The Shadows

“The Shadows”: let's talk about the group that started an era in European pop music, pioneering the concept of “sound”, Of “sonority”, that is, to the idea that the notes emitted by an electric guitar should not simply be amplified in volume, that is, in terms of quantity, but they could acquire different colors, such that they speak to the listener as human voices do, all with their own timbre, their personality.

To get into the topic correctly, it is appropriate to return to what happened one evening many years ago in London. The date is that of 24 July 1958. It was a Thursday. Malcolm Addey, assistant to Peter Bown, sound engineer at Abbey Road Studios in London, in the last forty minutes of a recording session of approximately three hours, the first part of which was dedicated to putting Schoolboy Crush on tape, after a few takes (only two or three, he recalls in an interview), releases a new song sung by the very young Cliff Richard (born Harry Webb). The piece entitled Move it will in fact be Rock's first song & Original roll recorded by an English band: “Cliff Richard & the Drifters”.

But to understand how we get to this point it is appropriate to take another step back. Let's go back to when the young Harry Webb found himself singing a few songs with “The Quintones”, a vocal group made up of school friends in Cheshunt, a town in Hertfordshire, to little more than 20 Km. also london, in which he enters the 1956 and has his first experiences of singing in a group. A couple of years later, at the age of seventeen, like many other teenagers of the time, Harry was a rock fan & Roll, but, unlike his other peers, not only did he have a very beautiful and incisive voice but, which is no small thing, he was also a nice guy. Plus, thanks to the fact that he also did well on the guitar, he had already been part of a good Skiffle group, musical genre then very popular in Great Britain, and right at the beginning of 1958 he had managed to become the lead singer of a group destined to become rock stars very soon & Roll: “The Drifters”. Here is the staff: Ken Pavey (26 years, guitar), Terry Smart (16 years, drums), Norman Mitham (17 years, guitar) e, to be precise, Harry Webb (almost eighteen years old, voice and guitar).

That's when John Foster, a young entrepreneur, noticed them and took them for an audition at “2 I’s Coffee Bar”, al n. 59 of Old Compton Street, a very well-known place in the Soho district of London, opened in 1956 by two Iranian brothers (this is the reason for the name “2 I’s”) and soon after taken over by a group of professional wrestlers. Right there, on the occasion of one of their musical performances, the boys met Ian Samwell, a good guitarist who willingly joined the group, and that, in addition to his remarkable ability as a musician, he soon revealed himself as an excellent hitmaker. It wasn't long before Harry Greatorex, responsible for programming the “Regal Ballroom” of Ripley in Derbyshire, he booked them for a performance. Convinced, however, that it was important to have the name of a singer accompanied by his group on the bill, he made the condition that the name of the formation be changed in that way. Plus, since the name Harry Webb sounded quite banal and of little effect, he suggested that action should also be taken by renaming the singer with a stage name. It was then decided to change the name Harry to Cliff, which literally means cliff, rock face, but which also makes you think of the word Rock (literally rock, but above all Rock & Roll). Then the surname, at the suggestion of Ian Samwell, it was changed to Richard to recall the great rocker Little Richard, of whom Harry was a sincere admirer. That's how it was in Ripley, in Derbyshire, “The Drifters” they became “Cliff Richard & The Drifters”.

In that period the quintet recorded the demo Breathless which the agent George Ganjou proposed to the attention of Norrie Paramor, producer of the prestigious record company “EMI”. The group is accepted and prepares to record their first single. For the A Paramor facade he chooses Schoolboy Crush, a song by American singer Bobby Helms, leaving the kids the chance to propose their own song for side B. The piece is there, and it's Move It, which Ian Samwell had composed in the space of a bus ride from his house to Cliff's.

For this studio session, “weighed” artistically the human elements that formed the group and with the aim of immediately achieving a good result, Norrie Paramor decides to use only two members of the band, namely Ian Samwell on rhythm guitar and Terry Smart on drums, alongside them two trusted shift workers: Ernie Shears on lead guitar and Frank Clark on bass. It also uses the vocal group “The Mike Sammes Singers” per fare i cori in Schoolboy Crush. However, once the recordings have been completed, it happens that (fortunately!) side A and side B are exchanged, and so Move It becomes the main song. This is said to be due to the fact that Norrie Paramor's daughter, listen to the two songs, has decidedly expressed itself in favor of this.

