The Shadows in the Eighties...

[Moderne]

By the mid-80s, their record company (Polydor) had decided that they were only prepared to put Shadows material on the market that they could advertise on TV and if it was going to be advertised on TV the titles had to be recognisable to the general public. I met Hank in 1986 shortly before his move to Australia and gave him a demo cassette of an instrumental which I'd written and recorded and thought would be great for The Shadows; he told before even listening to it that the record company wouldn't be interested in them recording it. Apart from the two songs by Pierre Teodori on Simply and Steppin (which I think came through Bruce's publishing) and a handful of their own originals, it was covers all the way from then on. But that was what gave them top selling LPs and sell-out tours and made them very wealthy!!

[Monty]

No one has to "justify" their likeing for the 80's covers of course...music is all about personal taste

Some say The Shadows had Long gone out of fashion or public view by 1980...but is that actually true ?

Was '20 Golden Greats' not a No.1 UK chart album in 1977....and 'String of Hits' another No.1 UK album in 1979...also 'Argentina', 'Deer Hunter' & 'Riders in The Sky' all had been top twenty UK chart singles in the 1977-80 period too....plus, remember, they had enjoyed the successful 'Thank You Very Much' Live album & concert with Cliff in 1978 too (another big selling late seventies UK chart album that included their own compositions)...

[Iain Purdon]

I agree with Clive. The recording business, before indies and downloads, required a relationship with a record company who believed it could make money from your work. Simple as that.

Being Cliff's backing group and also a separate act in their own right was a full-time job for the early Shads. They must have lived it virtually 24/7.

To get together with old mates for a fortnight to record Curly Leads was, by contrast, a group project in otherwise separate lives.

To record individual parts in different continents under the management of a producer is the ultimate hands-off approach and barely even counts as a group project.

No approach is inherently better or worse than another.

It's easy for fans to pine for the old days . But I bet the players don't!

[Monty]

Let's not forget that The Shadows, under no pressure and disappointing many fans, had voluntarily first 'called it a day' way back in late 1968....

[hoffers]

I probably listen to the SFM CD 'Shadstrax' more than anything else from the Shadows' 80s recordings as I always preferred originals. It's well known there were problems within the group so I guess being together and agreeing on arrangements would have been tough going. The 80s albums had a mix of boring and enjoyable songs and was probably purely a business thing. Money talks I'm afraid. They worked out the songs that were needed for an album/single so as far as I'm aware there are no unissued items from that period.

[iefje]

I probably listen to the SFM CD 'Shadstrax' more than anything else from the Shadows' 80s recordings as I always preferred originals. It's well known there were problems within the group so I guess being together and agreeing on arrangements would have been tough going. The 80s albums had a mix of boring and enjoyable songs and was probably purely a business thing. Money talks I'm afraid. They worked out the songs that were needed for an album/single so as far as I'm aware there are no unissued items from that period.

There is one studio recording, which remains unreleased, the information which you provided for Malcolm Campbell, Rod Bradford and Les Woosey's book "A Pocket Guide To Shadow Music". A song called "It's Too Late", written by John David and recorded (and prepared in 7" and 12" mixes) during the sessions for the single/album track "On A Night Like This", with Stuart Colman as producer.

[hoffers]

There is one studio recording, which remains unreleased, the information which you provided for Malcolm Campbell, Rod Bradford and Les Woosey's book "A Pocket Guide To Shadow Music". A song called "It's Too Late", written by John David and recorded (and prepared in 7" and 12" mixes) during the sessions for the single/album track "On A Night Like This", with Stuart Colman as producer.

Not sure if a master tape exists though, I got a lo-fi version of this vocal track many moons ago. Ain't played it for yonks though.

[pcamm]

Greetings!

Been a member of this forum for a few months now but this is the first post!

Interesting subject raised about the Eighties decade for The Shads. Being born in 1980 does make me a youngster considering the length of Their career. However, having been a Shads fan since 1995 when my Dad took me to see Hank play at Bristol when I was 15 years of age, I was hooked as the opening notes to Live and Let Die were played by Hank. Since then I have been listening and playing Shadows and some of Hank's solo works too.

I have all of the Shadows albums that they made during the late Eighties and two from the earlier part of that Decade; String of Hits and Guardian Angel-Plus on CD. I also have Rocking With Curly Leads from the 70s too (also on CD). However, as good as these albums are (espically three tracks from Guardian Angel) I still tend to listen to the last four Albums that they recorded; Moonlight Shadows, Simply, Steppin' to The Shadows and Reflection. I have heard and read many views that cast a lot of criticism on track selection for Steppin' but in all honesty, they are not bad. Even Simply Shadows has several good tracks. My favourite album of The Shads is their last one, Reflection, especially Crockett's Theme and Riders In The Sky '90, which I prefer more rather than the original 1980 track. Why do I like these later albums? Well, I was born in 1980 and so I have more of a conection to songs that The Shadows recorded in the later years and I have to say that there are tracks that The Shads have covered, which sound a lot better than the originals! One track that comes to mind is When The Going Get Tough, originally a Billy Ocean number. The original sounds ok but it still just sounds flat compared to The Shad's cover version and that is the same with a lot of other tracks that they recorded. The same can be said for The Police with Every Breath You Take, the orignal sounded dumbed down, whereas The Shads came along and give it more expression, thanks to Hank's use of the Foot Pedal to give that 'swell' feel to the notes.

