The Shadows' most memorable stage banter

[Didier]

During the Final Reunion tour, when Bruce presents Mark Griffith he says "we have the same hair colorist", then Hank says : "The silver foxes !"...

Didier

[Gatwick1946]

When Bruce started to go grey in the 1980's he said "Welcome to the first Shadows tour sponsored by Grecian 2000". This was usually followed by a quip that Hank and Cliff's hair was mysteriously still dark brown, "I wonder what their secret is?"

Hank whilst tuning his guitar-"You may not think this sounds very much but in a few minutes this place will be full of chinamen".

Hank glances round the venue-"This place reminds me of home - filthy and full of strangers".

Bruce - "Be carefull of the police on youre way home, they are terrible drivers".

Hank on introducing Cliff Hall or Alan Jones - "I'd like to introduce you to someone on stage tonight, without whom (pauses for effect) we would just have had to get someone else.

Cliff Hall would often play the intro to Nut Rocker while standing on the piano stool. Bruce would look and him and shake his head.

Regards
Christopher

[Gatwick1946]

Hank and Bruce play the intro to Move It, then look stage left as if expecting Cliff to appear.The audience cheer and Bruce walks to the mike and says "Sorry Cliff can't make it tonight-he's fallen off he wallet".
Hank continued this gag on his solo tours. After the Move It intro a weird, scarecrow like , puppet, would spring up, jack-in-the-box style, from the backline. But to the great surprise of the audience sometimes Cliff would really run on stage! At Crawley Leisure Centre in the 90's (around the time of the Hank Plays Cliff CD) Cliff came on and did Move It with the extra verse. At first the audience couldn't believe it. One of those magic moments! When Cliff had left the stage Hank said "My son Ben can't believe how he moves on stage".

At Croydon Fairfield Halls one night Alan Jones had to go off stage. Hank explained that the night before they had gone out for a curry, and Alan was feeling the after effects.
Bruce and Brian were cracking up!

Regards
Christopher

[Gatwick1946]

At Brighton Centre ( a vast box of a venue, more suited to the likes of Status Quo) in November 1986, about the 3rd number into the set was Atlantis. Hank plays the intro,
then as the verse starts he plays a bum note. Bruce stops the music and says to Hank " the audience have payed good money for this - the least you could do is get it right".

They restart and at the exact same spot Hank does it again! Bruce pretends to loose his temper and there follow several minutes of banter. Bruce says to the audience, "are there any guitarists who can come up and take over?"

They start for the 3rd time with Bruce looking over at Hank with a worried expression on his face. As Hank passes the critical phrase, Bruce glances at the heavens, blows out his cheeks, shakes his head and nods to the front row as if to say third time lucky!

I am still not sure whether the mistakes were not deliberate. If the first mistake was genuine I have a sneaking suspicion that Hank did it again just to wind up Bruce. I must have seen Hank live about 25 times, and that's the only outright wrong note I saw apart from the odd moments he has slightly fluffed the odd note.

Regards
Christopher

[biba]

At a concert in Oslo Bruce was talking about the Eurovision Song Contest.He said,we lost the contest.Hank answered :Yeas we did Bruce,the song came second but we came FIRST!!

[RogerCook]

During the Final Reunion tour, when Bruce presents Mark Griffith he says "we have the same hair colorist", then Hank says : "The silver foxes !"...

Didier

... or at Wembley ... "a couple of pints of Guinness!"

[Didier]

During the Final Reunion tour, when Bruce presents Mark Griffith he says "we have the same hair colorist", then Hank says : "The silver foxes !"...
Didier

... or at Wembley ... "a couple of pints of Guinness!"

What I quoted was both at the Paris concert I attended, and on the DVD recorded at the London O2, but they may have changed the jokes at some venues !...

Didier

[Uncleboko]

When introducing Bruce, Hank said "of all the rhythm guitarists in the world - he's one of them"!

[iefje]

Another great one is from the Doelen Rotterdam show on the 2nd of April 1980.
Bruce re-tunes his guitar for "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and asks Hank: "Could you give me a D Hank, please, a D?". Hank plays the low E and presses the tremolo arm to a very low deep note. Bruce: "A D, a proper D, please". Hank plays the low E and pulls the tremolo arm up to a higher note. Bruce: "That reminds of those television commercials, you see on television". Hank: "When you wake up in the morning, does your stomach feel a little...." again plays the low E and with the tremolo arm imitates the feeling of an empty stomach. Priceless!

[iefje]

Or from the Concerthouse Stockholm show on the 12th of November 1980: Bruce is about to introduce Brian's drum solo "Arty's Party". Bruce: "We're going to adapt a new song from our new album, as a drum solo and it's called...", audience member: "Arty's Party". Bruce: "You didn't see my lips move, now, did you? Let's try that again".