Bands with Most UK No. 1s during The '60s

[donna plasky]

I am not sure if this article has been posted here before, but I came across it tonight and found it a bit amusing. It was nice to see both Sir Cliff and The Shadows get a mention (as separate artists, at that), but the article exaggerated the turnaround in the Shads lineup when stating, "...having gone through more than a dozen performers during the '60s alone." Having specified the time period as "The '60s", that would exclude Drifters personnel such as Ian Samwell and Terry Smart - and even Cliff himself, who was a Drifter but never a Shadow. I think the band members in the '60s were: (1) Hank Marvin, (2) Bruce Welch, (3) Tony Meehan, (4) Jet Harris, (5) Brian Bennett, (6) Licorice Locking, (7) John Rostill, and (8) Alan Hawkshaw. Maybe they are including Alan Tarney and John Farrar, which would bring it to ten. I wonder if they think that Brian Rankin and Bruce Cripps were additional band members.

There is also a strange reference in Cliff's listing to "the Twin Shadows." Oh well, at least The Shadows received some recognition for their accomplishments in the 1960s.

http://www.musictimes.com/articles/31406/20150311/5-bands-uk-1s-during-60s-beatles-rolling-stones-elvis-presley-shadows-cliff-richard.htm


Regards,
Donna

[Iain Purdon]

Your list of 7 is right, Donna. Not even Alan Hawkshaw counts as a Shadow. He is one of the many other players who came in to help out as and when needed.

I suspect "the Twin Shadows count" is just bad English! I think they mean "the Shadows count as well".

[drakula63]

Your list of 7 is right, Donna. Not even Alan Hawkshaw counts as a Shadow. He is one of the many other players who came in to help out as and when needed.

I suspect "the Twin Shadows count" is just bad English! I think they mean "the Shadows count as well".

To be fair, Alan was given due prominence during his time in the band and certainly seemed to be classed as an official Shadow. I think the advent of the 'session Shadow' really began with Alan Tarney and one or two others who stood in on bass in the early 70s.

[Monty]

Yes Alan Hawkshaw (formerly of the Checkmates & top session player) WAS briefly an 'official' Shadow band member over 1969-70 during the period Bruce dropped out of the group.

Alan is featured in the Shadows line up on 'Live in Japan' at Sankei Hall 1969 (not an album they rated or wanted out but a Columbia release overseas nevertheless), Alan is in the cover pictures & given a full credit on the MFP 'The Shadows Live' release later, and was featured soloist on 'Theme From Exodus'.

Alan also was featured (quite heavily) on 'Shades of Rock' (1970) which appears to be a 'Marvin-Bennett-Hawkshaw' studio line up with various bass players including Herbie Flowers I believe.

In Mike Read's book it tells of Alan Hawkshaw being brought in as replacement for Bruce Welch during that period
(he might well be the harmonium player on 'Slaughter on Tenth Avenue' ?)

Alan was then keyboardist on 'Marvin, Welch, & Farrar' album in 1971.(& later guested twice on 'String of Hits' in 1979)

Earlier Alan had played piano on The Hollies album track; 'Put Yourself in My Place' (1965) which I think was also covered by John Farrar's Aussie band The Strangers

[Iain Purdon]

Yes, all this is true. It's equally true that the Shadows did some gigs earlier in the 60s with others, such as Paul Ferris on bass and one of the Hawk's fellow Checkmates Pete Carter on rhythm. But they were not full-time members of the group. The Shadows split up in 1968. The Hawkshaw era was in 1969, mainly fulfilling previous engagements.

[iefje]

On paper, the only official Shadows members were/are as follows:
- From 1958-1961: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.
- From 1961-1962: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Jet Harris.
- From 1962-1977: Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch.
- From 1977-now: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett.

However, Brian Locking, John Rostill, Alan Hawkshaw and John Farrar were kind of treated as official 'Shadows', as they were always pictured with the others.

[Iain Purdon]

Correct again on the official front: the 5 named above were all partners in the business at various times: they were Shadows in the fullest sense.

In the 60s Brian Licorice and John were all on wages and were employees of the business: it was their full-time, exclusive job; they were Shadows on and off stage, and in all publicity material.

That was not the case with Messrs Hawkshaw, Odgers, Flowers, *Farrar, Richmond, Tarney, Foster, Jones, Monkman, Hall, Ford, Griffiths and doubtless more, who were all booked for the work required at the time and paid accordingly: it was not a full-time job for any of them and they all could and did do other things.

*The Farrar case is often debated and you would need to ask Hank or Bruce whether he was a Shadow or not.

PS: at Shadowmania some years back, Messrs Welch, Harris, Meehan, Bennett, Locking, Hall and Jones were all present and Bruce said on stage "there are 5 of us here".

[drakula63]

On paper, the only official Shadows members were/are as follows:
- From 1958-1961: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.
- From 1961-1962: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Jet Harris.
- From 1962-1977: Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch.
- From 1977-now: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett.

However, Brian Locking, John Rostill, Alan Hawkshaw and John Farrar were kind of treated as official 'Shadows', as they were always pictured with the others.

The Japanese version of The Shadows Live in Japan has a gatefold sleeve containing individual pics of Hank, Brian, John and Alan.

I tend to think of those who were pictured/credited on record sleeves as being The Shadows. Irrespective of the business situations, I suspect that they probably did too! Certainly I think that, as far as the public is concerned, this is the case. I remember that during the 1980s, Hank would often refer to Alan Jones and Cliff Hall as 'session men', whilst introducing them. Hank refers to Alan Hawkshaw as 'the newest member of the band' when introducing him (as heard on the live album).

That's how I look at it, anyway.

[Iain Purdon]

Well if he said that, I guess that clinches it

[donna plasky]

I guess I saw it as an insult to say The Shadows had a turnover rate that resulted "in excess of a dozen" personnel being in the band during the 1960s. That might give a negative impression, as though there's a reason why so many people came and went. It's either seven or eight people, not twelve or more, and two of those people (Hank and Bruce) were certainly not transitory. I can understand the magazine not differentiating between a hired bass player and one who was officially a member of the band, but most of that activity was in the 1970s, not the 60s. Maybe they are counting people who performed with the band on literally one or two occasions, when someone had the flu or was in hospital, and they're counting that as turnover when it wasn't.

Regards,
Donna