SHADS 1975

[drakula63]

I wonder whats in the little white box beside John Farrar ?

His sandwiches.

[drakula63]

Known as: " Marvin, Welch & Farrar" I suppose Brian Bennett's name did not fit in with it.

IMO this was Hanks attempt to become a vocal group, I can not say it left any impression on me
then or now.

Pete

Not quite. Brian was not a member of this group, which is why his name isn't there. Nor is Dave Richmond's but both of them played as session musicians on the Second Opinion album. The drummer on the first album, titled Marvin Welch & Farrar, was Clem Cattini.

As to becoming a vocal group, Hank and Bruce began their London career in the late 50s as a vocal duo singing Everly Brothers material. The instrumentals came later. Throughout the first incarnation of the Shadows Hank and Bruce provided backing vocals on many Cliff Richard numbers, and all the Shadows LPs except Jigsaw included songs as well as tunes. MWF was simply an extension of that side of their skills after they met John Farrar, who made a step change in what they could tackle. Although not successful in the way the Shadows had been, their work was acclaimed at the time and, if I remember rightly, Second Opinion came second in awards that year for best quadraphonic recording, first place having gone to Cat Stevens.

Marvin, Welch and Farrar were BRILLIANT. End of story.

If ANY of these songs had been written and recorded by ANY ex-member of the Beatles, they would have been classed as 'classics'. Second Opinion is my favourite MWF album - indeed, it's one of my favourite albums of all time from ANYONE. I hadn't heard the Cat Stevens story, but I knew that the engineers at Abbey Road (the best recording studio in world) regarded S/O as the best album that had come out of the studio (possibly this refers to 1970 as opposed to EVER!!!!). I have it four times on vinyl - two in Quad. It's a masterpiece. The follow up, Marvin and Farrar, is also pretty good (Trevor Spencer on drums). End of sermon.

[Iain Purdon]

Second Opinion is also my favourite album. The vocal sound and harmonies are just splendid, the musicianship is of the highest order and many of the melodies are memorable. The lyrics are more patchy though, some great, some not so much. IMO

[drakula63]

SHADOWS BRUCE.jpg

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[drakula63]

SHADOWS HANK.jpg

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[drakula63]

SHADOWS.jpg

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[drakula63]

Just added three Shads pics - above. Found these somewhere. I believe that they are from Top of the Pops. As these editions have now been wiped, these are probably the only colour pics from these appearances. ENJOY!