New Shadows Release due September

[iefje]

Nice package, thanks to all involved. Just got mine and will be giving it a spin shortly.
My only gripe (so far !) is that it would have been nice to include a session listing. I wondered if during research for this any of those mysterious Jet ?/ Licorice ? tracks for the second lp were cleared up. Does anyone know when the Jet version of Guitar Tango and Bo Diddley were recorded and just what was that mysterious vocal track they apparently recorded while Jet was still in the band that was announced as probably being the follow up to Wonderful Land.
Nice to see the Shads on the world's greatest record label too ! Fab.
Thanks Rob, FBI Tony, Tim ,Peter et al. It's about time the Shads got a comprehensive and respectful package.
Now about that mono box and studio out takes cd....

You can find information on session dates/details in Malcolm Campbell's series of books, amongst them "A Guide To The Shadows And Hank Marvin On CD" (2005 updated version) and "A Pocket Guide To Shadow Music" (2006). In addition, I have used these books to compile the website feature (to be found on Malcolm Campbell's website http://www.malcolmcampbell.me.uk) on The Shadows' instrumentation, containing matrices for every officially released Shadows track. If you have already accessed these sources for session dates/details, then you know as much as we do.

[EJK]

A great boxed set and thanks to all those who took a lot of their time and effort to put it together.

Interesting to note in the songwriting credits that FBI, at long last, is now correctly credited to Harris, Welch and Marvin, however, Shotgun and Gonzales which were written by the same threesome remain under pseudonyms.

[kipper]

i`d forgotten how good some of these tracks were they seem to have a fresh set of legs on these cd`s great production. peter

[Fenderman]

I spotted a minor mistake today, in the listing for cd6 some tracks have the wrong songwriting credits such as Theme from the Boys was only credited to Bruce and Hank, bit is listed correctly on cd2.
I guess this is probably the last major release we'll see from a major record company regarding the Shadows.

[shane87]

Hello,
I'm a Belgian newbie here (only on your site, not a Shadows newbie...). I just received the new box, excellent, complete, seriously made and the booklet has been carefully upgraded by Rob..., but I ask me a question about F.B.I. : the stereo version published here, is very different from the one published on a French "Magic Records" CD ("The Final 60's"), which is in TRUE stereo (not mock) and seems to be much better than the one in the new box : better channel separation, better instruments placement, more spectacular stereophonic sound...

I've read that this version is based on the 1961 record "Surfing with the Shadows" (for the US market). OK, but why is it so different from the box version ? These are obviously two different stereo mixes...The one is from 1961 (US vinyl) and the other (in the box) seems to be much more recent : it was mysteriously rediscovered in 2008, but sounds a bit muffled, as it was played behind a curtain... and the channel separation is not as good too. Mysteries, mysteries...

I wonder if the other tunes on this american record have also been remasterised in 1961 to make the LP more spectacularly stereophonic ? The US market was at this time, very demanding for "over-stereophonic" releases, as stereo began to be more and more popular in the early sixties.

I also wonder if the new box was masterised in 24bit/96kHz, as usual today ? There is no mention about it in the booklet... I know it is not very useful, as the CD norm is 16bit/44.1kHz, but it is nowadays more and more question of high definition music and, who knows ?, perhaps a HD release could someday appear on a future HD support ?

[iefje]

Hello,
I'm a Belgian newbie here (only on your site, not a Shadows newbie...). I just received the new box, excellent, complete, seriously made and the booklet has been carefully upgraded by Rob..., but I ask me a question about F.B.I. : the stereo version published here, is very different from the one published on a French "Magic Records" CD ("The Final 60's"), which is in TRUE stereo (not mock) and seems to be much better than the one in the new box : better channel separation, better instruments placement, more spectacular stereophonic sound...

I've read that this version is based on the 1961 record "Surfing with the Shadows" (for the US market). OK, but why is it so different from the box version ? These are obviously two different stereo mixes...The one is from 1961 (US vinyl) and the other (in the box) seems to be much more recent : it was mysteriously rediscovered in 2008, but sounds a bit muffled, as it was played behind a curtain... and the channel separation is not as good too. Mysteries, mysteries...

