Cliff planning big 75th concert

[neil2726]

Be nice if the Shads did a few numbers but lets remember Cliff has had a long and succesfull career without the Shads!

[Moderne]

I very much doubt whether Hank would wish to take part as, because of his beliefs, he doesn't celebrate birthdays. Anniversaries are another matter, of course; in four years time it will be their 60th! Here's to another world tour...but who will play keyboards? What echo system will Hank use? Will Bruce have given 34346 back to Cliff/Hank by then?

[dave robinson]

Giving people what the want is the name of the game in this business - Cliff certainly knows how to do that and I hope he has a great party, celebrating with fans.

[drakula63]

Sorry Yawn Tony but remember no Cliff and likely no Shadows.

Exactly. Maybe a few more people should bear in mind that had Cliff not insisted/recommended that Norrie Paramor give the Shads a chance, then musical history might have been very different. Similarly, had they NOT have just spent a year as Cliff's backing group they would never have been in that position (auditioning for one of the country's most powerful producers) in the first place.

I have a lot of respect for Cliff and, a bit like Morecambe and Wise, or Laurel and Hardy, or Marks and Spencer, one without the other seems rather inconceivable!



Rock and roll, dudes!!!!

[RUSSET]

Don't get me wrong, I have great respect for Cliff's talent & sheer professionalism. I just much prefer to remember with affection what he was doing in the late '50s/ early '60s. I realise that Cliff gave the Shads, as they became, their big break. Could they have made it without him ? We'll never know. Could Hank have been so unique without that recommendation from Joe Brown to try a Meazzi Echo unit ? It all certainly gave him the chance to develop a unique talent & style that impressed us young teenagers so much that we all wanted to learn to play a Stratocaster; even if we couldn't afford one.
My personal opinion is that it was the Shadows that kicked off the whole of this surge in Rock & Roll music by young people in this country. Even the Beatles, who picked up the ball & ran with it, cannot be said to have been the instigators of what was a typical '3 Guitars & Drums' band. They were all greatly talented musicians & writers, along with many others who never quite made it.

Tony.

[Monty]

of course on the other hand...minus The Shadows (Drifters) young Cliff might have just been doing very 'fifties pop' styled songs like; 'Schoolboy Crush' (which was the original 'A' side), and minus the early rockers plus the 13 or so hits The Shads members duly composed for him Cliff's career might have easily gone the way of acts like The Karlin Twins !

No Shads...then MUCH of the best moments on early Cliff's hits would be absent...plus no 'Please Don't Tease', 'I Love You', 'Gee Whizz it's You', and then 'Summer Holiday', 'On The Beach', 'I Could Easily Fall', 'Don't Talk To Him', 'Time Drags By', 'Finders Keepers', 'In The Country'...'The Day I Met Marie' etc - and alot of interest in the guitarwork & singer/combo sound that characterised hits like 'Lucky Lips' , 'Blue Turns To Grey' etc featured on Cliff/Shads tracks would have been lost...
(significantly Adam Faith moved towards Cliff's singer/group combo style in 1963 teaming with The Roulettes that saw his pop career get a boost)

Minus The Shadows I suspect a good chunk of Cliff's popularity & standing in the 'Beat Boom' would have been lost, true his biggest hits were solo ballads then but his continued teaming with The Shadows on every other single (and on the 'B' sides of his solo hits) over the 1963-1966 period especially kept him relevant to the younger audience into the beat groups too...Cliff never became an 'Englebert Humperdinck' or 'Ken Dodd' type figure as for every 'The Minute your Gone' & 'Visions' there was a 'Blue Turns To Grey' & 'In The Country' too...


Had Cliff had no Shads backing him then probably more OLDER audience aimed material like 'I'm Looking Out The Window', 'When The Girl in Your Arms...', and songs like; 'Sentimental Journey', 'Falling in Love With Love', etc would have resulted as Norrie guided Cliff away from rock and roll towards a more 'all round entertainer' very clean cut 'establishment' style...

IF no Shadows then later of course NO Bruce Welch to have produced Cliff's vital effective 'comeback' album; 'I'm Nearly Famous' & key seventies hits; 'Devil Woman', 'Miss You Nights' etc to rescue Cliff from his awful 'Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha' / 'Power To All Our Friends' piffle period and re-invent him as a credible quality seventies pop singer of note and respect...leading up to a seventies chart topper in 'We Don't Talk Anymore' prod by Brucie & composed by former Shads bass player Alan Tarney who then duly guided Cliff onto 'Wired For Sound', 'Some People' & 'Always Guranteed' 80's etc success....

so in retrospect Cliff and the Shadows were each crucial to each other's careers, both together and seperately in differing ways

...and remember Cliff played bongos on 'Apache' too !

[drakula63]

...and of course, let's not forget who bought Hank THAT guitar - which I somehow doubt he would have been able to acquire otherwise - a guitar which helped propel the Shadows into the Stratosphere!

[howarddobson]

I can imagine them doing a cameo with cliff rather than a full set - but it would be strange to leave them out of it when the early big hits sound so much better with the Shads

[Steve Parish]

Cliff Richard and the Shadows.
Playing all night.
The Shads do a couple of sets... Shadoogie, Dance on, Foot Tapper, Apache, FBI etc..
I doubt it.
I hope to God I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
They can all do it still, that's not the issue.
I think, and, as is true with these type of forums, I don't know for sure, Cliff will be celebrating and doing this solo.
But... we don't know.
Perhaps, and this is a big perhaps with a side dish of salad... it may be an occasion closer to 'The Event'.
Either way, I'll sit here waiting for The Shads new recording of the John Barry number.

[neil2726]

Maybe just a guest appearence by Hank is the best we can expect!