The ShadowMusic Web Community

You will have to check out the site yourselves. Here's the direct link: http://www.rhis.co.uk/cgi-bin/cart.pl?&merchant=bimbam My advice would be this: Get them while you can. 10 CDs stuffed full of rare material. OK. A lot of it has been circulating amongst fans / collectors for years. A lot of it has been out on various CDs down the years. A lot of outtakes and rare BBC material (including a few tracks that I don't think have appeared before on CD). A lot of ATV soundtrack items. Doubtless the quality will be variable. Everything is listed under either 'Cliff Richard' or 'The Shadows' at Bim - Bam. These are listed as rare import CDs. Most of the material is pre - 1963. Something else I will say - various labels and copyright owners (before it lapsed) - COULD have put out a lot of this material themselves sometime during the past 25 years - if a) they had really wanted to b) they could have been bothered to.

Arpeggio wrote:You will have to check out the site yourselves. Here's the direct link: http://www.rhis.co.uk/cgi-bin/cart.pl?&merchant=bimbam My advice would be this: Get them while you can. 10 CDs stuffed full of rare material. OK. A lot of it has been circulating amongst fans / collectors for years. A lot of it has been out on various CDs down the years. A lot of outtakes and rare BBC material (including a few tracks that I don't think have appeared before on CD). A lot of ATV soundtrack items. Doubtless the quality will be variable. Everything is listed under either 'Cliff Richard' or 'The Shadows' at Bim - Bam. These are listed as rare import CDs. Most of the material is pre - 1963. Something else I will say - various labels and copyright owners (before it lapsed) - COULD have put out a lot of this material themselves sometime during the past 25 years - if a) they had really wanted to b) they could have been bothered to.

I have looked at the tracklisting of these CD's, but I'm convinced these releases are 100 percent bootleg/illegal. I have seen these tracklistings and front covers before, about nine years ago, before the oldest 1958 recordings were even fifty years old, so those CD's are probably just home-made CD-R's, instead of factory pressed. Right now, in 2014, all recordings on these CD's up to 1962/1963 are in the public domain, but some tracks are from 1964 and 1965, so those have been illegally released.

Purely for information. Everyone on Bim - Bam's Mailing List receives these updates. I am not making any moral / legal observations. However, as Ivo correctly points out.....most of the material is now PD & so it is perfectly legal. Some people may wring their hands....as I said, a lot of this material could have been issued in the past. Now...a lot of it is out of copyright. The law is the law as it stands. Another thing I don't like to think of (nor do any of us)....but who knows....in 10 yrs time I may not be around anymore!!! (Of course - I hope that I might be!!!!!). I want to hear as much of this fabulous music as I can. While I can.

I won't be buying anything as it's all collections with Cliff and The Shadows when i just want the Shadows.
Also, i'm not sure about giving my bank details to a site i've never used before, and we have no idea what the sound quality will be like, as these tracks are now very old.

Bim - Bam is a long - established and reputable business. I have no direct (nor indirect) vested interest in them, nor with the CDs mentioned. To invest in them or not is everyone's individual prerogative. Not willing to separate Cliff from Shadows material? Your prerogative. Waiting for 'someone' to bring out an all Shadows (no Cliff) version? - you colud be waiting for a very long time, if not for eternity. Sound quality will likely be variable (possibly poor) for many tracks? Probably yes - but, consider this. The master tapes for much of this material no longer exist. A lot to weigh up I know. I was just pointing out the link for non BIM - BAM subscribers so that they would know what was there & then make their own informed decision.

Indeed, Bim Bam is a long established specialist mail order company with an excellent reputation for good service.
Bob Thomas and his staff operate a secure transaction system on internet payments, so no worries there.
I think most of us would accept the variable quality of these recordings and their sources, when considering
a purchase.

Mike

Arpeggio - i'm not really a Cliff fan so i would just prefer the Shadows tracks in isolation, is there not enough tracks in existence to make up a CD collection?
Although is this is the only way to obtain these tracks i might have to bite the bullet, or perhaps not!