The Shadows - The Polydor Years
Posted: 21 Dec 2013, 20:25It happens sometimes. Just by coincidence I hadn't logged onto Shadowmusic for 2 - 3 days, then my email was temporarily 'hi - jacked' or corrupted & had to be sorted out. Anyway.....I finally got around to Geoff Coles' posting about the Shadows In The Eighties. As he noted himself, he's only recently started to take part in the Shdowmusic Forum, although he's a lifelong fan / collector, like so many on here. I don't wish to revisit any of the posts / comments of that thread. Very comprehensive and all of those topics have been previously discussed at great length in the past. On the whole, i'm broadly with Geoff. For balance though, I recommend that people read Malcolm Campbell's reasoned overview of the 1980 - 1990 years. I don't agree with all of his arguments, but it's all very cogent and considered.
For Geoff's information (and for anyone else who might be fairly new to any discussion about the Polydor Era) - I was lucky enough to be fairly close to Hank (when he was in the UK), Bruce and Brian during the latter part of the 1980s. Also, Alan Taylor was one person who was invited to take part in Polydor's market research during that time. Let's be honest, major labels exist to be as commercially profitable as possible. TV advertising was, and is, a major factor in marketing / advertising albums and generating revenue. For reasons of brevity, I will simplify. Polydor / Polygrams 'Marketing Men' came up with lists of tracks which they thought might be suitable for the Shadows to record. They then contacted a mixture of general members of the public, music writers and knowledgable fans / experts (eg Alan Taylor) and sent them cassettes (later CD - Rs?) with 'suitable' tracks on them. These people were then asked to either comment on the tracks and / or rate them (as being good for the Shads to possibly record - or not). After a given period of time (& based on their market research) - Polydor / Polygram would draw up a 'Master List' of 20 - 30 tracks (I don't know the exact number) and then ask the Shads to select c. 12 - 16 tracks to record from the 'Master List'. As we all know....some of the Polydor LPs / CDs featured a handful of originals ( a 'sop' by Polydor) - whilst others were all covers.
Really, the Shadows couldn't argue about being paid handsomely to record LPs / CDs which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and still reached the Top 20 (sometimes Top 10) of the LP / CD charts. They still retained some artistic integrity. Hank, Bruce and Brian (at separate times) all told me more or less the same things in different interviews. One of the longest I had was with Brian, at his studio, shortly after he officially quit the group in 1989. The first thing they would all do was to look at Polydor's 'Master List' of suggested tracks to record & listen to the original recordings - if they weren't familiar with the music. "Then," recalled Brian,"we'd all 'vote' on each track. If there were any tracks which all of three of us didn't like - or hated, even, then we would cross those off the list. In fact, if there were tracks which 2 out of 3 of us had reservations about....then we'd cross those off too. At least we had some choice. It was bit trickier if there were tracks which one of us wasn't keen on. But...to be honest if,say, and this is only a general example...if, say...Hank & Bruce really loved "Chain Reaction" & I didn't particularly like it...I would do it..if they really wanted to. I would be very professional about it and I would certainly put everything into recording it properly..even if I personally despised the number. That's how it was. But....more often than not, we would come up with a list which all three of us were happy with...usually 15 or so tracks. Sometimes, we were allowed to include some original material. But, on the whole, Polydor wanted a list of big, popular, familiar titles which they could advertise on TV & sell to the general public as well as Shadows fans. You can't blame them. They were putting up a lot of money. From our point of view...we were being very well paid. Plus, if the albums sold well, it gave us the opportunity to go out on tour and play live. From that point of view - it was fantastic. To promote the latest LP / CD we would only play a few numbers from the latest release - otherwise we could please ourselves what we played live onstage. It was a great time, but it all got a bit much for me because I was having so much success with my composing and recording music for library music,films and TV..."
Brian is a lovely, modest man. A lot of people often criticised the Polydor albums as being 'Muzak' or 'Elevator Music'. I felt brave enough to ask Brian for his thoughts on the subject. To his credit, he did not get angry, or aggressive or defensive. He was very thoughtful and considered. Essentially he didn't agree. He did agree that he had been involved with some of his 'Library Music' sessions (& that of others) which might come under that type of category. "I was involved with a lot of sessions with top players. On many of those sessions, you would turn up at a studio -with no preparation and no rehearsals. Because everyone was a top 'reader' and top player - music which you had never seen before was literally put in front of you and you played it. That was it. From that point of view - you had absolutely no emotional connection with the music...you just played it, straight off. Job done!" It was very different with Shadows albums: "First of all, whether we like it or not, Polydor put a lot of time & effort into their market research. Plus, as I said already, we at least were allowed some input - because we were allowed to choose the tracks we wanted to record, as I previously outlined. Yes....Polydor presented us with a list.....but we chose from that list. A lot of the tunes that we chose, we really liked....not every single one.....but a lot of them. Plus.....a lot of time, care and effort was put into the recording side. Even if all of the tracks were covers, we could be very creative with the arrangements. You could really get into it...go for it. There was feeling in a lot of those performances. I can't accept that it was ever 'Muzak' or 'Elevator Music'. No. all of those albums had a lot of creative and artistic input. They were thoroughly rehearsed, well - recorded, well produced and very well played." I would agree 100% with what Brian says. As for the fans (myself included) it was all a matter of personal taste. For me, the main problem was that I simply couldn't abide a lot of the original material (80s chart hits) & so it made little or no difference if the Shadows recorded a version of, say, "Careless Whisper" - if I just couldn't stand it in the first place.
