If This Is The End of The Shadows ?

[captainhaddock]

If the end of the tour next year, really does mark the end of The Shadows", what are the chances of any un-released material being issued?. Readers of Malcolm Campbells' Pocket guide to Shadow Music will be aware of a long list of rarities at the end of the book. I believe that a further 27 tracks are mentioned in "That Sound" by R Pistolesi, M Mazzini and Malcolm Addey.Whilst some of these "Unissued" tracks may be merely alternative titles for subsquently issued tracks ie "You came a long way from St Pancras" became "Fourth Street", I am sure that most Shadows fanatics would like me be fascinated
by the release of anything by The Shadows. I remember buying "Everything Of Value- Rarities 2" back in 1993, the sleeve notes claimed that the CD was just that, Everything of value, the remaining tapes had been wiped and that was it. But there have been several un-released tracks surfacing on official releases since then. I sometimes wonder if EMI or The Shadows and their management truly realise the affection, interest and the high asteem that exists for the Band. You have only to look at the variety of countries represented on this forum and then take a ten minute peak at you-tube where Shadows copyists abound from around the world to realise just how popular they are. If the Beatles could sell the Anthology Cd/Dvd in vast numbers, I feel sure that un-released Shadows tracks, however poor they might be, would sell in great numbers. What do you think?, over to you.

[neil2726]

Hi captain Haddock - I thought you were missing!

[alewis41]

Bruce Welch is against releasing any Shads material that he considers is not top quality.

[burnsernst]

Hi Philip,
I totally agree to every word you write. May be some day they will realize that real fans don`t care too much about quality if only it`s from "them".
In my opinion they are going to issue the material, they (or the management or record company) are just waiting for the right moment to come.
I`m confident !
Regards Ernst

[David Martin]

I think it's more realistic to say that The Shadows are not in favour of releasing material which does not represent the standard of work they achieved at the time of recording. I'm lucky to have heard all the material which was forwarded to The Shadows when it looked like The Shadows @ The BBC was imminent. Some of the earliest recordings sounded dreadful, not because the performance was sub-standard, but because the recording was poor... do we really want to hear our heroes sounding as if they were recorded in my Granny's front room on an Alba reel to reel recorder?

Against that, anything is always interesting... and the later stuff - notably in the Rostill era - which circulates widely as bootlegs is of a very good standard.

[captainhaddock]

Many thanks for taking the time to reply to my posting. I can accept that Bruce Welch is keen to use a degree of quality control over Shadows releases. I would not expect worthless exercises to be released however the 50 or so tracks that are mentioned in Malcolm Campbells book were used in public performance over the years, surely some of these must have been recorded ?. The quality of many of the Shadows early recordings leaves much to be desired, yet they have been available for years. Does anyone look down upon the Shadows because "Feelin Fine" is rough ? No! we just regard it as a valuable starting point for the work that was yet to come. The Beatles early recordings on the Anthology series sound very different to their later work, but Beatles fans love them all the same. I would imagine that most users of this forum also browse upon you-tube ? There are a lot of videos on there of rare Shadows TV performances, why are these not available as an official DVD ?
I have recently watched Hank and Bruce performing "Cool Clear Water" as a duo, brilliant. There is also a version of "Chicago" on you-tube performed by the band, despite the fuzzy quality, it is very interesting. These are but two examples, there are more. I fail to understand why we in Britain have to rely upon Magic Records of France, to bring us the fascinating "Originals and Alternatives 60's Studio recordings" ? . As a Shadows fanatic, I am more than happy to buy this kind of recording rather than another box set with the same recordings upon it, we've all got the finished versions of Apache, FBI, Wonderful land etc,etc, but isn't an accoustic "Genie With The Light Brown Lamp" more desirable ? or a "Wonderful Land" before the strings were added? . I know which I prefer !.

[Arpeggio]

The thing about the Beatles Anthology series was that it had both input and approval from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr as well as Yoko Ono (looking out for John Lennon's interests). Plus - think about the enormous amount of Beatles bootleg material which was circulating by then - a lot of it from session tapes / rehearsals etc...in a way it was in their best interests to authorise the 'Anthology' project - but it couldn't have gone ahead without their say so.

There's also a difference between Radio sessions and unissued material 'from the vaults'. Generally speaking - The Shadows (including Bruce) don't have a problem with the BBC recordings - as they were broadcast - and were viewed as 'finished' items good enough to be aired on National radio. The reason for their non - release is not down to the Shadows but more the BBC themselves. They had actually cleared out / wiped / junked / discarded virtually all of their radio (Pop Music) tape archive fron 1958 - 1963 / 4. Sometime Saturday Club producer Bernie Andrews had kept back - up copies of many shows. So, he physically had the tapes (the only surviving ones) - but the copyright belonged to the BBC. It was felt that a Shadows BBC sessions (plenty of material 1964 - 1968 + 1973's "Sounds On Sunday") wouldn't be viable (!!!!!!) without the 1959 - 1963 material. Naturally Bernie Andrews wanted to be paid - but the BBC refused. Bernie subsequently sold the tapes on to a third party. Even now the whole potential project is mired up in stupid legalities and matters of 'principle'. However - the material is unlikely to be bootlegged because (apart from the Shadows themselves) EMI / BBC know exactly who had reference CDs. The threat of prosecution would be VERY real indeed.

