The ShadowMusic Web Community

It's forty one years ago today that the world lost the talents of John Henry Rostill.

A great Bass Player and an even better bloke.

RIP John. It was a privilege to have known you.

Stuart

Indeed a very talented musician. I have never known and/or met him, since I was born some years after his death, but from what I read, he must have been a great guy.

Despite I discovered them performing The Savage on The Young Ones, my Shadows were always Hank, Bruce, Brian and John line-up. First LP I bought was Dance with The Shadows. I feel John influenced the other three a lot. I know he decided to leave to the States but I always dreamed he would join on a five pieces team with the other John, after Curly Leads album. Only dreams, of course.

I am still hoping that a certain illustrious forum member will get his rather splendid and informative John Rostill biog republished, as has been mentioned a few times hereabouts...

I haven't posted here in a while, and I hope you don't mind if I post something now. I wanted to pay tribute to John Rostill. I've been thinking of John this week and wanted to share a video I found on YouTube. Sad though it is, I felt very proud for John to see it. Here is Elvis singing a song in 1977 (probably not long before he passed away) that John wrote for Olivia Newton-John, which was rather successful for her. The proud part is - Elvis introduced the song with a reference to "...and if you don't, then Move It" which, to me, is a clear indication that he knows it was written by a Shadow and that said Shadow was John Rostill. Elvis was friends with Tom Jones, and John was in Tom Jones' band for a few years, so maybe they knew each other - or at least, maybe Elvis knew of John even if he hadn't met him.

Rest in peace, John. You are greatly missed.

Respectfully,
Donna

After John had died, Alan Jones took his place in Tom Jones' backing group. It was during this time that Elvis joined Tom Jones on stage. So Alan Jones has been very fortunate to have backed The King.