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Just purchased the latest issue in W H Smith and see that there is a big article in the above magazine on The Shadows highlighting in their words "The dark drama".

An interesting read including some detailed stuff rather than it being glossed over.

Thanks! I shall take a look.

Worth remembering that about ten years ago, the Shads were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from said magazine, by none other than Lemmy!

Got it.

Great feature - one of the best I have read.

Obviously most of it (if not all) will be known already by members of this forum, but it's heartening to see that such a 'deep' article on the Shads can be read by the general public.

The odd error crept in (a photo from circa 1958 was captioned 1962), but mostly it seemed accurate to me. Some things I didn't know - the Hank/monkey incident made me laugh (sorry!) and I had no idea that Ella Fitzgerald had been watching Brian play Little B from the wings at the Paris Olympia! The stuff about Bruce and his guitar tuning problems was also interesting - not least of all Hank's apparent suggestion that his unprofessionalism really should have seen him 'going the same way as Tony'. I imagine that most of the quotes are taken from previously published interviews and books, but to have them all together is useful. Great photo of Hank, wearing a pink shirt and purple cravat which wouldn't have looked out of place on Lord Brett Sinclair!

All in all, I found it fairly revealing and definitely reinforces my belief that a film about their 'Golden Years' (1958-1963) would be as good as any film made about the Beatles.



P.S. The article that follows it, on Serge Gainsbourg, contains some quotes from Alan Hawkshaw, who worked with him (among many others!).


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I searched this out today and found a copy but balked at the £7.99 price tag!! So I decided to read it in the newsagent and soon realised that it was the same article which Mojo published in 2004 around the time of The Shads' final tour and the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement award by Mojo (mentioned above). Can that really be 12 years ago?! Different pics though, and I almost bought it just for the incredibly cool full page pic of Hank in pink shirt complete with his greenburst Burns Marvin. I saw this pic for the first time a few weeks ago as part of a YouTube clip; funny how period pictures you've never seen before still seem to crop up 'for the first time' on a regular basis.

Thanks for the advice Clive!

Saved me the trouble of finding a copy and paying the even higher price of such imported 'special edition' magazines here in Oz- usually ten or twelve quid in Oz dollar equivalent! I already have a copy of the 2004 article BTW..

I seldom buy magazines these days, being on the age pension(!) but if I do, I always scan them first to see if there are other articles which also interest me- otherwise, it's a bit much to pay such prices for just a single paragraph or snippet of info that is of interest..and there's so many similar articles that are posted on the magazine websites in their archives sections- and cost little or nothing to read on-line- which is OK by me if being the 'first kid on the block' (as the Americans say) to read it is not important!

Probably the magazine equivalent of a repeat. I had no idea it had been published before, but doing it like this in a sort of '60s almanac is not a bad idea. Especially if you didn't see it when it was first published.

As far as I could see (although it might have been stated elsewhere in the magazine) there was no mention of the fact that Jet and Tony have sadly died since the article was written. I'd forgotten Liam Watson's (Toe-Rag studios) amusing and pithy comments on some obscure Shadows 60s tracks. I remember thinking at the time - will there be a "part 2" bringing The Shadows' story up to date? Mojo also did a "Hello...Goodbye" feature on Hank Marvin and The Shadows around the same time; don't know if that's been recycled...

Classic Car Weekly (or 'Banger' weekly as my wife calls it!) often 'recycle' old articles from Popular Classics magazines of 20 years ago...but they don't mention that they've been published before...

Yes, this version of the article DOES state that both jet and Tony have passed away.