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There are numerous tales of group arguments about arrangements, especially during the days of Jet and Tony, when all four Shadows were equal members with a presumed equal say.

It's true that Shadoogie was being performed as Guitar Boogie right up to five or six weeks before being recorded for the first LP on 20th April 1961, but a listen to the Guitar Boogie version from March 1961 (live at The Colosseum) reveals it to be substantially similar (by that stage) to what we now know as Shadoogie. The arrangement played in South Africa is well within the bounds of the various live versions performed over the years. It will be interesting to hear what earlier versions sound like on the BBC recordings when released.

As for rehearsal space, I thought it was common knowledge that The Shadows rehearsed (daytime) in a Soho club in the Cambridge Circus area (so handy for the Charing Cross Road Vox Showrooms and all the other music shops in the vicinity)?

JN

There's a photograph in 'The Shadows by themselves' with the caption "Working out an arrangement on a new number, in a club just off Cambridge Circus".

Later, when discussing recordings, the books says "These rehearsals ... are held in basement clubs. There are two just off Cambridge Circus which we go to regularly. As the clubs open at three, we usually rehearse from eleven in the morning until then... It's a painful process working out an arrangement we all like..."

George

Stratpicker wrote:Example - Blue Star - it is on record (every pun intended!) that when Bruce saw the chords for it he didnt know what a Diminished chord was and had to be shown. (we all have to learn everything once).it his way or that. Or was it "YOU'LL do it this way or that?
ANy insights?
ian

Bruce played a diminished chord on Man Of Mystery (recorded 6th October 1960). Blue Star wasn't recorded until 18th February 1961. So unless Blue Star was presented to The Shadows before Man Of Mystery, that may be a slightly embellished story, with Bruce in his usual self-deprecating mode. I'm sure he knew what a diminished chord was long before October 1960. He'd been playing for four or five years before that.

Just to reinforce that latter point, looking back through Roberto Pistolesi's recording database for songs where I can instinctively say "There's a diminished chord in that", I spot The Drifters' version of Chinchilla (recorded 28th April 1959). Bruce played a diminished chord in that one too. I have no doubt that there are others.

JN

Very interesting stuff. There are so many details we still don't know about the Shadows and their lives and careers!!

Jim

Very interesting comment about the diminished chord.

I mentioned the diminished chord in Man of Mystery some time ago, and everybody said I was wrong...

It always seemed to me that the third chord was a dim. chord, but everyone insisted that Bruce just played A7...whereas I could always hear a Bb note in there.

cockroach wrote:Jim

Very interesting comment about the diminished chord.

I mentioned the diminished chord in Man of Mystery some time ago, and everybody said I was wrong...

It always seemed to me that the third chord was a dim. chord, but everyone insisted that Bruce just played A7...whereas I could always hear a Bb note in there.

The sheet music has the diminished chord and sounds just right when you've just got lead and rhythm playing in a duo. I seem to remember this coming up a few years ago on the first Shadowmusic site and Warren had some input on the subject. He said that the chord was definitely an A7 and the bass guitar accentuated the note (Bb) and therefore 'coloured' the A7 chord into a diminished sound.

Martin.

I remember the discussion on Man Of Mystery.

It still doesn't explain the use of two diminished chords in Chinchilla.

The song has a diminished chord built (actually a flattened ninth) on the fourth interval of the key in bar 10. The same chord (IVb9, equivalent to Vbdim) appears in the second bar of the bridge. I put it that way because I can't remember what key the record is in and can't be bothered to get the record out. I've just run through the chords in C on a guitar - and in that key, the relevant chord is F#dim (properly known as an F7b9).

JN

The Shadows also 'rehearsed' on long, tedious coach jorneys travelling between gigs - for example it's famously recorded that Jet effectively 'wrote' "Jet Black" during a very long journey to and from Grimsby! Plus, they would also spend time rehearsing in dressing rooms etc. During 1960 they had a very long run appearing with Cliff at the London Palladium and they used a lot of their 'downtime' there to informally rehearse in their respective dressing rooms.


Rob