Iain Purdon wrote:They did it partly because they had changed record companies and could no longer rerelease material they had recorded for EMI.
I'm not sure I follow that. As EMI-signed artistes, The Shadows (and Cliff Richard) had
never had the right to release, re-release or otherwise exploit their EMI contractual recordings. Those belonged to EMI outright and the company had always been in control of them. What The Shadows were seeking in 1980 was a deal broadly similar to what certain other artistes had had for some years, which was a licensing deal whereby they made and owned their own new recordings and licensed EMI to release them, with the ultimate artistic control retained by the group. In effect, the deal would have been something like "
Here's the master tape of our latest album, "Change Of Address" and you may release it and retain a lease on the rights for [say]
five years".
After all, this was what The Beatles had done when they founded Apple. And people like Dave Clark, Elton John and even The Yardbirds had always had some control over their recordings, even though released on EMI-family labels.