The Shadows At Sixty

[EJK]

I think it's going a bit far to suggest that the Rapiers and the Runaways helped to put the Shadows on the map, worldwide! I'd suggest that the Shadows did a pretty fair job of that themselves!

However... this goes to support what I said about there probably being tons of footage for this documentary that ended up on the cutting room floor and how it would be great to see it all included on a DVD release. Or do we think that John Farrar only made two comments that totalled about ten seconds? An extended version of the documentary (or just the existing version but with all the additional/unused footage on as unedited extras), plus all the music clips in their entirety and in their correct picture aspect ratio would be great. I'd buy it. And I bet everyone reading this post would too... and a few thousand others.

Regarding footage ending up on the cutting room floor, do you, or anyone else, know if the complete footage of The Savage in The Young Ones exists or what happened to the first part? Whilst a few seconds of The Savage was shown last week it would have been better to have seen most of it rather than the clip from Summer Holiday singing Bachelor Boy as The Savage was more representative of the band especially with the original line up.

[andykombi]

They showed a few seconds of the event. And hank talking about the Deer hunter. Whats happened to the set the shadows did ??

[Iain Purdon]

Whilst a few seconds of The Savage was shown last week it would have been better to have seen most of it rather than the clip from Summer Holiday singing Bachelor Boy as The Savage was more representative of the band especially with the original line up.

I know what you’re saying but I can’t agree with it! The original line-up was all over the programme. Apart from Brian, its successors were under-represented.

[drakula63]

I would think it extremely unlikely that the complete performance of 'The Savage' still exists. This was, after all, a film made about SIXTY years ago and I can't imagine for one moment that the film trims still exist. I could be wrong, but I'd be willing to bet that they were lost decades ago.

The performances of Cliff and the Shadows and the Shadows, from The Event, have been discussed elsewhere in this thread. They are probably still on a shelf somewhere, but unlikely to see the light of day.

[Pinner Fan]

Where was Licorice Locking ?? !!

He is still around ............
.

[GoldenStreet]

You imagine that most of the thousands of feet of discarded film over decades ended up being destroyed rather than expensively stored in huge repositories of off-cuts. It is unfortunate we never got to see Jet and Tony's intro to Witch Doctor (the original title), so have to settle for the audio only, eventually issued on the CD, The Shadows At Abbey Road.

Bill

[MeBHank]

Where was Licorice Locking ?? !!

He is still around ............
.

Brian told me he was asked but decided to not make the trip to London.

[EJK]

Whilst a few seconds of The Savage was shown last week it would have been better to have seen most of it rather than the clip from Summer Holiday singing Bachelor Boy as The Savage was more representative of the band especially with the original line up.

I know what you’re saying but I can’t agree with it! The original line-up was all over the programme. Apart from Brian, its successors were under-represented.

My query re the film footage was that in many other subjects, film out-takes supposedly destroyed/discarded come to the surface many years later.

The disappointing aspect of the Cliff Richard film The Young Ones was that The Shadows were hardly in it as Bruce Welch alluded to in his autobiography. When I and some pals who played in bands, as I did at time of its release, (we were in our teens), we thought that it was too sugary, more suited for our parents generation rather than for us teenagers. The consensus, not only by us but by plenty of others in our age group, was that the only decent bit of it was at the end with half of The Savage and We Say Yeah. Bear in mind that at that time The Shadows singles, Apache, Man of Mystery/The Stranger, FBI, The Frightened City, Kon-Tiki and The Savage plus the EP with Shotgun etc. and the first LP were all harder edged stuff as Jet Harris said when he described his playing as “giving it a bit of welly”. Whilst the Bachelor Boy clip from Summer Holiday was all very well, that was not what the band was about. Round and Round would have been more appropriate for inclusion.

Over that early period there was next to nothing highlighted in the programme about the style of Jet Harris and Tony Meehan who contributed greatly to “the sound”. The later period with the equally great Brian Bennett and John Rostill line up was glossed over, for example nothing about one of their classic singles, The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt let alone the successful LPs they made until the end in 1968.

We fans are au fait with it all, but for those not and viewing the programme, of which there would be a good number, bearing in mind the virus situation with people tied to staying in and looking at more TV, they would get the wrong impression of The Shadows. In these early years their influence to the music in the UK cannot be underestimated but in quite a few quarters is conveniently ignored as according to them British Rock music started in 1963.

It is all subjective of course and I suppose it depends of when you first came under The Shadows spell. For us in at the beginning it was fantastic!

[russ]

I don't think because of the lockdown the documentary got those extra high viewing figures, there is more choice these days of other channels, not like the old days when there was only 3 or maybe 4 channels or 2 sometimes if they were on strike! People genuinely wanted to watch it. I see it is now the highest watched 9pm music documentary for over a year on BBC4.It was mentioned earlier that it wouldn't sell to America.Perhaps not as well as it could have, again due to time there was no mention of the early USA tours or TV show appearances with Cliff( some Americans have been fans since those days and flew in from the States during the Final Reunion tour to see them) and the success their songwriting and producing brought Olivia. Even other US artists have covered Shadows songs, there is even a video on YT of a country singer performing her version of "This House Runs on Sunshine".Times are good though, certainly a lot more interest and sales, "50 Golden Greats" and "A Thousand Conversations the Best of Marvin Welch and Farrar" have spiked in the last week, perhaps the documentary has brought in a new legion of fans?

[drakula63]

I don't think because of the lockdown the documentary got those extra high viewing figures, there is more choice these days of other channels, not like the old days when there was only 3 or maybe 4 channels or 2 sometimes if they were on strike! People genuinely wanted to watch it. I see it is now the highest watched 9pm music documentary for over a year on BBC4.It was mentioned earlier that it wouldn't sell to America.Perhaps not as well as it could have, again due to time there was no mention of the early USA tours or TV show appearances with Cliff( some Americans have been fans since those days and flew in from the States during the Final Reunion tour to see them) and the success their songwriting and producing brought Olivia. Even other US artists have covered Shadows songs, there is even a video on YT of a country singer performing her version of "This House Runs on Sunshine".Times are good though, certainly a lot more interest and sales, "50 Golden Greats" and "A Thousand Conversations the Best of Marvin Welch and Farrar" have spiked in the last week, perhaps the documentary has brought in a new legion of fans?

Great news regarding the viewing figures and the increase in sales. The move from July to May 1st was probably a good one... but I agree that the majority of people who watched it were those who wanted to watch it anyway. I know that they DID make an impression in parts of the US and it's indeed true that Randy Bachman and Neil Young were at their final concert in 2004 (I think). Never the less, I can't see any DVD being released over there. I still maintain that an extended edition with extras would do well just about everywhere else! Maybe the powers that be will reconsider.