The ShadowMusic Web Community

Happy new year, everyone.

For those of you in or around Sussex (or further afield, if you feel so inclined) my band Shazam! (the Sussex one) is playing at the Meridian Centre in Peacehaven on 27th March- see attached flyer- it would be great to see lots of people there. The quotes on the flyer are genuine- they're from the local parish magazine!

Incidentally, I noticed on the Eastbourne Theatres website that a band called 'The Fabulous Shadows' are playing at the Winter Gardens on 25th March. Anybody here involved with this or know who they are? I can't find any references on the net apart from ones that take you back to the Eastbourne Theatres site.

Cheers,

Simon

Excellent Simon... tell us a little more about your band and its members...

Here goes..........

We do a full two hour show, with all the hits, and a few things from the first album, plus some vocals as well. We also encourage a bit of audience participation with a ‘massed Shadows Walk’ in Shadoogie, which has to be seen to be believed!

Gear-wise, we use the obligatory Fiesta Red Strats, Burns Marvins, AC30s and Charlie Hall’s EFTP.

We’ve been together about two and a half years. I’ve been friends with Paul Harrington (rhythm) for about 25 years, when we met while playing in the pit band for the Brighton Scouts Gang Show. We instantly found out that we were both big fans of the Shadows. Why it took us this long to get a tribute band going is anybody’s guess- we should have done it years ago.

Our bass player is Peter Webb- this is the third band in a row we’ve been in together, and we can’t seem to shake each other off!

Drums is Paul’s son, Alex. He’s the youngest member of the band and he gets to sit down all night- something wrong here!

We do a few ‘Cliff’ things to break up the instrumentals a bit, and this is usually taken care of by my stepson, Jon Borthwick, who also happens to be Peacehaven’s official Town Crier.

Backing vocals and keyboards are taken care of by Paul’s wife, Sue.

Funny,

I'm sure there's a band in the midlands with the same name
I think Ian McCutcheon is involved in it.

Amanda

Simon Underwood wrote:
We do a few ‘Cliff’ things to break up the instrumentals a bit, and this is usually taken care of by my stepson, Jon Borthwick, who also happens to be Peacehaven’s official Town Crier.

Hi Simon - can your stepson get away without using the p.a.?
Chas.

Hi Amanda, you're quite right- Ian McCutcheon's band does have the same name, but hopefully we're far enough apart for it not to matter. I did a load of digging around at the time, about two and a half years ago, to see if any other band had that name, and couldn't find anything, but these things happen.

Chas- He probably doesn't need a PA, but 'We Say Oyez! Oyez!' didn't really work- the bell was in the wrong key as well!

Simon

The tickets have now been printed and are on sale. Thanks to those of you who supplied the info on the Fabulous Shadows- I see they've added another date on the Isle of Wight. Still intrigued by the photo of the van on the website!

Hope to see some of you there.

Simon

Simon Underwood wrote:Hi Amanda, you're quite right- Ian McCutcheon's band does have the same name, but hopefully we're far enough apart for it not to matter.

Ian Mc's Shazam has played in venues ranging from Southend to Stockton and at numerous Shadsfest type gatherings over the years both here and abroad. Having another band of the same name may not "matter" but I think it's unfortunate.

Iain

I think it's unfortunate, too. Like I said, I did a lot of digging around at the time, about two and a half years ago, and couldn't find any reference to another band with that name, but these things do happen. One of the names we originally considered was 'Specs Appeal' until we found out that there was a series of porn films about women in glasses with that name! We might have attracted a different kind of audience to the one intended!

Simon