Why not a 'Shadows story' movie?

[Paul Childs]

I don't know why there hasn't been a movie on The Shadows story after all these years? not one of Cliff either. It has been done with a lot of others so why not them?
There is a lot to their story, starting with Hank & Bruce in Newcastle and Jet & Tony in London, then the 2 Is era and getting together with Cliff etc. Would be a good movie.

[Hank2k]

totally agree.

oddly enough i was thinking the same last night as i watched the beatles touring years for the first time. It would be great to see something similar of The Shadows.

On a side note it was quite eye opening watching the beatles go from being cheeky happy lads playing fun joyful music to then just 6 years later playing music with serious meaning and looking miserable in interviews etc.

[Fenderman]

They could do one in several parts, part one could deal with their early years till they met Cliff then the second part could take in the golden years, it could end with the 1968 split. Later parts would deal up till the last gigs in 2010.

[cockroach]

Not enough drugs, bad behaviour, sensationalism etc in their story to interest people these days!

As another well behaved group, The Seekers said about their own touring years, that they were the only group in the '60's which didn't wreck hotel rooms- they used to tidy them up!

[RayL]

There is the basis of a 'rags to riches' movie in the story of Bruce and Hank up to, say, the first day of the first tour with Cliff, at the Victoria Hall in Hanley. A bigger movie than that would have to telescope the touring years and the movie years and the pantomime years to get to the breakup, just so that the movie could end with them getting back together again (rather like Spinal Tap).

The problem with making a movie is that the screenplay will never be exactly like the real events (so Shadows fans will be displeased) and the actors won't be exactly like the real people or talk in exactly the same way (so Shadows fans will be displeased) and the music won't sound exactly the same and 'essential' tunes will be left out (so Shadows fans will be displeased). Cor! Any producer of such a movie would be on a hiding to nothing.

For an example of what you might end up with, just look at Telstar, the play and then film about Joe Meek. The play was rather like an end-of-the-pier farce, with people popping in and out of doorways. The film was much darker, quite uncomfortable to watch. Or check out at the film The Buddy Holly Story - again very disappointing to real fans.

What should work is a documentary. The real events, the real people, the real music. The problem is, it's been tried and it's too expensive. Bruce tried to do it in the 1990s but the royalty cost of all the essential film and video clips was just too great and would not have been off-set by the sales. Some of you may remember those tantalising glimpses from the 'rough cut' being shown on a screen at the side of the stage during a Shadowmania in the 1990s.

[Moderne]

The sad thing about the documentary idea is that so many of the 'talking heads' who would make it authoritative and watchable are sadly no longer with us. In the 1980s, the BBC2 documentary series Arena included several editions about Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers etc. It would have been so great if they'd done one on The Shadows then when just about everyone (except Norrie Paramor) was still alive...but the opportunity was missed. Also a certain amount of 'muck-raking' would probably have been required which I don't think Hank would have wanted to be a party to (which is also why he has resisted calls for him to write an autobiography). Apparently the idea for a South Bank Show on The Shadows was put to Melvyn Bragg once, but he said he thought the moment had passed.

I well remember the 'Shadows on the box' feature of Shadowmania. It was the same video each year and I used to watch it intently, hoping each year that it would run for longer than previous years so that I would see more clips I hadn't seen before. (I was too young to remember The Shadows' regular TV appearances in the '60s). Now, of course, most of the stuff is on YouTube!

I agree with Ray about the drawbacks to the film idea and well remember the furore when Telstar came out - including a scene showing Patrick Pink (Joe's studio assistant) pointing a gun at Heinz, which Patrick was adamant had never happened. Having said that, I think the life story of Jet would make a great film, but again it would probably cause upset amongst Jet's family and friends...

[John Boyd]

Ray, I'm with you on that one. A documentary shot something like the recent 'Eight Days a Week' Beatles doco.
As you say, the budget would be the big problem. All musical performances would have to be licensed from copyright owners
and that doesn't come cheaply - sadly. One can still hope or dream that something might happen in our lifetimes.
JB

[Allclaphands]

Would very much like to see it but would it get the backing for it from everyone?

Pete

[drakula63]

I have a strange feeling that the Melvyn Bragg comment came in the reply to a letter from me with a suggestion that they feature the Shadows in an edition of The South Bank Show. This must have been way back in the 1990s.

Sadly, this is a topic that we've discussed here several times before and shall probably be doing so in another ten years! I recently wrote to both Mark Cooper and the Head of BBC2/BBC4 suggesting a 'Shadows at the BBC' compilation programme - I even did all the leg work for them and provided them with two separate lists of tunes and dates etc... Needless to say, I received no reply from either - a bit rude seeing as how I help to pay their wages. Still, that's the BBC for you! Sadly I think their attitude reflects the generally held one now, i.e. that The Beatles started pop music in the UK and all those before were, in various degrees, insignificant. I think we'll see ten more films or documentaries about The Fab Four before we see one about the Shads.

[Uncle Fiesta]

I think the answer's quite simple (unfortunately). There are just not enough people who would be interested enough in watching such a film, to justify the time, expense and effort involved in making it.

The Shadows' story goes back fifty, nearly sixty years and is largely forgotten these days, indeed large numbers of people seem never even to have heard of them, if comments I get are anything to go by.

"So where do you go? What's a Shadows Club? Do you all dress in black cloaks or something?"

And when I tell them that the Shadows virtually kickstarted guitar playing in this country, all I get is a load of blank looks.