The ShadowMusic Web Community

This is cavatina from 1979 but don't recognise the bass player, anyone know who he is?

George Ford now sadly no longer with us. He has been mentioned in other threads here.

George Ford was one of the Top session bass players of the 70's ,
also seen here playing a great bassline.
Jay

None of this is new to these boards but it's worth noting that no fewer than three members of Emile Ford's Checkmates stood in with the Shadows at different times: George Ford on bass, Peter Carter on Rhythm and Alan Hawkshaw on piano.
My question is this. How did that come about? Were the two groups great mates, or was there a managerial connection or... what?

Iain

Iain, that is a great question. I hope someone knows the answer, I'd be fascinated to learn about it.

Here are a few more videos we've looked at with George Ford. I really like his style and I'm so sad he is no longer with us.

The first video is hilarious, because Hank is being really funny, Bruce is pretending to think Hank is crazy, and George is politely sitting in between them while they're doing this.

Kind regards,
Donna

Iain_P wrote:None of this is new to these boards but it's worth noting that no fewer than three members of Emile Ford's Checkmates stood in with the Shadows at different times: George Ford on bass, Peter Carter on Rhythm and Alan Hawkshaw on piano.
My question is this. How did that come about? Were the two groups great mates, or was there a managerial connection or... what?

Iain

Al stewart ' s Lp "year of the cat" was recorded at Abbey rd in 1976
the bass player is credited as George Ford i dont know for certain if it's the same George Ford (but seems likely)
Also on the Lp was vocalist Tony Rivers, who backed Cliff etc ,it maybe that they used to see each other whilst at abbey rd ?

Jay

I see another possible person, who might fit into the Tony Rivers connection. Alan Tarney might be a common link. Alan, along with Trevor Spencer, co-wrote "Living in Harmony" for Sir Cliff in about 1969. And Alan wrote "Marmaduke" for MWF in the very early 1970's. At some point in the early-to-mid 70s Alan formed the Tarney/Spencer Band who -- when they played live -- hired band members, such as George Ford as seen in this video. Alan played all the instruments on his studio albums (all guitars and keyboards/synthesizers) except percussion, so he needed several additional musicians when they played live. So he had George Ford playing bass, at least in this one clip. And Tony Rivers is credited on the Run For Your Life album connected with this video; Cliff Hall is credited on Alan's debut album. Tony Rivers might be one of the three back-up singers in this video, along with Leo Sayer.

Cliff later recorded "Marmaduke" on his "Stronger" album that Alan Tarney produced in about 1994, but the arrangement is very different than the MWF version.

I don't think I can tie much or any of this back to the Checkmates, but I am fascinated as to how all of the Shadows worked with each other, on different projects, throughout the years.

Kind regards,
Donna

Donna_Plasky wrote:I see another possible person, who might fit into the Tony Rivers connection. Alan Tarney might be a common link. Alan, along with Trevor Spencer, co-wrote "Living in Harmony" for Sir Cliff in about 1969. And Alan wrote "Marmaduke" for MWF in the very early 1970's. At some point in the early-to-mid 70s Alan formed the Tarney/Spencer Band who -- when they played live -- hired band members, such as George Ford as seen in this video. Alan played all the instruments on his studio albums (all guitars and keyboards/synthesizers) except percussion, so he needed several additional musicians when they played live. So he had George Ford playing bass, at least in this one clip. And Tony Rivers is credited on the Run For Your Life album connected with this video; Cliff Hall is credited on Alan's debut album. Tony Rivers might be one of the three back-up singers in this video, along with Leo Sayer.

Cliff later recorded "Marmaduke" on his "Stronger" album that Alan Tarney produced in about 1994, but the arrangement is very different than the MWF version.

I don't think I can tie much or any of this back to the Checkmates, but I am fascinated as to how all of the Shadows worked with each other, on different projects, throughout the years.

Kind regards,
Donna

Cliff recorded "Marmaduke" in about 1988 and was the B-side to the 1988 Christmas no.1 single "Mistletoe And Wine". The album "Stronger" was recorded in early 1989 and released just before Cliff's two concerts at the Wembley Arena in London. "Marmaduke" was a non-album B-side, although it did reappear on the 2004 remaster CD of "Stronger".

Dear Iefje: Thank you for the info. You are correct, of course. I have the 2004 reissue CD of "Stronger", and I was wrong about it being 1994, it's 2004 like you said.

If anybody likes the song "Marmaduke" here are the two studio recordings -- MWF's and Sir Cliff's.

Kind regards,
Donna