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The Shadows
The Shadows were one of the most
influential groups of the 1950s and 1960s.
They revolutionized pop music with their classic line-up of three
electric guitars and rums, the clean, clipped lead playing of Hank Marvin and
the clear, firm bass of Jet Harris. They
encouraged a whole generation of young musicians who came to the fore with the
British beat boom that followed the Beatles in 1963.
Many of these musicians, including the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Pete
Townsend, and Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, were influenced by the
Shadows. Formed initially as a backing band for
Cliff Richard, they took the name The
Drifters until finding out that there was already a successful American
band with that name. Jet Harris came up with the name the Shadows, which they
thought fitted their role as backing group to Cliff Richard.
Ironically there was already an American group of that name.
Luckily the American Shadows never had a hit anywhere and eventually
disbanded. The original members were
founder Ken Pavey, Terry Smart on drums, Norman Mitham on guitar. Ian Samwelll
on guitar and Harry Webb (before he became Cliff) on guitar and vocals. Samwell
wrote nearly all of Cliff’s early rock n’ roll hits including the group's
first hit record Move It. None of the original Drifters were still
in the group at the time they officially became The Shadows. Hank Marvin and
Bruce Welsh both came from Newcastle in April 1958. and occasionally performed
at the Two Is coffee bar in London. They
briefly joined the Five Chestnuts, then Hank went to the Vipers for a moth
before joining the Drifters with Bruce Welsh. The Shadows’ most famous line-up was completed by January
1959 when Jet Harris replaced Ian Samwell on bass guitar, and drummer Tony
Meehan replaced Terry Smart. Both
had played with Hank in the Vipers. The Drifters' fully professional lineup was now complete, and
they became The Shadows in early 1959. The
group started recording and performing with Cliff 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 vocal numbers and the second pair
were instrumental. Neither disc charted. A further (vocal) disc (Saturday
Dance/Lonesome Fella) also failed to chart. In 1960, the band released Apache,
an instrumental by Jerry Lordan, which topped the charts for 5 weeks. Further
hit singles followed, notably Wonderful
Land, another Lordan composition with lush orchestral backing showing a very
different side to the group and staying at the top of the charts even longer
than Apache (8 Weeks). This record,
and Kon Tiki six months earlier also
reached number one (1 week). The Shadows also played on several more
chart-toppers as Cliff Richard's band. In October 1961 Tony Meehan was replaced
by Brian Bennett and in April 1962 Jet Harris was replaced by Brian Locking,
also known as Licorice. Both Bennett and Locking were old friends from the 2I's
days and they had all played together in different scratch line-ups. The
Marvin-Welch-Bennett-Locking line-up lasted for only 18 months but convinced the
fans, diversified the sound and held its own in the face of the rise of Mersey
Beat. This Shadows line-up produced a further seven hits, two of which, Dance
On and Foot Tapper topped the charts. In October 1963 Brian Locking left and was
replaced by John Rostill. This final and longest-lasting line-up
consolidated into a fine musical combo, innovating in numerous ways as they
tried different guitars and developed a wider range of musical styles and a
higher level of overall musicianship. They produced some impressive albums but
the chart positions of the singles began to ease back. The line-up had 10 hits
but the most successful, The Rise and Fall
of Flingel Bunt, was also the first. The line-up split in December 1968, after
recording the 10th anniversary album Established 1958 with Cliff Richard,
featuring a mixture of tracks with Cliff Richard, and instrumental tracks
featuring just The Shadows. All tracks were written by the group. By this time
they seemed to have done ever They reformed in 1973, with Welch back on
rhythm guitar and had a major hit with Let Me Be The One which was chosen as
Britain's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The band performed and
recorded frequently until 1990, with most of their 1980s albums performing well
in the charts. They got together again in 2004 for a 'farewell tour', and
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. See the Shadows perform FBI
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and Bruce Welch decided to leave.