What If John Farrar had stayed ?

[Monty]

This question has occurred to me a good number of times - what IF John Farrar had remained in The Shadows ??

First I would say JF was VERY much an 'official' Shadows member - Hank, Bruce & Brian certainly all think so - an old Aussie friend of The Shadows from back in 1966, from the moment he was asked (without audition) to join Hank & Bruce in M W & F he was very much a key member of both their vocal group and then was a important part of the 'reformed' Shadows following on from the 'Marvin & Farrar' album in 1973

JF is in their album cover photos on 'Curly Leads', 'Specs Appeal' & 'Live in Paris' and indeed even later on 'Tasty' John is even credited ahead of Bruce as 'guitars' even if by then he'd departed (hence was not in the back cover photo) but as a number of his era tracks were included they put up his name prominently, listing him second after Hank's name in the credits...which tells us everything

I can't help wondering how much STRONGER the group would have been had John Farrar remained and The Late Great John Rostill been able to be a part of the band on Bass/Vocals and composing ....


JUST IMAGINE A 'Marvin- Welch-Farrar-Rostill-Bennett' Shadows line up...!

so I think most people would agree John Farrar WAS very much an official 'Shadow' - the last time they were a proper featured 'official quartet' too....as after it reduced to the core trio with sidemen.

[hankb56]

Now that would have been a line up. It then took Hank til Ben and Warren came along in his own band to give him another kick up the arse.

Ian

[hankb56]

And what a kick up the arse it was. In my personal mind Hank became a more experimental guitarist for it even on older shads numbers using more effects on stage and technics like fret tapping, probably learnt from Ben. In all with Warren & Ben he took up where he left off with John Farrar and became all the better for it, excellent guitarist though he is and the Shadows benefitted from this in both tours they did, themselves and with Cliff. And we also benefitted from it as well with the excellent shows we got from the solo shows onwards.

Ian.

[drakula63]

With two LEAD guitars (plus rhythm) and a heavier sound, they could have pre-dated both Judas Priest and Iron Maiden by a few years! I suspect that with John Farrar as lead vocalist they would have made a very credible 'heavy rock/metal' band - had they have chosen to go down that road. They clearly influenced many of these guys (too many to mention) and some of them may have been listening to Rockin' With Curly Leads as they were taking the first steps on their own career paths.

[Uncle Fiesta]

... and some of them may have been listening to Rockin' With Curly Leads as they were taking the first steps on their own career paths.

Well I certainly was, I was 19 when I bought that album! I remember that and Greatest Hits were among the initial batch of vinyl LP's I copied onto cassettes so that I could listen to them in my recently-acquired first car.

[andykombi]

Also johns telecaster what a super sound on live in Paris. I don't know if he still has it. Love to know more if he had any others

[alewis41]

During his time with the Shads John had produced a U.S. Number One single (I Honestly Love You), won a Grammy (for the same song) and written a U.S. Number One single (Have You Never Been Mellow) for Olivia. She was always more successful in the U.S. than the U.K. and once Olivia had decided to move to LA it was logical for John and Pat (Olivia's best friend, then and now) to decide to move also. Whatever contribution he had made to the Shads, John had his own career to think about.

Olivia has sold over 100 million albums worldwide so I think we can agree that it was a good move for all concerned!

Andrew

[Monty]

Everyone knows it turned out to be a good career move for John, Pat, & Olivia

But I am sure it did NOT do The Shadows any good as a recording band as they quickly thereafter became largely just a 'pop covers' outfit as discussed on other threads, and while they made pots of cash (the 'be all and end all' to most people) as artists they largely (sadly) went into decline...something I feel sure John Farrar would never have allowed happen had he remained in the group - I don't think Hank and Brian would have either had John remained with them..!

Besides plenty of creative original tracks they were doing covers with JF (Pinball Wizzard, Good Vibrations, God Only Knows, Honky Tonk Women, Superstar, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, The Air That I Breathe' etc) but picking them very carefully and arranging & playing them superbly well - no 'Eastenders' or 'Careless Whispers' etc...

JF gave The Shads a contemporary Rock edge they badly missed later....minus him quickly moving towards a largely Middle of the road approach to 80's chart hits.

ALL made large sums of cash and can point to great wealth and shrewd career moves etc...but I still feel the quality of The Shadows MUSIC quickly suffered as a result of both the departure of JF (they also sadly had lost the Late Great John Rostill too, even as a composer for the band if not by the early seventies a group member ) and the relocation to Polydor where crass commercialism only seemed to be the rule

"Marvin-Welch-Farrar-Rostill-Bennett" would have been a MAGNIFICENT Shadows line up & I'm sure we would have had some fantastic albums full of creativity and wonderfully adventurous playing from that quintet ! - if only

[Iain Purdon]

All this assumes that they would have wanted to be doing it

[ecca]

Well all these hypothetical scenarios are all very well but in fact MWF were superb and it was nothing whatsoever like the Shadows that had been .
I'm just glad they did it, I play their music often in the car and I have everything they did on my phone in case I feel the need.