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Today it's 40 years ago that the recordings were made at the London Palladium of Cliff and The Shadows' reunion concerts. They are among my favourite live recordings. Were any fans on this forum present during the shows?

I was at the Palladium when the recording was made. Memorable for me as I had only really "discovered" The Shadows upon the release of the "20 Golden Greats " LP, and had only seen them for the first time on the "20 Golden Dates" tour at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, so to see Cliff and the Shadows together was very special.
I was 16 when 20 Golden Greats was released, and up until that point I was into Punk and was all set to follow that path but I remember seeing the TV ad for 20 Golden Greats thought... Wow!!!!!...and that was it... I was hooked !!!. So I have only been a fan of The Shadows for 41 years!!!!!!!!!

I was at the London Palladium two days earlier, on March 2nd.

A friend and I drove down from Liverpool to London that morning and back again that night.

Saw the show. Terrific format with Cliff and Shads/Shads/Cliff and current band - and the climax is still worthy of goose bumps even now. In fact I'd rather hoped they'd have done TUVM as the end of the Final Tour as well.

Strange thing though that they were regarded as 'old' then and a 20 year stint seemed surely to have to be ending soon - but both acts were in fact about to hit some pretty good years especially Sir Clff. And now 20 years seems nothing!

JimN wrote:I was at the London Palladium two days earlier, on March 2nd.

A friend and I drove down from Liverpool to London that morning and back again that night.

It would cost you more to park now in London than the cost of your London Palladium tickets / and petrol from Liverpool and back!

I was at the concert on a Friday night. I can't remember what the date was but seem to recall that they were in residence at The Palladium for a fortnight.

I'm pretty sure there was no recording on the night I was there. From memory (again) I think the album sleeve suggested it was recorded over two nights.

bazmusicman wrote:

JimN wrote:I was at the London Palladium two days earlier, on March 2nd.

A friend and I drove down from Liverpool to London that morning and back again that night.

It would cost you more to park now in London than the cost of your London Palladium tickets / and petrol from Liverpool and back!

We parked at Euston during the day and got the Northern Line down into the West End. I think the underground parking there cost us about £2 (which was a lot for parking in 1978 - about the price of 2.5 gallons of petrol - equivalent to about £13 today). Later, around 6pm, I retrieved the car and parked it outside the Palladium free of charge, a few yards from the theatre's stage door and back-yard gate in Great Marlborough Street. It was the first time I'd ever been inside the Palladium, even though I had lived in London all the way through the Cliff Richard / MWF summer season there in 1972.

I have never been one to either make notes on set lists at concerts, or, very much, to keep paraphernalia other than programmes, but by pure chance, when going through a recently-unearthed old pocketbook last week, I came across this little bit of memorabilia from 2nd March 1978:

"To be retained", it said, and even though unintentionally, I did...

JimN wrote:I have never been one to either make notes on set lists at concerts, or, very much, to keep paraphernalia other than programmes, but by pure chance, when going through a recently-unearthed old pocketbook last week, I cam acreoss this lillt bit of memorabilia from 2nd March 1978:

"To be retained", it said, and even though unintentionally, I did...

Hi Jim

Your post made me dig out my tickets and sure enough I was also there on 2nd March in the Royal Circle B19/20.

I can't find my copy of the concert so not sure if it was the night we were there or the recording, but seem to remember that when Hank came on to do the final number "Thank You Very Much" he had problems with his amp and spent quite a few seconds trying to find one working. Whether he ever did or just mimed we shall never know.

Fantastic concert though.

Graham

Alas, I never saw that one. Spent lots of time trying to get through to the box office but never made it... This was before I knew about ticket agencies!

George