Hope some of this might have been of interest. Rob
For Geoff's information (and for anyone else who might be fairly new to any discussion about the Polydor Era) - I was lucky enough to be fairly close to Hank (when he was in the UK), Bruce and Brian during the latter part of the 1980s. Also, Alan Taylor was one person who was invited to take part in Polydor's market research during that time. Let's be honest, major labels exist to be as commercially profitable as possible. TV advertising was, and is, a major factor in marketing / advertising albums and generating revenue. For reasons of brevity, I will simplify. Polydor / Polygrams 'Marketing Men' came up with lists of tracks which they thought might be suitable for the Shadows to record. They then contacted a mixture of general members of the public, music writers and knowledgable fans / experts (eg Alan Taylor) and sent them cassettes (later CD - Rs?) with 'suitable' tracks on them. These people were then asked to either comment on the tracks and / or rate them (as being good for the Shads to possibly record - or not). After a given period of time (& based on their market research) - Polydor / Polygram would draw up a 'Master List' of 20 - 30 tracks (I don't know the exact number) and then ask the Shads to select c. 12 - 16 tracks to record from the 'Master List'. As we all know....some of the Polydor LPs / CDs featured a handful of originals ( a 'sop' by Polydor) - whilst others were all covers.
Really, the Shadows couldn't argue about being paid handsomely to record LPs / CDs which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and still reached the Top 20 (sometimes Top 10) of the LP / CD charts. They still retained some artistic integrity. Hank, Bruce and Brian (at separate times) all told me more or less the same things in different interviews. One of the longest I had was with Brian, at his studio, shortly after he officially quit the group in 1989. The first thing they would all do was to look at Polydor's 'Master List' of suggested tracks to record & listen to the original recordings - if they weren't familiar with the music. "Then," recalled Brian,"we'd all 'vote' on each track. If there were any tracks which all of three of us didn't like - or hated, even, then we would cross those off the list. In fact, if there were tracks which 2 out of 3 of us had reservations about....then we'd cross those off too. At least we had some choice. It was bit trickier if there were tracks which one of us wasn't keen on. But...to be honest if,say, and this is only a general example...if, say...Hank & Bruce really loved "Chain Reaction" & I didn't particularly like it...I would do it..if they really wanted to. I would be very professional about it and I would certainly put everything into recording it properly..even if I personally despised the number. That's how it was. But....more often than not, we would come up with a list which all three of us were happy with...usually 15 or so tracks. Sometimes, we were allowed to include some original material. But, on the whole, Polydor wanted a list of big, popular, familiar titles which they could advertise on TV & sell to the general public as well as Shadows fans. You can't blame them. They were putting up a lot of money. From our point of view...we were being very well paid. Plus, if the albums sold well, it gave us the opportunity to go out on tour and play live. From that point of view - it was fantastic. To promote the latest LP / CD we would only play a few numbers from the latest release - otherwise we could please ourselves what we played live onstage. It was a great time, but it all got a bit much for me because I was having so much success with my composing and recording music for library music,films and TV..."
Brian is a lovely, modest man. A lot of people often criticised the Polydor albums as being 'Muzak' or 'Elevator Music'. I felt brave enough to ask Brian for his thoughts on the subject. To his credit, he did not get angry, or aggressive or defensive. He was very thoughtful and considered. Essentially he didn't agree. He did agree that he had been involved with some of his 'Library Music' sessions (& that of others) which might come under that type of category. "I was involved with a lot of sessions with top players. On many of those sessions, you would turn up at a studio -with no preparation and no rehearsals. Because everyone was a top 'reader' and top player - music which you had never seen before was literally put in front of you and you played it. That was it. From that point of view - you had absolutely no emotional connection with the music...you just played it, straight off. Job done!" It was very different with Shadows albums: "First of all, whether we like it or not, Polydor put a lot of time & effort into their market research. Plus, as I said already, we at least were allowed some input - because we were allowed to choose the tracks we wanted to record, as I previously outlined. Yes....Polydor presented us with a list.....but we chose from that list. A lot of the tunes that we chose, we really liked....not every single one.....but a lot of them. Plus.....a lot of time, care and effort was put into the recording side. Even if all of the tracks were covers, we could be very creative with the arrangements. You could really get into it...go for it. There was feeling in a lot of those performances. I can't accept that it was ever 'Muzak' or 'Elevator Music'. No. all of those albums had a lot of creative and artistic input. They were thoroughly rehearsed, well - recorded, well produced and very well played." I would agree 100% with what Brian says. As for the fans (myself included) it was all a matter of personal taste. For me, the main problem was that I simply couldn't abide a lot of the original material (80s chart hits) & so it made little or no difference if the Shadows recorded a version of, say, "Careless Whisper" - if I just couldn't stand it in the first place.
Hope some of this might have been of interest. Rob
