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Does anyone know who has been the longest serving Bass player with The Shadows ?
John

An interesting question, with no real distinct answer. Taking only the five longer-term bassists into account (and leaving out the stand-ins and sessioneers, like Mo Foster, Alan Tarney and Dave Richmond), it splits like this (all dates are approximate and rounded for the sake of the calculations), with days calculated between nominal dates and years rendered to two decimal places

Jet Harris
15/01/1959 - 15/04/1962 / 1186 days / 3.25 years

Licorice Locking
15/04/1962 - 30/11/1963 / 594 days / 1.63 years

John Rostill
30/11/1963 / 31/12/1969 / 2223 days / 6.09 years

Alan Jones
01/08/1977 - 31/12/1985 / 3074 days / 8.42 years

Mark Griffiths
01/08/1987 / 31/12/1990 / 1248 days / 3.42 years.

Mark Griffiths also did both the 2004 and 2005 Shadows reunion tours as well as the more recent Cliff / SHadows reunion tour. But that doesn't extend to as long as Alan Jones' stay with the group.

JN

PS: The dates are definitely approximate and even conjectural in some cases (though based on reasonable working assumptions and not just plucked out of the air).

JimN wrote:An interesting question, with no real distinct answer. Taking only the five longer-term bassists into account (and leaving out the stand-ins and sessioneers, like Mo Foster, Alan Tarney and Dave Richmond), it splits like this (all dates are approximate and rounded for the sake of the calculations), with days calculated between nominal dates and years rendered to two decimal places

Jet Harris
15/01/1959 - 15/04/1962 / 1186 days / 3.25 years

Licorice Locking
15/04/1962 - 30/11/1963 / 594 days / 1.63 years

John Rostill
30/11/1963 / 31/12/1969 / 2223 days / 6.09 years

Alan Jones
01/08/1977 - 31/12/1985 / 3074 days / 8.42 years

Mark Griffiths
01/08/1987 / 31/12/1990 / 1248 days / 3.42 years.

Mark Griffiths also did both the 2004 and 2005 Shadows reunion tours as well as the more recent Cliff / SHadows reunion tour. But that doesn't extend to as long as Alan Jones' stay with the group.

JN

PS: The dates are definitely approximate and even conjectural in some cases (though based on reasonable working assumptions and not just plucked out of the air).

John Rostill also appeared in the "It's Cliff Richard" TV show of 31st of January 1970 and maybe some concerts thereafter. Alan Jones already appeared with The Shadows for the first time in May 1977, during the "20 Golden Dates" tour and maybe his last time on stage with the group was in the autumn of 1987 during their autumn tour, promoting the just released "Simply...Shadows" album, although his last recordings with the group were made in early 1989 for the "Steppin' To The Shadows" album, which was less than a year after his car accident. Mark Griffiths appeared for the first time on stage in the spring of 1986, promoting the "Moonlight Shadows" album. He also recorded his first Shadows track in late 1986, "Themes From Eastenders & Howard's Way".

HI Jim,

You missed out George Ford in your list of stand-ins.

Paul

No mention of Ian Samwell?
The first bass player before Jet.

Well... strictly speaking, Ian Samwell didn't play in the Shadows, only in the Drifters.

George

Razzmataz wrote:HI Jim,

You missed out George Ford in your list of stand-ins.

Paul

And Alan Tarney!!

Alan Tarney is listed.

Paul Childs wrote:No mention of Ian Samwell?
The first bass player before Jet.

Paul, (and Paul Beard),

It wasn't my intention to list all the bassists whom I was excluding for short service. The names given were examples.

JN

Jim,
No matter how hard you try.....when that ball starts rolling........................................

Ron