It's particularly galling for me as I did all of the official research for nothing (it was a labour of love) and gave all of the information to EMI and the BBC themselves - for free. I envy David Martin....because I certainly haven't heard the 1959 - 1963 material myself! Moreover - out of frustration (& when I thought that it might be EMI having lost interest in the release) I suggested to someone at Sanctuary (who were doing well at the time) that they might be interested in taking the project on. It was only a suggestion......the upshot was that I was then threatened with legal action by EMI!!!!!! Wait a minute though......they couldn't have even considered the project without my own efforts - which had cost them absolutely nothing!!! But...that didn't seem to matter at all!!!!! I can laugh about it now....but it wasn't very funny at the time.

Anyway - unlike the Beatles - very little has 'escaped' from the Shadows EMI sessions. Again, apart from The Shadows themselves, the Shadows' management (Brian Goode) and EMI KNOW EXACTLY who had access to any unissued material (it is a VERY small number of individuals) and so any dubious releases could be traced back to the source. Given Bruce's extreme reluctance to sanction the release of any such material - then it's extremely unlikely to happen. There is a lot of material in the vaults which probably shouldn't be issued (tracks with errors, fluffs, breakdowns etc) & one can understand why. There are still (IMHO) some tracks which could be issued - but I know that Bruce wouldn't agree! Moreover - there is an enormous amount of Cliff / Shads material in there which is largely undocumented. Who knows what Sir Cliff would think about it potentially being issued? But whether he minded or not - Bruce would probably be unhappy about it. To be fair...Bruce is a perfectionist and he sets very high quality control standards. Basically his maxim is that if it wasn't released in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962,1963 etc., etc. - then it wasn't good enough or worthy of release. Hence..if it wasn't good enough to be released then, then it's not good enough to be released....ever!!! Likewise - if several takes of a track exist.....then...the 'best' one was chosen. Therefore....the others should remain unheard / unreleased / forgotten because the best take was the released version etc., etc.

Rob

[captainhaddock]

A thousand thank-you's to "Arpeggio" (Rob Bradford) for taking the time and trouble to reply my latest posting. It seems a shame that you are not the keeper of the archive instead of the nameless others who have control. I sometimes wonder what the various Shadows members are like as human beings, I know that Hank and Bruce are, shall we say "comfortable" and possibly Brian is as well, but there have been other contributors to the Shadows story who may be less comfortable in their old age and who might appreciate the extra royalties that might result from fresh releases. I have felt somewhat un-comfortable at the treatment afforded to Jet Harris by the band, his non -involvement in the current tour seemed sad prior to the news of his current illness. Maybe I should just listen to the music instead of trying to get to grips with the story behind it. I have read elsewhere on this site, the sentiment that as we Shadows fans are getting older and therefore passing on, maybe the Shadows and their management will consider the fact that in 20-30 years time there may be no one left who cares and that their material will be of no interest to anyone and therefore worthless?

[Arpeggio]

Hi Philip,
It is galling that the Shadows are probably just about the only major group whose BBC sessions have never been released. So near yet so far. It is just SO frustrating. The Shadows themselves were happy about it. EMI were keen (as it turns out!!!LOL) - the stumbling block is still the BBC. It's complicated - but, basically, as they own the copyright on the recordings, they don't see why they should have to pay anyone who has the physical copies of the tapes (OK - the 'back up' copies were unofficial - but thank goodness Bernie Andrews did do what he did - otherwise nothing would exist - save from a few tracks recorded by fans directly from radio loudspeakers!!). They won't budge - viz: A: won't make a payment to the owner of the tapes B: would sue anyone who released the material without authorisation. I tried hard (again) to persuade the relevant parties to release the material during 2004 / 5 (Shadows Final Tours) and, naturally, in 2009. You won't be surprised to hear that my pleas / blandishments fell on seemingly deaf ears. Even now - there's still a market for such a release. But....as you say...what about 10 - 20 years hence??? Cliff Richard / Shadows at the BBC would also have been a great idea - but the powers that be just don't seem to be bothered.

Best wishes,

Rob

[captainhaddock]

Hi Rob, Once again, many thanks for replying to my posting. It is good to know the truth behind the stories. It is also sad to know that the BBC would rather spend many millions on paying their Management inflated salaries rather than producing a product that would surely earn money. It seems that the BBC carries this policy on into the production of DVD's as any one who collects Classic TV will testify. There are many TV series that could have been sold on DVD that just aren't available because of so called Rights issues, Shoestring and Spender are but two examples. Oh well, what can you do ? The answer is sadly nothing. As I said at the start, many thanks for answering and also many thanks for your fascinating sleeve notes through the years, all the best, Philip.