I wonder if the other tunes on this american record have also been remasterised in 1961 to make the LP more spectacularly stereophonic ? The US market was at this time, very demanding for "over-stereophonic" releases, as stereo began to be more and more popular in the early sixties.

I also wonder if the new box was masterised in 24bit/96kHz, as usual today ? There is no mention about it in the booklet... I know it is not very useful, as the CD norm is 16bit/44.1kHz, but it is nowadays more and more question of high definition music and, who knows ?, perhaps a HD release could someday appear on a future HD support ?

First of all, welcome to ShadowMusic!
The stereo mix of "F.B.I." on the 2002 French Magic Records CD "The Final 60's" was dubbed from the original 1963 USA stereo issue of the "Surfing With The Shadows" compilation album. The sound mix of this original stereo mix is very wide, in this case meaning that the bass guitar, drums and superimposed electric rhythm guitar appear on the far left position in the stereo image, the electric rhythm guitar on the far right position and Hank's lead guitar in the centre position.
The stereo mix (based on the original EMI UK stereo master tape) which first appeared on Tony Hoffman's splendid 2008 instrumental compilation album "Instro Beat – 28 British Instrumentals Of The 60's" and now on the 2013 expanded edition of the "The Early Years" set, has a narrower sound stage, meaning that the instruments have been moved from the far left and far right positions more closely to the centre.
By the way, I do think that remastering in 24bit/96kHz is useful, because in sonic information terms, retains much more of the analogue sonic information in digital mode, than when mastering from analogue 'down' to just 16bit/44.1 kHz and is then a digital 'equal' of the original analogue master. The 1997 EMI UK compilation "The Shadows At Abbey Road" was also remastered in 24bit/96kHz and scaled down to 16bit/44.1 kHz for CD audio release.
For more detailed information, see my feature on The Shadows' instrumentation on Malcolm Campbell's website http://www.malcolmcampbell.me.uk/instrumentation/.

[iefje]

Talking about different mixes and/or alternative versions, I have noticed the following tracks on the new set differ from the 'first' or 'original' stereo mixes:
- "F.B.I.": as I said above, the narrower stereo mixing;
- "Foot Tapper" (Summer Holiday version): the master used here is the one as used on the 2003 "Summer Holiday Special Edition" CD, which has its stereo channels reversed compared to the original 1963 stereo album mix;
- "Theme For Young Lovers": no mismastered double note at the start this time, but this stereo mix is the one as originally found on the 1977 vinyl edition of "20 Golden Greats", which places the lead guitar and the tom-tom overdub on the right hand side and the other instruments on the left hand side;
- "Scotch On The Socks": the 1997 stereo remix has been used here, apart from the studio banter and count-in which preceded the track on the CD "The Shadows At Abbey Road". The timbre here seems to have been adjusted and is more close to the original mono single mix. This also makes the adlibs and Hank, Bruce and John's (and probably also Brian's) 'larking about' sound less prominent.

Also, this is the first release where "Spanish Music" by The Shadows is presented on its own. All previous issues were connected with "Fiesta" by Cliff Richard & The Shadows.

[Fenderman]

I was wondering why this was released on Parlophone as the Shadows never recorded for them, also as Parlophone is now owned by Warner does that mean the Shadows rights have moved to them.
I thought it would be released by EMI as that was who they were originally with and who owns the rights (and masters) to all their recordings between 1959 - 1980.

[UlrichS]

I was wondering why this was released on Parlophone as the Shadows never recorded for them, also as Parlophone is now owned by Warner does that mean the Shadows rights have moved to them.
I thought it would be released by EMI as that was who they were originally with and who owns the rights (and masters) to all their recordings between 1959 - 1980.

EMI as a company is no longer existing, it was sold to the Universal Music Group in autumn 2012. However, this sale was approved by European and US trade authorities only under the condition that UMG had to part with about one third of the operational business. One part went to Bertelsmann Music Group and the other to Warner Music Group. Warner now holds the rights to the back catalog of the Shadows recordings. As Warner had only acquired the Parlophone label as a brand (Columbia, HMV etc. are no longer existing) they used the Parlophone label for this re-issue.
I hope I got the Details right in this summery of a quite long story.

Ulrich