The ShadowMusic Web Community

5th October, 1958...

Cliff and the Shadows (Drifters at the time) played their very first gig together - at the Victoria Hall, Hanley. Apparently.

Yes, the start of the Kalin Twins' tour.

This must have been when Bruce and Hank joined ,The Drifters existed before that with a different line up. The first edition of Oh Boy featured Cliff and The Drifters with only a drummer and guitarist ,I don`t think there is any recordings of this show,a piece of history lost.

Yes, Hank and Bruce (indirectly) were recruited by Cliff''s early manager, John Foster, to join original Drifters members, Ian Samwell and Terry Smart, for the purpose of that tour.

Bill

The first choice for Cliff's backing band was to include a certain Tony Sheridan but for some reason he couldn't be found, then Hank and Bruce were recruited.
I wonder how things would have turned out for them if Tony was recruited. We'll never know.

Very differently, would have impacted on the Beatles' career as well!

I think we can safely say that fate played its hand to the best advantage of all concerned!

Bill

Fenderman wrote:The first choice for Cliff's backing band was to include a certain Tony Sheridan but for some reason he couldn't be found, then Hank and Bruce were recruited. I wonder how things would have turned out for them if Tony was recruited. We'll never know.

I think we can see how good a fit Sheridan would have been, just as how Bennett and Locking were natural successors to Meehan and Harris...

I was listening to the 1997 4 CD box "The Rock 'N' Roll Years 1958-1963" again this weekend and very much enjoyed it. A lot of those early rock 'n' roll tracks by Cliff & The Drifters/The Shadows still sound quite fresh to me. They were a very talented combo, even in the early days.