The ShadowMusic Web Community

There is a channel on freeview called 'Talking Pictures'. They broadcast old films, mostly British, anything from the 1930s through to 70s. Last week they showed 'Expresso Bongo' from the late fifties starring Cliff Richard with the Shadows and Laurence Harvey. [b]At one point he sang " A voice in the Wilderness". always liked Hank's intro on that

Good from a historical point of view but a bit naff otherwise. Anothers I saw are '6.5 Special' & 'Ring a ding Rythm' showcasing a number of faces from the past, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Helen Shapiro, dj Alan Freeman and Gene Vincent.[/b] They do get repeated

I watched that our of curiosity last night and found myself enjoying it. The Shadows (or Drifters at the time) popped up a couple of times.
I found Laurence Harvey's character very annoying though and the film was really dated looking but CR fans would like it. I might see if they show Serious Charge as that was Cliff's first ever movie, i don't think the Drifters are in it though.
I'm not really a Cliff fan but i can stand him better than any of the crap you get these days.

IMHO, Expresso Bongo was Cliff's best film...and again IMHO, it was a good entertaining film generally, which captured the sleazy behind the scenes situation in the music business at that time.

Expresso Bongo was released in late 1959 but didn't reach most of the provinces until 1960 (the soundtrack EP wasn't even released until January 1960).

The group had already changed their name to The Shadows at all material times.