It is also said that the prominent television producer Jack Good, who had chosen to include the group in his show Oh Boy!, had insisted that the only song to use was Move It. That's how things went anyway, e Move It, side A of the record, it immediately became a huge success. We can add a note of color to all this. Apparently Cliff, about to go on TV for the first time, was so nervous to the point that, not knowing what to do to calm down, he cut his sideburns, with the satisfaction of receiving Jack Good's compliments, who told him that it certainly looked more original that way!

At that point it's done, and Cliff Richard signs the contract for the “EMI/Columbia”: is the 9 August 1958.

Il 12 September 1958 the song Move it enters the English sales charts and reaches position no. 2. It's time for success, but also of the first big change. Yes, because in short Cliff, on the wave of public consensus and obvious requests for concerts, finds itself having to rebuild “The Drifters”, hiring musicians suited to the purpose. He then replaces Mitham and Pavey (those who had not participated in the recordings) con Hank Marvin e Bruce Welch (born Brian Robson Rankin and Bruce Cripps respectively), and you Samwell and Smart with Jet Harris (al secolo Jeremy Terence Harris) e Tony Meehan, presenting himself on stage no longer as a singer-guitarist but only as a singer.

This is the team that over the next three years will produce successes that are still unforgettable and unforgettable today., and that in 1959 will create the beautiful Cliff, a live LP recorded at the studios “EMI”, in which you can perceive all the firepower of the new formation and its enormous potential. This line up will remain stable until the end of '61, and then undergo other changes that we will see later.

And so, while Cliff is presented and valorized as the English alternative to Elvis Presley, “The Drifters” – that in the meantime, to avoid problems with a pre-existing American group of the same name and possible legal action on its part, at the suggestion of Jet Harris, change name to “The Shadows” – they consolidate more and more sound and personality, starting the new glorious phase which saw this group become the symbol and prototype for every British and European rock formation from then onwards, simultaneously setting the stage for the subsequent appearance of another incredible British phenomenon: “The Beatles”.

“The Shadows” Record-wise they didn't identify with Cliff, so much so that they received no royalties from the songs recorded with him. With the “EMI”, ever since their denomination was “The Drifters”, they had a separate contract covering their recordings. It so happened that they had their records in the charts (included 5 reached no. 1), while appearing at the same time in others by Cliff, for which they also wrote several songs. It also happened that more than once one of their instrumental songs stole Cliff himself's place in the charts.

Between the end of '58 and the beginning of '59 Cliff churned out excellent singles such as High Class Baby, Livin’ Lovin’ Doll e Mean Streak, all rock pieces full of energy, and the quieter to eye-catching Living Doll. For their part “The Drifters”, the formation was redone and the name changed to in July 1959 “The Shadows”, continue to strengthen their autonomous repertoire. And so, always with the “EMI”, they release the singles Feelin’ fine e Don’t be a fool with love, followed by Driftin', Jet Black, Lonsome Fella e Saturday Dance. During the year the group also performs in Scandinavia and Germany, and for a short time, due to an attack of appendicitis, Tony Meehan is replaced by Laurie Joseph.

However, it will be the 1960 the year of the explosion of the phenomenon “The Shadows” and of the group's affirmation as a model for all young people in Europe who wanted to make music. After a musically significant participation with Cliff in the film Expresso Bongo, in fact, their album Apache was released in the month of July, con Quatermasster’s Stores come retro. This single, written by Jerry Lordan, ukulele player, it immediately reaches the top of the British charts, and it is “gold record” (at that time equal to 1 million copies sold!) at home and best seller throughout Europe, determining, as we said, the beginning of a new era.

The magical novelty compared to what the market already offered is that new sound produced by Hank Marvin's Fender Stratocaster, emphasized by the repetition and halo effects produced by a tape echo of the very Italian Meazzi, combined with the dramatic atmosphere created by Bruce Welch's rhythm, from the present and dynamic bass of Jet Harris and the tight percussion of Tony Meehan's drums; all introduced by a Chinese drum played by Cliff Richard. A unique blend that is still engraved in the hearts of anyone who loves electric guitar and instrumental music!

