Drifters, the original members were founder Ken Pavey, Terry Smart on drums, Norman Mitham on guitar, Ian Samwell on guitar and Harry Webb (before he became Cliff Richard) on guitar and vocals. They had no bass player. Samwell wrote the first hit, “Move It“, often mistakenly attributed to “Cliff Richard and the Shadows”. Initially, Norrie Paramor wanted to record using only studio musicians but after persuasion he allowed Smart and Samwell to play as well.
The Drifters signed for Jack Good’s Oh Boy! television series. Paramor of EMI signed Richard, and asked Johnny Foster to recruit a better guitarist. Foster went to Soho’s 2i’s coffee bar, known 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 Marvin, who played guitar well and had Buddy Holly-style glasses.
In spring the same year, the owner of the United States vocal group The Drifters threatened legal action after the release and immediate withdrawal of “Feelin Fine” in the US. The second single, Jet Black, was released in the States as by The Four Jets to avoid further legal aggravation, but a new band name was urgently needed…
The name “The Shadows” was thought up by Harris while he and Marvin were at the Six Bells pub in July 1959.
From The Story of the Shadows:
With a combination of the American situation, Cliff Richard’s runaway success (“Living Doll” had by now sold over a million copies in Britain alone) and a bit of nudging from Norrie Paramor, we set about finding a permanent name, which arrived out of the blue one summer’s day in July 1959. When Hank Marvin and Jet Harris took off on their scooters up to the Six Bells pub at Ruislip, Jet hit upon a name straight away. ‘What about the Shadows?’ The lad was a genius! So we became the Shadows for the first time on Cliff’s sixth single “Travellin’ Light”.
In 1960 The Shadows recorded one of thier best known singles – Apache which topped the UK chart for 5 weeks.
English songwriter and composer Jerry Lordan came up with the tune. The title “Apache” reflects the source of Lordan’s inspiration: the 1954 American western film Apache.
The recording was done at the EMI Abbey Road Studio in London. Singer-guitarist Joe Brown had bought an Italian-built guitar echo chamber that he did not like and gave it to Hank Marvin, who developed a distinctive sound using it and the tremolo arm of his Fender Stratocaster. Bruce Welch borrowed an acoustic Gibson J200 guitar from Cliff Richard, the heavy melodic bass was by Jet Harris, percussion was by Tony Meehan and Cliff Richard, who played a Chinese drum at the beginning and end to provide an atmosphere of stereotypically Native American music.
Further hits followed, including the number ones “Kon Tiki” and “Wonderful Land”, another Lordan composition with orchestral backing. The Shadows played on further hits as Richard’s band.
In October 1961, Meehan left to be a producer at Decca records. He was replaced by Brian Bennett. In April 1962, Harris was replaced by Brian “Licorice” Locking. Bennett and Locking were friends from the 2I’s who had been in Marty Wilde’s backing group, the Wildcats, who recorded instrumentals as the Krew Kats. This Shadows line-up released seven hit singles, two of which, “Dance On!” and “Foot Tapper”, topped the charts.
Along with thier own career they played also with Cliff Richards as his backing band. Together they contributed many songs that became popular and gain a large crowd of fans.
During one of thier tours togetherr in the early sixties the band preformed in Tel Aviv with Cliff Richards in “Tel Aviv Cinema” witnessed by thousends of the israeli crowd.
Meanwhile, Harris and Meehan teamed up at Decca as an eponymous duo to record another Lordan instrumental, “Diamonds”. It rose to UK no. 1 in January 1963. Two further hits, “Scarlett O’Hara” and “Applejack”, followed in the same year. On the Lordan tunes, Harris played lead using a six-stringed Fender Bass VI. During 1963, the ex-Shadows were competing in the charts with their former bandmates.
The Shadows had met John Rostill on tour with other bands and had been impressed by his playing, so they invited him to join. This final and longest-lasting line-up was the most innovative as they tried different guitars and developed a wider range of styles and higher musicianship. They produced albums but the chart positions of singles began to ease. The line-up had ten hits, the first and most successful of which was “The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt”.
During the 1960s, the group appeared with Richard in the films The Young Ones, Summer Holiday, Wonderful Life, and Finders Keepers. They also appeared as marionettes in the Gerry Anderson film Thunderbirds Are GO, and starred in a short B-film called Rhythm ‘n Greens which became the basis of a music book and an EP. They appeared 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. Their film and stage roles allowed the group to develop as songwriters. They wrote only a few songs for the earliest film, 1961’s The Young Ones, but by Finders Keepers in 1966 almost the entire soundtrack was credited to Marvin-Welch-Bennett-Rostill. In 1967, the Shadows used Olivia Newton-John on the track “The Day I Met Marie” on their album From Hank Bruce Brian and John.
On december 1968 the band finished recording an album to debute a decade of their, The album named “Established 1958” includes only instumental tones from thier work with Cliff Ricards and thier own solo work.
The band memmbers felt that they accomplished everything they wished for and they are exhausting themselves.
After this album Bruce Welch left the band, a step that will inevitably will lead to the band to fell apart.
After they disband in 1968 they later grouped togther in the 70’s with for further commercial success with songs like:
“Cavatina”,”Riders In The Sky” ect.
Their imact on the music world is almost unbeliveable.
during their workig they became a major success not only in the UK but also in the US pre-Beatles and without any singer just instumental themes where the instuments are in the front of the stage.
The Shadows are difficult to categorise because of their stylistic range, which includes pop, rock, surf rock and ballads with a jazz influence. Most tunes are instrumental rock, with a few vocal numbers. Their rhythmic style is primarily on the beat, with little syncopation.
They said in 1992 that “Apache” set the tone with its surf guitar sound
In my opinion, the band made a breakthough from being just another backing band to a singer to a band with dedicated fans and made an impact of how the instumental part of the song is not to be shadowed by the singer’s voice.
Their uniqe sound and composition made an influence on how bands from then to even nowadays are assembled and sound like. They put the guitar sound for the first time in the front of the stage.
Published: Apr 30, 2020
Latest Revision: Apr 30, 2020
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