Personally, with Reflection, it sounds as though they were reaching a turning point in their recording and there did seem to be a bit more creativity come into the album with interpreting songs. As an example, Right Here Waiting featured an Acoustic guitar whereas there was none before in the last three albums. Strawberry Fields had a warmth to it that is difficult to describe and Something Gotten Hold of My Heart was very smooth with excellent echoes from Hank and you can listen to Bruce's delicate acoustic playing during the slower parts of the rack. Even the final album track, Always on My Mind (cover of the Pet Shop Boy's cover!) sounds good and Bruce was doing good work on his up-tempo guitar work. As mentioned Crockett's Theme is excellent and that track does suit them very well and it compliments Mr Hammer's orignal composition nicely. Riders In The Sky '90, well as an 80s kid, I like to hear a bit of rocking , thanks to Brian Bennett's drum work at the start. This track suit Sme better than the original recording from String of Hits.

These later albums all did well in the album charts so they were popular not just with Shads fans but with the wider public as well and someone mentioned, it allowed the group to Tour and fill their boots if they wanted to do original material on stage. I have heard that the group felt that creativity was stifled with recording these albums but at the same time, they remained very professional about it and the quality of the recordings speak for themselves. A question that I have often thought about is, if The Shadows had continued into the 1990s, would they have done the same series of albums or would the Record Company give them more freedom to do what they would like to do.

Many have said that creativity came to a halt when Hank moved to Australia. However, I am not too sure about that. Hank recorded his first two 90s albums at Brian Bennet's home studio back here in England and some of the tracks were co-written with Brian and Warren and they were very good. However, Hank did start to use his own studio in Perth later and I guess Warren looked after the arrangements more back in England, unless he travelled out to Perth to work on the albums more closely with Hank presence?.

[Iain Purdon]

It's interesting to read the views of a younger member of this forum. Tastes and expectations are not universal and I found what you said well worth reading.

Cheers - Iain

[scmitche]

Greetings!

Been a member of this forum for a few months now but this is the first post!

Interesting subject raised about the Eighties decade for The Shads. Being born in 1980 does make me a youngster considering the length of Their career. However, having been a Shads fan since 1995 when my Dad took me to see Hank play at Bristol when I was 15 years of age, I was hooked as the opening notes to Live and Let Die were played by Hank. Since then I have been listening and playing Shadows and some of Hank's solo works too.

I have all of the Shadows albums that they made during the late Eighties and two from the earlier part of that Decade; String of Hits and Guardian Angel-Plus on CD. I also have Rocking With Curly Leads from the 70s too (also on CD). However, as good as these albums are (espically three tracks from Guardian Angel) I still tend to listen to the last four Albums that they recorded; Moonlight Shadows, Simply, Steppin' to The Shadows and Reflection. I have heard and read many views that cast a lot of criticism on track selection for Steppin' but in all honesty, they are not bad. Even Simply Shadows has several good tracks. My favourite album of The Shads is their last one, Reflection, especially Crockett's Theme and Riders In The Sky '90, which I prefer more rather than the original 1980 track. Why do I like these later albums? Well, I was born in 1980 and so I have more of a conection to songs that The Shadows recorded in the later years and I have to say that there are tracks that The Shads have covered, which sound a lot better than the originals! One track that comes to mind is When The Going Get Tough, originally a Billy Ocean number. The original sounds ok but it still just sounds flat compared to The Shad's cover version and that is the same with a lot of other tracks that they recorded. The same can be said for The Police with Every Breath You Take, the orignal sounded dumbed down, whereas The Shads came along and give it more expression, thanks to Hank's use of the Foot Pedal to give that 'swell' feel to the notes.

Personally, with Reflection, it sounds as though they were reaching a turning point in their recording and there did seem to be a bit more creativity come into the album with interpreting songs. As an example, Right Here Waiting featured an Acoustic guitar whereas there was none before in the last three albums. Strawberry Fields had a warmth to it that is difficult to describe and Something Gotten Hold of My Heart was very smooth with excellent echoes from Hank and you can listen to Bruce's delicate acoustic playing during the slower parts of the rack. Even the final album track, Always on My Mind (cover of the Pet Shop Boy's cover!) sounds good and Bruce was doing good work on his up-tempo guitar work. As mentioned Crockett's Theme is excellent and that track does suit them very well and it compliments Mr Hammer's orignal composition nicely. Riders In The Sky '90, well as an 80s kid, I like to hear a bit of rocking , thanks to Brian Bennett's drum work at the start. This track suit Sme better than the original recording from String of Hits.

These later albums all did well in the album charts so they were popular not just with Shads fans but with the wider public as well and someone mentioned, it allowed the group to Tour and fill their boots if they wanted to do original material on stage. I have heard that the group felt that creativity was stifled with recording these albums but at the same time, they remained very professional about it and the quality of the recordings speak for themselves. A question that I have often thought about is, if The Shadows had continued into the 1990s, would they have done the same series of albums or would the Record Company give them more freedom to do what they would like to do.

Many have said that creativity came to a halt when Hank moved to Australia. However, I am not too sure about that. Hank recorded his first two 90s albums at Brian Bennet's home studio back here in England and some of the tracks were co-written with Brian and Warren and they were very good. However, Hank did start to use his own studio in Perth later and I guess Warren looked after the arrangements more back in England, unless he travelled out to Perth to work on the albums more closely with Hank presence?.

Hi Phil,
I thought as an "oldie" at 66 that your post was a very reasoned analytical piece. At the end of the day, as Ian said, all this is subjective and different people will like some numbers more than others but at least we have a wealth of recorded material by the Shadows to look back on and we can select our personal favourites at will.
Recently I have found myself myself looking for other guitarists who play well in the style of Hank and would recommend the superb Dutch guitarist Pete Korving. Tonight I found an instrumental by him which you may like - a Katie Melua song of all things and played with beautiful feeling . Good musicians like this keep the interest in "our music" alive and well.
https://soundcloud.com/riny-van-herwijnen/closest-thing-to-crazy-by-pete?in=riny-van-herwijnen/sets/my-jukebox

Hope you enjoy it.
Happy New Year,
Steve Mitchell