So how did you finish up playing this music again?

[David Martin]

Watching The Shads as a young teenager inspired me to take up guitar, join a "group" - The Zig Zags in Newcastle under Lyme, work hard at it, and succeed - whilst my experience at school was exactly the opposite! So the example of the Shadows, and their wonderful music, saved me from the pit, or a potteries warehouse... it gave me the self confidence to achieve much more than my teachers could ever have imagined.

After years playing all sorts of other stuff - rock, country, even big band and trad jazz - I came back to Shadows' music in 1996, through the Bristol U Play event discovered UB Hank Club, the folks in Scarborough, became a founder member of "Legend" the Burns era specialist band, played in Holland, Germany, recorded with Warren Bennett and Dick Plant at Brian Bennett's Honeyhill and played ShadowMania 3 times at the request of Bruce Welch... and all in my 50's!!

And I started the original ShadowMusic Web Community on MSN in 1999...

Proudest musical moment? Having Bruce play rhythm guitar while I played Flingel Bunt some years ago...

[OLDEREK]

Breaking my arm back in 1959 and the lack of use after due to replacement elbow joint made my dear old Dad get me a Guitar to help in my recovery...............Apache came out and WOW I was hooked, that was untill the Beatles arrived on the scene.............From then till 2004 I just picked the Guitar up now and again...........Until through my front door came a flyer for The Mayflower Theatre showing The Shaddows Final Tour "SOLD OUT", I thought I can't belive this, it's thier final tour and I have never seen them..........Googled The Shadows and came across the South Coast Shadows Club .......Went to the next club night and when the Band started up I was grinning from ear to ear...........It was Fantastic I had found what I had been looking for all my life, the Music that I love...............Five years later and the music from The Shadows has taken over my life.........I enjoy to play my Guitar now more than I ever thought possible.....And all the new people I have met has been a bonus..........Highlight for me, was in March this year when Jet Harris played at my 65th Birthday Party backed by The Shadders band from the Club that started me on this wonderful journey.............Thanks to all of you..........

[RUSSET]

I started originally in 1962, when I was 16. My first band was the 'Stormriders' in South B'ham, along with my mate Keith.
We started learning playing the Shads instros & progressed on when we got a proper vocalist, & played all the usual '50s &'60s Rock 'N Roll hits & chart toppers. I got my interest back in around the mid '90s when myself, my brother Chris & another friend from way back when, got together again & got nostalgic about the '60s & our Guitar-playing youth. For the past ten years we have had a band called 'Shindig' & have gigged a fair bit around South B'ham & the Black Country. We are just starting to gig again after a year of being off the road, due to illness. We are not wholely Shads Music, of course, but a general '60s type of show with half a dozen instrumentals in the act.

Tony.

[rogera]

I was smitten with the guitar instrumental type group when I saw such a group play at a local Methodist Youth Club. That coupled with first hearing 'Apache' meant that I had to twist my Dad's arm to buy me a guitar.
That guitar turned out to be a Rosetti Airstream III and that quickly bought me a ticket into the group! The guitar ended up being referred to as the 'Robin Hood' guitar due to the neck being warped and likening it to a bow.
The next guitar was a four pickup Watkins Rapier 4 (the huge amount of pickup combinations made it impossible to remember where the good sounds were!)and that was replaced with a 1959 Gibson 335 dot neck which had a factory fitted Bigsby.
I played with various groups around the Devon and Cornwall area throughout the sixties and enjoyed every minute (apart from the packing everything back into the van in the wee small hours!)

[mr jc]

I heard Apache and i was hooked.only heartbreak hotel made me want to make music,but the sound of the shadows had quite an effect on me,if im honest its never left me.I now own a few strats,a vox valvetronics 30 watt amp, a quad GT with EFTP and a Pod 2 and im quite satisfied.But i do like to play a bit of screaming heavy metal,now and again!!!!

[ecca]

This blinking guitar wrecked my education.
Went to the same grammar school as Noddy Holder,I couldn't give a toss.
Left with nothing at all.
Earned more money than my Dad when I was 15 and then left school to go in a factory under orders from my Mom
who wanted me to get a trade under my belt.
What a wasted life, musically speaking, I should have gone pro straight from school.

[dave robinson]

The truth is that I never really stopped playing it, always played it for myself, except in the mid sixties on our gigs through to the early seventies when it was considered 'uncool' but it was never that to me.We were bringing Shads stuff back in as early as 1972 and it was going down well - in moderation. These days I make a living as a soloist ,as well as with my band Past Masters, playing all our favourite stuff to like minded audiences who are re-living their youth. Onwards and upwards . . . . .

[dave.creasey]

Well, im not playing it again, its my first time!!

I grew up with The Shads music, Dad, (Paul) has always been a massive fan, and i was lucky enough to be dragged, as a kid, to lots of Shadows/Hank gigs, so right from an early age, i have known there music. Unfortunatly, Hank doesnt get credit for me starting guitar, that goes to Ritchie Blackmore, but some years later, when Pete (dad's brother) and dad decided to re-united there old band, i stepped up as rythym player, just for fun, and we have been together 4 or 5 years now!!

I love it, but i do love going my own way, gear wise too

Dave

[Geffers]

My love for the Shads Music started Christmas 1969 when my elder cousins held a concert with 2 other chaps in their parents front room for all the visiting relatives, I remember being really taken with the instrumental music that they were playing - My older cousin was playing Lead Guitar with a Futurama ( strat like solid body ) while the younger was playing the Drums.
They later showed me some of the tunes were from 'Sound of the Shadows' LP.
That was it I had to learn the guitar - the following Christmas I had my own accoustic which with some help being taught some chords, eventually played all of "House of the rising Sun" ( with the dreaded 'F').
My Shads Lp's had multiplied within that first year so started to play along on the Mono record player- again and again and again.
It was quite uncool to admit liking the Shads - most of my classmates were into Led Zepplin or Deep Purple.
But the music was always a pure sound - not hidden behind distortion.
Have now played in bands for 35 years - always managing to fit a few shads numbers in the set. Around 6 years ago started the South Coast Club with a pal of mine - It always amazes me how popular this music is and how many people love to play it. Its great to see all of those Red Strats - also made some great friends along the way.

cheers

[bridev]

It started for me when I heard the solo on Living Doll, I loved that sound. I think I was about 10 at the time. My Mum and Dad got me a battered old acoustic for Christmas which was all they could afford bless 'em. The fretboard was concave in parts and went out of tune after the fith fret but I didn't care. Then Apache came out which I learnt as best I could on the beast.

Much later I got a Rapier 33, soon traded for a Burns Sonic & dominator amp and got a group together with some mates from school, (I still see our drummer who still plays, and lives nearby) But Time moves on and we went our seperate ways. I got married and got rid of the gear. Many years and two kids later the itch began again and now have a Strat & Laney amp which I use with BTs purely for my own pleasure nowadays whenever I can get away with it(lol). But It's better than the telly. I use the "dreaded F" frequently when I foul up playing something.

Cheers
Brian