Shadows Live at the BBC????

[drakula63]

IT'S ARRIVED !!!!

Don't want to say too much at present, mainly 'cos I've only listened to one track so far!

All I will say is that Track 17, Apache, is definitely NOT the one heard on the Sounds on Sunday radio show with John Peel. This one, listed as being from The Saturday Club from November '73, sounds closer to the original than the SoS version.

The packaging is a simple digipak and so no liner notes. This is a bit of a shame as I feel that there could have been some great stories to be told. Still, it's taken twenty years to get out and, thus far, I am very impressed!

Thanks Leo's Den and to everyone who has made this happen at long last!

Now... back to the CD player!!!!

[rjw]

Raises a few questions - additional instruments here and there - which one of them had two pairs of hands? Were tapes being used in sinc?
Turn around and touch me is so close to the original. Not my memory of hearing it on John Peel. Possibly re-mastering has done it. Fantastic performance for being live.
Very interesting to hear after all these years

[drakula63]

Just listened to half a dozen more tracks... want to save some for tonight!

Amazing! The quality is incredible and everything I have heard so far, in terms of sound and playing, is comparable to the much loved and familiar original versions. It's a bit like hearing their 'live' versions but in a studio environment. Brilliant drumming from Brian throughout. There is some talking between some of the tracks. If this album isn't in EVERY Shads fans collection then I will be surprised. The best and most important Shads release for many years. Apart from the lack of sleeve notes, this is way beyond a ten out of ten from me!!!!

[Rich Cowling]

A fabulous journey back in time...how brilliant they were a great project ....

[MartcasterJunior]

On the “extra instruments” issue, some BBC “in session” programmes let bands do overdubs didn’t they? So they were less “live in concert” and more “specially recorded for this programme” (I’m thinking of some of the Queen BBC sessions here).

[Fenderman]

Ordered mines from Amazon, it'll arrive tomorrow sadly i won't be home till late as i have a leaving do to go to.
It would have been nice for some liner notes and perhaps a small booklet with some interviews with the boys and perhaps some photos but for the amount of time it has taken to get this project out it's fine but why start at 1965? There's recordings stretching back to 1959.

[drakula63]

I am intrigued.

Just listened to the remainder of the album.

Both 'Jungle Jam' and 'Turn Around and Touch Me' sound, to my ears, EXACTLY like the versions from Rockin' With Curly Leads. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that they are! They sound as near to identical as it would be possible. Put it this way, they are NOT the versions heard during Sounds on Sunday! Maybe they have been slightly remixed, but these are definitely the original versions.

And I'm not even going to mention the (non musical) mistake at the beginning of 'Naughty Nippon Nights' !

All in all, despite one or two minor flaws, this is an amazing album which should be on everyone's CD player this week!!!!

I shall be interested in the opinions of the more learned members of this forum on the subject of these 'anomalies'. Given that this album is released on the Parlophone label - and given that Parlophone was part of EMI - could it possibly be that someone has supplied them with the wrong tapes for 'Jungle Jam' and 'Turn Around and Touch Me'? That's the only reason I can think of. Alternatively, could there have been 'single edits' or 'radio edits' of 'JJ' and 'TAATM' at the BBC and these have been supplied by mistake?

P.S. Keeping my fingers crossed for a volume 2. Oh and 'Scotch on the Socks' is brilliant!

[MartcasterJunior]

Yeah I'm pretty convinced that Jungle Jam is the studio versions, although not the same mix as the 1999 CD reissues. I'm undecided on Turn Around And Touch Me (mainly because I'm not as familiar with it). If it isn't then it's very close. That's a shame, if it is a version/tape mixup.

But, on a more positive note, great to finally see this out. There's some cracking versions on there and I'm quite glad that it represents some of the less well-known Shads tracks.

Matt

[iefje]

Raises a few questions - additional instruments here and there - which one of them had two pairs of hands? Were tapes being used in sinc?
Turn around and touch me is so close to the original. Not my memory of hearing it on John Peel. Possibly re-mastering has done it. Fantastic performance for being live.
Very interesting to hear after all these years

I've noticed this too. For instance, "Tennessee Waltz" has two lead guitar parts, similar to the studio version from the "Jigsaw" album and "Snap, Crackle And How's Your Dad" has two rhythm guitar parts (or should that be two lead guitar parts?) as well as a piano. The John Peel radio show version of "Turn Around And Touch Me" features overdubbed piano, which, as John Peel mentions during his introduction of the group, is played by Brian. "Wonderful Land" features a mellotron or synthesizer accompaniment (the sustained notes), probably also played by Brian and it seems John Farrar plays on second lead guitar with a 'synth-like effect' doubling up Hank's lead guitar during the middle-eight.

[drakula63]

I sat and listened to the whole album again last night, on a different system, and the versions of 'JJ' and 'TAATM' are definitely both from Rocking'... - although they do sound slightly different to the extent that a little bit of remixing or something might have been done. But essentially you are hearing the same thing as on the album. I also played the actual versions from the Sounds on Sunday show - and they are wildly different, to the extent that you wouldn't confuse them with the originals. A real mystery this, but I can only reiterate my theories that someone at the Beeb handed over the wrong tapes! What is such a shame is that if they'd come to virtually anyone on this forum, I suspect that we could have had a listen and said "Whoa! That's not right!" I am now wondering if they may have to repress the CD as they are effectively passing off EMI recordings as BBC recordings. Any thoughts?

Despite this, the album is brilliant and I actually enjoyed it just as much - maybe even more - on second listening. There's some fantastic playing on there from all concerned.

Having read Arpeggio's posts from another thread, I now have a better understanding of the situation. Essentially the BBC have issued 21 of the recordings in their vaults (19 if you accept that the wrong versions of the above have been used), which leaves the outstanding tracks from the Sounds on Sunday programme and, from 1963, Nivram and Dance On.

I believe that Rollercoaster records are still actively pursuing the release of the pre-1963 stuff (1959-1962, I believe) and it looks certain that it WILL happen sooner or later.

In the meantime, this CD, which is almost like CD 2 of a two-CD set (as it perhaps should have been?) is essential listening.