New anti Cliff radio station

[dave robinson]

The word arseholes comes to mind

[neil2726]

Well said Uncle!

[captainhaddock]

Not wishing to fall into the trap set by the publicity seaking Radio station, I have refrained from making any comment on the matter. However last night I happened to hear a small section of the Children In Need concert on BBC 1 and I was angered by what passes for musical talent these days. I am not a huge fan of Cliffs but he sure as hell could sing well in his day and as for The Shadows they really are still at their peak as evidenced by the Reunion tour.
I feel that it is disgusting that Cliff and to a lesser extent , The Shadows are almost thought of as figures of fun by the music industry but it is hardly surprising when the same old clips of "Congratulations" and Cliffs poor old movies are used as evidence of his talent. About four weeks ago, we were actually treated to a documentary on Radio 4 about Hank and The Shadows. It showed them in a creditable light, but it should have been longer and it should have been on TV.
I remember Cliff actually being given credit for his talents way back in the mid 70's when he was produced by Bruce Welch and together the resultant tracks , ie "Devil Woman" and "Miss you nights" etc could not be ridiculed. What a pity that the "Honky Tonk Angel" saga upset Cliff and made him look prudish. Bruce and Cliff really worked well together and it is a shame that Cliff dropped Bruce, according to Bruce's excellent autobiography.
I wonder if Cliff really could produce one final excellent album with the aid of Bruce, publicise it with dignity and then retire?

[Tab]

It has to be remembered that much of the British 60s music came about as a direct result of those early Cliff and The Shadows tracks and live performances.

It has been said that Cliff and The Shadows invented the rock scene here in Europe!

[LONGPLAYER09]

Well played Brian Matthew today (SOTS), 3 Cliff/Shads tunes in a row. Guess that says something!

[dave robinson]

It's a sad fact that the majority of British teenagers we turned off by Cliff & The Shadows as early as 1963 when The Beatles emerged - I know because I was in the middle of it and resented them at that time because we had almost got our own band up to speed with the Cliff & Shads stuff and had to begin learning to sing and play in a different way, I guess it's called progress. I don't agree with what this radio station are saying, but the majority will unfortunately agree - we are definitely in a minority on this one. To this day I still hear the negative comments directed at Cliff in venues all around the country, but on the upside The Shadows are always well received. I fear that back in the day, Cliff went 'variety' and tamed down his image way too soon, which is why the younger kids turned their attention to the new bands like Beatles, Kinks, Who, Animals etc.

[neil2726]

I would think that any 60s radio station would be aimed at the more mature listeners who were around at that time. I cant see many of todays younger element tuning in!

[Paul Childs]

A lot of these people weren't even born in the 60s so what do they know! They can only go by what they have read and watching documentaries and a lot of the time the documentaries are made by people like them who are too young to know.
The first years of the 60s were pre Beatles and this era had, apart from Cliff & the Shadows, Joe Brown, Adam Faith etc who were all at the top and when The Beatles came on the scene it more or less changed over night with them and the other new bands and solo artists that followed. The 60s scene changed again a few years later in the druggie era when heavy music, known in those days as Progressive music, came on the scene and this divided things between those who were 'hip' and the 'smoothies'.
I can remember a documentary a few years ago when someone said, 'The difference between The Rolling Stones and The Beatles is The Rolling Stones only appealed to the young but every generation liked The Beatles'. Obviously that is far from the truth because I can remember all the old military brainwashed generation hating The Beatles just as much and calling them scruffy and need a haircut and saying that it is not music and just an awful row.
Also, some guitar players who played Shadows music at the time were bias against The Beatles for years.

[donna plasky]

I remember Cliff actually being given credit for his talents way back in the mid 70's when he was produced by Bruce Welch and together the resultant tracks , ie "Devil Woman" and "Miss you nights" etc could not be ridiculed. What a pity that the "Honky Tonk Angel" saga upset Cliff and made him look prudish. Bruce and Cliff really worked well together and it is a shame that Cliff dropped Bruce, according to Bruce's excellent autobiography.
I wonder if Cliff really could produce one final excellent album with the aid of Bruce, publicise it with dignity and then retire?

I whole-heartedly agree. "Green Light" will always be my favourite Cliff album...and it says in big letters on the back cover, "Produced by Bruce Welch." The same is true for "I'm Nearly Famous." This is how and why I became a Shadows fan. The Shads are not well-known in the US, but the more I played the Green Light album - and read the inside and outside covers over and over again - the more curious I became. Eventually I bought a Shadows greatest hits compilation...and became a big fan of The Shadows.

I would love to see Cliff and Bruce work together again. And, if they would ask Terry Britten to play guitar on that album, that would be even better! And if Cliff says no, then how about just Bruce and Terry?

Best wishes,
Donna

[Bill Bowley]

Donna,

You may not know thatTerry Britten, Alan Tarney (and John Farrar) are all Australians, they did help Bruce a little bit in putting those albums together both in writing the tunes and the session work-Alan Tarney going on to write and produce for the following Cliff hits and albums.

Regards