To the beauty of the sounds the boys also add a choreographic touch that will always characterize their time on stage. In practice, according to their philosophy of being on stage, every instrumental piece, as well as satisfying the ear, it also had to catch the eye, and so each musical phrase was interpreted by them as if it were a ballet, with synchronous movements of all three guitarists, sometimes in the same direction, other times with the two external ones (Bruce e Hank) directed forward towards the audience and center field (Jet) backwards, and vice versa, to then culminate with the classic Shadows walk, a four-beat movement that involves, to be clear, this succession of movements: the left foot takes a step forward, the right crosses it, moving the center of gravity laterally, the left returns to the starting position, and the right reaches him again. Watch a video, and certainly everything will be very clear to you!

From here onwards the success of the group will be overwhelming and the activity will remain incessant and at the highest levels until the mid-1960s. The organization is also strengthened by the collaboration of Peter Gormley, hired as full-time manager. Here are the singles, which still constitute the reference for anyone who has loved and continues to love this group, published in the period that we can define as golden, that goes from 1960 al 1965, when the extraordinary success of “Beatles” and of all the crop of new groups formed in their wake puts for the first time “The Shadows” – irony of fate! – right in a gray area.

As we said above, during this period the formation underwent further changes. At the end of '61 Tony Meehan at the end of a rather turbulent period in his relationships with the rest of the group, and in particular with Bruce Welch, he was forced to leave. Officially the newspapers and magazines of the time reported that his was a free and completely personal choice, dictated by the desire to find more time for themselves and to carry out other projects. Actually, from what we read in the various biographies of the group and in interviews with the various members, it seems that his indiscipline and intolerance in following the times and rhythms of life on tour were the real causes of the disagreements.

The point of no return seems to have been reached when Tony, at the end of a tour in South Africa, he didn't wake up the morning he was scheduled to return to London and missed the plane! About this, meeting Tony in the late 90s, I asked him how things had gone in the group and what his truth was, and he told me very calmly that there was no problem of ill will or carelessness. “I had 16/17 years at that time – he told me – and the rhythms I was subjected to were truly stressful, so sleep was a primary necessity for me. Unfortunately the others, and in particular Bruce, they couldn't understand it”.

After leaving the group, Tony really began a personal artistic journey – which then developed into a two-person project, con Jet Harris, who in turn was forced to leave the following year – which then saw him stabilize as a music producer at Decca. Brian Bennett replaced him, coming from a group “Marty Wilde’s Wildcats”, and then “The Krew Kats”. In the spring of '62, as just mentioned, Jet Harris was also forced out. The reason on this occasion was not indiscipline, but his alcoholic addiction.

Bruce Welch once again managed the solution to the problem, cornering Jet and forcing him to pack his bags. His place was filled by Brian “Licorice” Locking, good bassist and harmonica player, also coming from “The Krew Kats” and about to move permanently into Adam Faith's band.

Meanwhile Meehan and Harris formed a very successful instrumental and vocal duo, reaching no. 1 in the English sales chart with Diamonds, another lucky song by Jerry Lordan, the author of Apache. In this regard, it is worth remembering that the future band collaborated on the recording of this song “Lez Zeppelin” Jimmy Page on acoustic guitar and John Paul Jones on bass, which they then had respectively 18 e 16 years. The duo “Harris – Meehan” he then had great success again with Scarlett O'Hara, to conclude the association with other less important pieces.

With October of 1963, after only 18 months of activity in the Shadows, Brian Locking, eager to dedicate himself intensely to his activity as a Jehovah's Witness, he left, replaced by John Rostill, a high level professional, a session man who collaborated, before and after the experience with “The Shadows”, with several of the best British and non-UK artists. His style combined the great inventiveness of Jet Harris with the solidity and reliability of Brian Locking.
This formation remained unchanged until October 1968, when Marvin and Welch decided to disband the group. Before this event, despite no longer reaching the top places in the sales charts, their production was anyway, also thanks to the creative contribution of Rostill, very innovative and ranged across a wide variety of styles and sounds, creating the various great pieces we listed above, the most popular of which was The Rise and Fall of The Flingle Bunt. It should also be noted that from 1965, given the success of “Beatles” and of the new wave of predominantly vocal groups, “The Shadows” they established a change of direction and began to propose singles consisting of a sung song and an instrumental, placing almost all of them among the top 30.
More than a year after the dissolution “The Shadows” they held a meeting on 31 December of 1969 to attend as guests the Pop Go The Sixties television show “BBC”, during which they played Apache and accompanied Cliff Richard in Bachelor Boy. This appearance was followed by the group's participation in the television series of “BBC” It’s Cliff Richard!.

