Oh Boy

[Derek Mowbray]

how many people on this site saw the very first edition of the pop music show Oh Boy in September 1958 .Marty Wilde was the star of the show but it was the first appearance of the then newcomer Cliff Richard singing his first hit record Move It as I remember his only backing group consisted of a lead guitarist and a drummer I can only guess that it would be Ian Samwell on guitar and Terry Smart on drums ,I don`t think that Hank and Bruce had joined Cliff`s group The Drifters then, they were hired for The Kalin Twins tour does anyones memory stretch that far back.

[GoldenStreet]

Sadly, no video of the broadcast, on Saturday 13th September 1958, seems to be available, but the still (if taken from the transmission) included in the Youtube clip suggests Ian Samwell (pictured with Cliff) was playing bass. Possibly, if this is the authentic performance, the featured lead guitarist was in Lord Rockingham's XI house band.



More details courtesy of Malcolm Campbell's Shadows Website...

http://www.malcolmcampbell.me.uk/cliff- ... ux-31.html

This version from the show, broadcast on 4th April 1959, features a young Chris Andrews with Tony Sheridan on lead guitar...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4pyvw ... 1959_music

Bill

[Derek Mowbray]

Thank you for repling to my post Bill,it is now almost fifty seven years since the first Oh Boy Tv show I am only relying on pure memory .I had bought Move It before the Oh Boy show but when Cliff came on I`m sure there was only two musicians backing him,at the time I was only thirteen years old and did not know what a bass guitar was so who was playing what I don`t know.Which brings me to my next point during the run of the show from 1958 until 1959 there would have been four line ups of The Drifters 1 Ian Samwell , Terry Smart 2. Hank Marvin ,Bruce Welch, Ian Samwell, Terry Smart ,3, Hank Marvin ,Bruce Welch Jet Harris , Terry Smart. 4 Hank Marvin ,Bruce Welch,Jet Harris, Tony Meehan. The video of Chris Andrews singing Move It, had Tony Sheridan who might have been a Drifter and Brian Bennet and Licorice Locking who would later join The Shadows. Worth checking out the video clips on Daily Motion some with Cliff but no sign of The Drifters.

[GoldenStreet]

I was eight years old at the time, but another key feature of the series that made an impression on me even then was the highly atmospheric lighting (Tony Hall pays tribute to Jimmy Boyers for his expertise in this capacity at the end of the final show on 30th May 1959). As the spotlight tended to be on the featured performer (or with backing singers), the musicians (including the credited Drifters), perhaps frustratingly, often found themselves in the dark, as it were, invisible to the live and TV audience!



Bill