So how did you finish up playing this music again?

[Newliverman]

I started playing again after a short break of 46yrs, 2 liver transplants and 3 other major operations! I had to retire early at the age of 56 and thought 'what am I going to do' whilst I was in hospital recovering. The last thing I wanted was to feel sorry for myself so I said to myself " What have I always wanted to do which I can cope with after this surgery?" I remembered seeing 'The Young Ones' and that salmon pink strat that hank had and hearing that wonderful sound. The rest is history after contacting Ian in Scarborough and joining the East Yorkshire Shadows club. Last weekend I had the great honour of playing alongside Brian 'Licorice' Locking at a pub in Lancashire. We played 2 spots of about 50 mins. The Landlord said it was the best turn he had booked in the 6 years he had been at the pub. Licorice is amazing to play alongside and fills you with confidence.
The gig was in aid of my charity ' Rays of Hope' ( Liver research including liver cancer) and we raised over £ 200. In the last 5yrs amongst all the ops etc. I have raised approx. £8000.00 for the charity, made a CD 'Ray of Hope' all because I got into playing Shadows music and I confess I am far from the best guitarist but I enjoy my music and play to my best ability. People seem to enjoy it! What more can I ask for?
A huge thank you to all of the Shadows, all the very nice people I have met whilst going to the Shadows events, and the hard work of organisers of the clubs up and down the country, Dave Martin and co. who run sites like this. I even met Pancho Diaz in Seville when my wife and I went on Holiday this summer through this site.
Keep up the good work Dave and Co.
Tony (Newliverman) Pye

[Mikey]

I never really stopped playing it and it's certainly what got me started and I've played it (or tried to play it) to greater and lesser degrees for over 40 years. When I was about 11 my brother (11 years my senior) had left home but came back at weekends. One weekend he bought with him a small acoustic guitar bought from Bell Music in Surbiton. He said he had too much baggage to take it back that weekend and this was repeated until the time came when he wanted it but yours truly had been playing around with it and could get a tune out of it. He admitted defeat and the guitar was mine. Trouble is I had no idea how to tune it - or even that you had to tune it! - so must of my "music" was played on one string! As with a lot of players the breakthrough came with "Play in a Day" after which I never looked back. Thank you Bert! At that time it was the Shadows I wanted to sound like but fat chance with the primitive gear I had. A succession of acoustics of varying quality followed until I got my first solid electric - a Futurama IIII - in 1965 with my Dad acting as guarantor for the HP payments. My first amp was a 4 watt Elpico which was little more than a bare chassis wired to an old radio speaker. I didn't have a clue about impedance, etc but what the heck! I then made the leap to a 30 watt Grampian Vibromajor which had a tremelo channel which suited "Blue turns to Grey" perfectly! My best pal decided he wanted to learn the drums and we formed a duo with me singing and playing a sort of hybrid rythmn/lead style. I badly wanted someone to sing harmonies but unfortunately he was tone deaf! A school pal with a good voice and and even better Hofner Verethin did join us for a short while so we became a trio but we broke up over "artistic differences". He wanted to play Simon & Garfunkel whilst we wanted to play Cream, Hendrix and the Who! We did play a few gigs at a social club I worked at but we only got paid in beer. We did mainly Beatles covers although a favourite of our was Johnny Kidd's "I'll Never Get Over You" which I used to introduce as "I'll Never Get Over You, so get up and make the tea". Looking back, i can honestly say, we were rubbish! However, we were quite proud of the fact that The Alan Price Set played there around the same time. I remember one night there was a classic "do you know who I am" moment when Dave Berry of "Crying Game" fame tried to come into the club but couldn't get past the "jobsworth" doorman!
Girlfriends then occupied us more and more and we played music less and less. In 1973 I went to work on Ascension Island where I got friendly with an American chap who played guitar and he had the first Ovation I'd ever seen. By that time I'd sold the Futurama and was playing an Antoria 12 string. However, he had an Epiphone catalogue and from it I ordered a FT150 jumbo acoustic (MIJ) which had a very slim bolt on neck, unusual for an acoustic. By the time it got delivered I was back in the UK but it was worth the wait. I sold it for a measly £70 in 1999 to put towards a Korean made Squier Strat but I regret not holding onto it as they've become quite collectible, plus I miss it! One has just appeared on Ebay for £350! The Strat got me playing Shadows stuff again but I had an attack of the Beatles and bought an Epi Casino which I still have and I think is great.
As I reached the stage where I could afford more than one guitar (over 60 and kids off my hands!) I replaced the Squier with a Burns Marquee, replaced that with a MIM Hank Marvin Signature Strat (in Falmingo Pink!) added a Burns Double six for those chiming moments and my acoustic needs are catered for with an Epi EJ160E John Lennon signature.
Nowadays, just as in the past I play mostly 60s pop with a good percentage of Shads stuff. When I was 18 I had the confidence but not great ability. Now I'm 61 it's the other way round!

[hernando]

Like Dave Robinson, I never really stopped playing it either and totally agree that there was a problem from the mid 1960's to the early 1970's when it was considered 'uncool' especially if you were playing chart covers.
I got my first guitar around the age of 14 by saving up my paper round earnings. It was a VOX Troubadour steel strung acoustic. It was much cooler than the violin which I had been learning off and on since the age of 6. Taught myself some basics from the Dick Sadlier tutor book but found that my guitar action was a bit limiting for learning fast stuff. My influences at the time were more Spotnicks than Shadows, and remember being very amazed by the speed of Orange Blossom Special! I then upgraded to a Watkins Rapier 22 and Futurama amp with some more paper round savings. By the time I left school, I was playing in a the first of many local bands as lead/rhythm guitarist doing the pubs and clubs around Portsmouth. There were always some Shadows instrumentals thrown in to give the vocalist a break!
The best guitar I ever owned was a 1964 Gibson SG Junior which was played through a 50 watt Selmer Zodiac. By the time I was an apprentice at 18, I was often earning more playing the guitar than I got from work, but never managed to break into the big time or go fully pro. After I got married, had a couple of daughters and did the proper job..etc, the music took a backseat.
Many years later (early 1980's) I got back into a middle-of-the-road band and again had to do some Shadows. By this time we had moved on to covering Cavatina, Don't Cry for me Argentina and Riders in the Sky. I've still got my old strat and thinking about a third reincarnation when I retire from work.