The following years saw the members of the group engaged in different projects, among which the most notable was the vocal trio “Marvin, Welch and Farrar”, conceived by Welch and Marvin and created by co-opting John Farrar, at that time member of the Australian group “The Strangers” and husband of Pat Carroll, former artistic partner of Olivia Newton Jones, to whom Bruce Welch was romantically linked at the time. The quality of the new trio's musical products was truly high, but they were always there in the hearts of the public “The Shadows” and their old hits.

Between alternating events, including Bruce Welch's departure from the trio in 1972, thus we arrived at 1973, when John Rostill was found dead in his study. The coroner classified the event as a suicide. However, this tragedy in its dramatic nature had the positive effect of bringing everyone back to reality, and to make Marvin and Welch decide to recompose “The Shadows” once or twice a year to record new material, keeping John Farrar in the lineup in place of Rostill, always with Brian Bennett on drums. The result was publication in November 1973 of the new album Rockin’ With Curly Leads, containing 10 original songs, a cover of the “Who” and one of “Beach Boys”.

In the 1976 John Farrar leaves the group, replaced by Alan Jones. In the 1978 “The Shadows”, to support the new demands of Cliff Richard's arrangements, they are equipped with a fixed keyboard player, Cliff Hall, a very capable and versatile musician, who will remain with them until the end, collaborating from the 90s onwards also with Bruce Welch in the lineup “The Moonlight Shadows”.

In the 1980, After 20 years since its inception, “The Shadows” they leave EMI and sign a recording contract with “Polydor Records” e, almost as if to underline the importance of the new adventure undertaken, in September they released the album Change of Address. In the 1983, for the 25th anniversary of activity, release The Shadows Silver Album and, in July of the following year they joined Cliff again for a series of celebratory concerts at the “Wembley Arena” and al “Birmingham National Exibition Center”.

In the 1989 there was another meeting with Cliff at the “Wembley Stadium” to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary. The evening was called The Event, and there, in front of 144.000 people, Cliff chiamò in scena Jet Harris e Tony Meehan, original members of the group's historical formation, to perform Move It with him!

Il 30 June 1990 “Cliff and The Shadows” were again on stage in front of 120.000 persone a Knebworth Park, together with Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Elton John e “Tears For Fears”, for a benefit concert for disabled children and young musicians. The concert was broadcast worldwide and was popular 10,5 million dollars! The following December 1st Brian Bennet, after a last concert in Southampton, left the group, right on the eve of the start of a Final Tour. Reflection was published in September of the same year, the last album released by the group before disbanding.

In December of 2004 all members of the Shadows alive at that time were awarded the “O.b.e. (Order of the British Empire), an honor that Marvin refused “for personal and private reasons” closely connected, from what is said, with his faith as a Jehovah's Witness.

The next year, il 20 November 2005, Tony Meehan died tragically, falling down the stairs of his home in London while his wife was out with their children.
After the last dissolution we talked about just now there were other reunions, the first of which was in the same year for a Farewell Tour, when The Shadows recorded Life Story, written by Jerry Lordan and included in the collection of the same name containing recordings of their hits from the 60s and 70s made in the 80s. In this circumstance Marvin, Welch and Bennett were accompanied on keyboards by Cliff Hall and on bass by Mark Griffiths, already part of Cliff Richard's band.. The tour was very successful, so much so that it was extended to continental Europe, with only one variation, that is, Cliff Hall was replaced on keyboards by Warren Bennett, son of Brian.

Il 27 Maggio 2007 Marvin, Welch and Bennett were guests of honor at Marty Wilde's 50th Anniversary Concert at “London Palladium”, where they performed Move It, sung by Marty Wilde. Jet Harris and Brian Locking also attended this event.

