What If John Farrar had stayed ?

[russ]

It would have been great if John had stayed in the UK after 1976, but I don't think he would have reached his full potential.
I think in his own words he was really a "backroom boy", more at home writing and producing.
Reminds me of Benny and Bjorn from ABBA.
His spells in MWF and The Shadows helped hone his skills till he found his true vocation.
I am thankful for his great contribution to The Shadows story, a great arranger, marvellous falsetto voice and fantastic guitarist.
How lucky were we to have him in the group

Best Regards

Russ

[donna plasky]

Hi. I found another video...this is an interview of Olivia Newton-John and John and Pat Farrar, from 1998.

Kind regards,
Donna

[damart]

Apart from the early years with Jet and Tony,the years with John Farrar and Alan Tarney were my next favourite period of the Shadows. The live Paris Olympia album is one of my most played albums. Personally I wished John had stayed with The Shadows as I think Brian Bennett once said musically he gave Hank and Bruce a good kick up the backside.

[ecca]

Apart from the early years with Jet and Tony,the years with John Farrar and Alan Tarney were my next favourite period of the Shadows. The live Paris Olympia album is one of my most played albums. Personally I wished John had stayed with The Shadows as I think Brian Bennett once said musically he gave Hank and Bruce a good kick up the backside.

I entirely agree.

[iefje]

I think Lefje is the only person in the world who thought you were talking about John Rostill. The title of the thread should have been a clue.

Andrew

Well, sorry for not directly getting it. There was talk in one sentence about John the bass guitarist/vocalist/songwriter and John the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter, so it's not entirely strange to maybe think the reference was to John Rostill instead of to John Farrar.

[drakula63]

I love the interview clip with Olivia, Pat and John.

(Incidentally, Olivia's father, Bryn, was my dad's headmaster!!!!)

I think that the 'John Farrar' era lasted about the right length of time, 1970-1976, as I think those were always going to be the 'experimental' years for the Shads. They had done all they could do as they were, they were now in their early 30s and the whole 'nostalgia' thing hadn't quite yet kicked in. The early to mid 1970s were just right for experimenting with quadrophonic sound, harmony vocals, heavier guitars, two 'lead' guitars, etc... etc... I only wish they had done MORE! They seemed reluctant to tour in support of 'Rockin With Curly Leads' which was a brilliant album and didn't achieve anywhere near the level of success or acclaim it deserved. Also, a few more singles such as 'Spider Juice', 'Honourable Puff-Puff' etc... would have been nice. Still, the body of work they produced during those five or six years stands as some of their best and John Farrar was absolutely integral to it. The return to a more 'traditional' sound (kicked off by the success of 20 Golden Greats) with singles like 'Argentina' and 'Cavatina' was commercially a good move and I think that John would have been out of place in the band at this point.

As I say, I have the utmost regard for John and his period with the lads. Live at the Paris Olympia is indeed one of the greatest live albums of all and this, along with RWCL and Specs Appeal are never far from my turntable! Or CD player come to that...

[alewis41]

Hi Chris,

I agree with all of that. I think everyone knows that Peter Gormley had advised Olivia to move to the U.S. (one of the better decisions in pop music history) and that in addition to his production success John had already written a Number 1 U.S. single for her while he was in the Shads (Have You Never Been Mellow) so that plus their longtime friendship made it a natural choice that he and Pat would move there also.

John thinks of himself as a song-writer primarily but it is disappointing to me that outside of the Shads world he never got many plaudits for his guitar playing. Friends like Stuart Duffy and players like Steve Luthaker say that his skills were (are) amazing but he didn't get much public recognition. Fortunately Shads fans have the albums you mention and I still play them all the time. Unlike some of the Shads albums (like Shades of Rock) they don't sound dated nearly 40 years later. As damart says, Alan Tarney's fantastic bass playing was key also.

Andrew

[alewis41]

It would have been great if John had stayed in the UK after 1976, but I don't think he would have reached his full potential.
I think in his own words he was really a "backroom boy", more at home writing and producing.
Reminds me of Benny and Bjorn from ABBA.
His spells in MWF and The Shadows helped hone his skills till he found his true vocation.
I am thankful for his great contribution to The Shadows story, a great arranger, marvellous falsetto voice and fantastic guitarist.
How lucky were we to have him in the group

Best Regards

Russ

Yep. Absolutely. And I know John appreciates all the breaks he got from being with those guys.

Andrew

[donna plasky]

Hi! If anyone would like to see a couple more videos with John Farrar, here is one relating to the premiere of "Grease" in John's native Australia. He is interviewed between 4:00 and 6:45 on the video. And here is one of my favourite clips of John with The Strangers, performing a familiar Beatles tune. And yes I know they're miming . I see neither guitar cables nor wireless input jacks (which probably hadn't been invented yet) and I certainly do not see any amplifiers. The third video is from John's solo album; I love the fuzz on the lead guitar (if that's what it is called ).

Kind regards,
Donna

[johnto]

I loved the John Farrar period of The Shadows and wish he'd stayed longer. They recorded some terrific new numbers, great vocals and fantastic twin lead guitars.