Reunion - Cliff - how arrogant

[Graylion]

Two things:- 1) Cliff's arrogance- As much as I love his music, and have since the earliest days, my personal experience is that he IS arrogant. (Don't tell my wife who is a "dyed-in-the-wool" Cliff fan and was the only person to scream at The Palladium in the "Established 1958" concert in 1968!) In the 46 years we've been going to his concerts I have never known him once come to the stage door for a "fan-call" and autograph signing - unlike The Shads! 2) Guitar playing height - it's mainly due to the length of your arms combined with the dimensions of the guitar! A sensible looking height (IMHO) is by the maestro himself - Hank.

My youngest son mostly plays bass around his kness - but he is 6'-6" tall and makes a Precision look small! He sometimes plays lead and has the guitar up to a more "normal" height. There is no absolute right or wrong way to set the height. I'm 6'-2" and my Burns Artiste is a short-scale with short neck so I can sling it down low if I like. I've never liked a solid electric high up on the chest - but I have fairly long arms so it's bound to be less comfortable having to bend both arms tightly with a short strap. Obviously a full-bodied acoustic like a J200 needs a different setup and would normally be used higher up - just above the waist seems to be an average position. A short player like my daughter-in-law, who is about 5'-3" and has a 38GG chest (No - HONEST!!), has different problems to overcome! She plays lead guitar and has it fairly "long-armed". Her Marshall full-stack is taller than her!! (She's married to my 6'-6" son and is also a part-time model!)
Cheers, Lionel

[Mike Honey]

Regards strap length; a few years ago i had a business called 'straps' (original eh?) making custom leather guitar straps. Most of the youngsters wanted their straps at between 6 and 7 feet in length. blimey thats half a cow!!

BTW 'Marshall full stack' is a great alternative name for a 38GG chest!!!

mike

[Pat Seaman]

I seem to remember Jimmy Page recently saying that he couldn't play barre(?) chords properly when his guitar was slung low, so it must, surely, be a 'posing' thing.

Pat.

[tony parnham]

On page 8 here, there are three words which have prompted me to post and those are Straps, Barre Chords and Hamburg. I was at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg for two months in 1964. We were housed in the attic and it was a dive with clientel of prostitutes, transvesti, drugs and alcohol, my word I did'nt half grow up at 18. You had to do 4 hours every night with 5 hours on a Saturday with another band. An hour off and an hour on. I never once ever heard anyone mention straps or Barre chords, it was so gruelling you strapped up whatever was natural to stand playing and singing for hours on end but I remember most guys did'nt do Barre chords just thumb over the 5th and 6th string because it was easiest and more comfortable for long period playing, Barre chords were just for photos to make you look cool.
Tony

[Bill Bowley]

Mere technicality, but it was 'The Drifters' not 'The Shadows' who backed the original 1959 release of 'Living Doll'.

Shame that the emotions unleashed against Cliff weren't able to be re- channeled into getting the 'other' original Shadow onto the tour, I do of course mean Jet Harris MBE (who was also on 'Living Doll' as a member of 'The Drifters' - recorded 28 April 1959 at Abbey road.).

[Pedro]

Barre chords were just for photos to make you look cool.
Tony

Agreed

[Bluesnote]

I disagree. Bar chords make it much easier to do the chord clearly once mastered, they also allow you to do some notes on top of them that you could'nt otherwise do. like a moving capo so to speak.
I use them all the time. I suppose the fact that I have shovels for hands helps a bit too
I got over the hurdle from day one and have never really thought them a problem.

[RUSSET]

Shame that the emotions unleashed against Cliff weren't able to be re- channeled into getting the 'other' original Shadow onto the tour, I do of course mean Jet Harris MBE (who was also on 'Living Doll' as a member of 'The Drifters' - recorded 28 April 1959 at Abbey road.).

It would, of course have been nice to see Jet in maybe a cameo on a couple of Shads tunes on the Reunited tour, but as we have all heard recently, I don't believe his health would have been up to gigging a long tour at present. Mark Griffith really was the best choice for the tour, without a doubt, & deservedly so.

Tony.

[Pedro]

Shame that the emotions unleashed against Cliff weren't able to be re- channeled into getting the 'other' original Shadow onto the tour, I do of course mean Jet Harris MBE (who was also on 'Living Doll' as a member of 'The Drifters' - recorded 28 April 1959 at Abbey road.).

It would, of course have been nice to see Jet in maybe a cameo on a couple of Shads tunes on the Reunited tour, but as we have all heard recently, I don't believe his health would have been up to gigging a long tour at present. Mark Griffith really was the best choice for the tour, without a doubt, & deservedly so.

Tony.

Tony'
Yours above confirms my previous on this subject. Some years ago I went along to see Jet and he was not that good. His health was probably failing then.
For him to attempt the reunion might have been his undoing. Sometimes it is good to have the nostalgia.

[Bill Bowley]

...and failing Jet, Liquorice is still around, however once again no mention. Maybe its an age thing in my case, having followed The Shads from day one and my impression of what makes up 'The Shadows' to me is just outdated.

In any case, I have tickets to the show in Sydney next month, and am eagerly looking forward to it.