The Shadows in the Eighties...

[flingelbunt]

Like Iain, I found the above post of interest, and refreshing. I have all of the 80's albums and with some exceptions, if you listen closely to the arrangements there are a lot of subtle things going on musically. As an example, 'Memory' is not a straight lift from the original, and rises from its initial key of A major into the centre section which is basically in A minor, before ending in C major! (I used to feature a guitar instro with my old Birmingham band 'Pastiche' of Memory, based on the full show piano copy which is quite different in many ways to the Shad's version). A track I feature and always goes down well is 'Hello', where I play the centre guitar lead as Lionel Richie's version- Hank plays his own solo across that section on the album, and I do find that a little 'weak', but that's where my bank balance differs from his!! A lot of the clever musical arrangements were Cliff Hall's input, and those arrangements clearly show his understanding of chord and key changes from his jazz roots.
In any case, as has been pointed out many times, the Shads early albums contained many covers. Their sound was unique then and I firmly believe they could not have covered the 80's material with their 'old sound'. Hank has always been a master 'voicing' with his lead work and ultimately that became the formula for the Polydor years.
Despite this, I still love to listen to the occasional 'original' such as Pierre's 'Farewell my Lovely' which is a gem.

Incidentally, I'm loving Hank's take on Django- the minute I listened to him play this style, I couldn't help but notice that his unmistakeable approach still shines through.

I rest my case your honour......

Maurice
Lord Flingel of Buntshire

[howarddobson]

It's interesting that even in the 90s the Shads charted with compilations of the 80s recordings - Shadows in the Night and Themes and Dreams. Perhaps some people thought they were new albums, perhaps Polydor hoped the Shads might be up and running again and this would fill the gap. It's interesting that these managed to chart twice though. Shows that these versions had plenty of appeal.

[Gary Allen]

Can anyone suggest what songs they should have covered in the 80s?, I cant remember a decent melody in the charts from the mid to late 80s. regards gary

[captainhaddock]

I know that I am biased in a big way, but The Shadows playing John Barry, + some of the material that Sky covered, + some of the Stuff that The Spotnicks produced ie "Johnny Guitar" would be a good beginning. A 1960's Tv theme album would have been great as well. I enjoyed Hank's "Into the light" and his eponymous LP greatly . The Shadows always produced covers to varying degrees of success, but for me it seems that for the last few years material like the Eastenders theme and the "Skye boat song" were not acceptable.

[Iain Purdon]

The one thing I wish they had done more, and which still could be done by anyone good enough, is classical covers or rearrangements. Hello Mr WAM and Mozart Forte were good fun. The advantage with such material is that the tunes are good as they are - they don't rely on a vocal.

[dolmo333]

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?.

Coluld not agree more. I was born in 1981 so we share the same values. I also like the fact that i'm not the only one who thinks Riders in the sky 90' is the best.

Best regards

Daniel, Sweden

[drakula63]

Having read most of the posts on this thread, I thought I’d pitch in with a few more comments and observations.

Yes, it has often been stated that the Shadows resorted to playing ‘slavish copies of the originals’ on most of their albums from the 1980s, and whilst I can understand why this general opinion of things might be held, it’s certainly wrong to suggest that the Shadows put out anything that approached a shoddy product. It’s also worth stating that many of the arrangements that they apparently ‘slavishly copied’ were in themselves arrived at with no little skill and to even attempt to ‘copy’ them required a not inconsiderable degree of talent. It’s also worth noting that the 1980s was the era of the super-producer (Trevor Horn comes most readily to mind) and mind-blowingly sophisticated production on albums by the likes of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Go West, Prince, Whitney Houston and Cliff Richard to name but a few. It was also the era of the dreaded over-produced ‘corporate rock’ sound of US bands such as Toto, Foreigner and Survivor. Taking all of this into consideration, it’s hardly surprising that the Shads were influenced by it, stepped up to the plate, as it were, and decided to take full advantage of the apparent benefits that the new (and at the time exciting) technology offered.

Last night I decided to listen to ‘Steppin’ to the Shadows’ – an album that I didn’t bother with at the time (1989), but bought recently on CD because I found it in a bargain shop for a couple of quid. My thoughts on it are two-fold. First of all it is an expertly and highly-polished album. In terms of production and the faithful reproduction of some quite sophisticated sounds and arrangements, it is faultless. But therein lies the problem. I always liked the fact that, on record, the Shadows sounded somehow ‘live’, with a sound that you could imagine would be easily transposed to the stage. With ‘Steppin to the Shadows’ it seems, to me, that the magic has gone. I struggle now to think of any track on the album on which Bruce is prominent enough as to be missed if he was removed from the mix. This is a situation that was never the case during the 60s and 70s and a situation that should NEVER have been allowed to develop. Similarly, although his playing is immaculate, Hank’s sound seems a little thin and compressed to me. Brian’s reliance on electronic drums and, I think, programmable Linn drums, takes much away from his usual impeccable sound and ‘feel’. This is certainly the album (or one of them) on which the keyboards take the place of the rhythm guitar, to the detriment of the band.

In terms of the material on offer; to me the album only really starts to sound ‘good’ with ‘Farewell My Lovely’ (track five) and on the other original numbers; ‘Shoba’, ‘Stack It’ and ‘Mountains of the Moon’ (the latter having a melody as strong as anything else on the album). Their version of Heart’s ‘Alone’ is notable for some pretty heavy power-chords, which I cannot really think were played by Bruce, as is ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’. Otherwise, I find the sound of the album just too controlled and clinical. It could almost, almost, be Hank playing to backing tracks and not the product of one of the greatest instrumental groups of all time. There is very little here to differentiate it from the albums Mr Marvin released during the 1990s under his own name. I have to wonder, by 1989, exactly WHO these albums were aimed at and for what end? Were they just intended as ‘musak’ to be played in the background at parties? The skill and effort that must have gone into them is undisputed, but I personally think that, despite the commercial success these albums enjoyed, they were hardly ever worthy of the band that recorded them.

Of course, having said all this, I understand that pressures applied to the band by the record company must have played a huge part in the choice of material and overall sound. For my money, nothing touches the simplistic clarity of the original recording of ‘Apache’ (I doubt that anyone has ever got an acoustic guitar to sound so good) and the power and inventiveness of Rockin’ With Curly Leads’. Having said all that; the commercial success of their 1980s albums allowed the band to tour throughout the decade and gave me the opportunity to see them live many times. And for that I am eternally grateful.

Chris.

[LANKY]

The Shads' output in the 80s was undoubtedly very mixed, but the first half of the decade produced, for me, some highly listenable albums. I love "Hits right up your street", "Change of address" and "Guardian angel" in particular which sounds as though they were really determined to make a great record. I also love Live at Abbey Road - it sounds as though they were having fun - the version of Johnny B. Goode is a belter (so is Cliff's version on his current album). Otherwise there were several albums which might be filed under "contractual obligations"!!

[drakula63]

P.S. Their version of The Third Man was possibly the best cover version they did from the 1980s and SHOULD have been a HUGE hit.