L’11 December 2008 Cliff and The Shadows performed at the Royal Variety Performance, announcing the upcoming 50th Anniversary tour, which began in September 2009 and understood 36 concerts between UK and continental Europe, with a queue in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The following year Cliff and The Shadows held The Final Reunion at “O2 Arena” in London, of which there is a complete recording on DVD, a really nice product, achieved without saving resources. In the same year Reunited, a new album containing new versions of their greatest hits, reached no. 4 della UK Album Chart, mentre Singing The Blues, the first single of “Cliff Richard & The Shadows” After 40 years from the beginning of their activity, reached no. 40 della UK Single Chart, and it is Cliff's most recent song in the Top 40 Hit.
Il 18 March of 2011 news arrives of Jet Harris' death.

The 1st and the 2 Marzo 2014 Welch, Bennett, Mark Griffiths and Warren Bennett performed two Shadows songs (Apache e Wonderful Land) at the concert for i 70 years of Albert Lee, at the “Cadogan Hall” of London, with Albert Lee alla chitarra soloist. In the same year “The Shadows” recorded their own interpretation of John Barry's song The Appointment for the album Shadowing John Barry, which Brian Bennett published in 2015. It seemed that this was a prelude to a new reunion and tour with Cliff Richard, but this did not happen.

May 1st 2020 the “BBC4” mandò in onda The Shadows at Sixty, a beautiful documentary that recounted their successes a 60 years since Apache, with Marvin interviewed, Welch e Bennett, unpublished documents of their beginnings, and the three who performed a new version of the same song, without bass and percussion.
October 8th 2020 Brian also passes away “Licorice” Locking.

In the end, il 17 December 2022, “BBC2” manda in onda Cliff at Christmas, where Welch and Bennett guest perform Move It.
To understand how much “The Shadows” have significance in the history of contemporary music, it is worth remembering that, even before “The Beatles” occupied the entire English music scene, European and global, George Harrison and John Lennon composed and recorded in 1961 a song entitled Cry For A Shadow!
Rich prizes in gold tokens for those who guess who they were inspired by!

Let's add another consideration. We have seen that it all began in 1958, when Move It was recorded, to immediately become a great recording success, starting a story that is still alive today. Bene, at that moment here are the ages of the characters destined to enter and remain firmly in the history of music and in the hearts of their admirers: Cliff Richard 17 years and 9 months, Hank Marvin 16 e 9 months, Bruce Welch 16 e 8 months, Jet Harris 19, Tony Meehan 15 years and 4 months. In short, they were kids!

The Beatles, who were the same age, they came on the scene four years later, and they were able to move on land that was already well plowed and fertilized, ripe for any novelty with high quality characteristics, Why “Marvin & Co.” they had raised the bar to a level that would only allow great success to other true ones “masters”, e “The Beatles” they were without it “shadow” of doubt! This is why we can close our chat with a statement that is certainly not reckless, that is, without “The Shadows” young and popular music would almost certainly have taken another path! And still without “shadow” of doubt!

Vanni Lisanti and Pierpaolo Adda

DISCOGRAPHY

1960

Apache / Quatermasster’s Stores Gold record
Man of Mystery / The Stranger Silver record

1961 Singles

F.B.I. / Midnight Silver record
The Frightened City / Back Home Silver record
Kon Tiki / 36-24-36
Shadoogie / Blue Star / Quatermasster’s Stores
The Savage / Peace Pipe (dal film The Young ones)

1961 Album:

The Shadows

1962 Singles:

Wonderful Land / Stars Fell on Stockton Silver record
Guitar Tango / What a Lovely Tune Silver record
The Boys / The Girl
Dance on / All Day Silver record

1962 Album:

Out Of The Shadows

1963

Foot Tapper / The Breeze And I (dal film Summer Holiday) Silver record
Atlantis / I Want You To Want Me Silver record
Shindig / It’s Been A Blue Day
Geronimo / Shazam

1964 Singles:

Theme for Young Lovers / This Hammer (dal film Wonderful Life)
The Rise And Fall of The Flingle Bunt / It’s A Man’s World
Rhythm & Greens / The Miracle
Genie with the Light Brown Lamp / Little Princess

1964 Album:

Dance With The Shadows

1965 Singles:

Mary Anne / Chu-Chi
Stingray / Alice in Sunderland
Don’t Make My Baby Blue / My Grandfather’s Clock
The War Lord / I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Arthur

1965 Album:

The Sound of The Shadows

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