70s/80s trade press ads

[drakula63]

Does anyone know exactly when it was recorded? A shame they only recorded 7 new tracks for it.

As Ivo's records indicate, Tasty was not recorded as an entity. The recordings were made in 1974 and 1977. However none of the tracks had been released up to this point so, to the record buyer, they were all new.

In these days, the musicians were working as Shadows only part-time, so EMI would have had to wait until it had sufficient tracks to make an LP of them.

That's not strictly true. They recorded an album's worth of tracks in 1974 (all instrumental with Dave Richmond on bass) which WOULD have made up the 'Specs Appeal' album (which I'll assume would have come out very late '74) had it not been for the offer to do the Eurovision. They then set about recording the six songs for this. Naturally EMI must have thought that it would be wiser to delay the release of the album and then put the six vocals on there along with six of the instrumentals. Thereby, Specs Appeal was an even split between the instros (with Richmond) and the vocals (with Tarney). This was all fine and good, and I'd be willing to bet that the inclusion of the Eurovision songs (especially LMBTO) would have increased its sales... but we then had six instros with no home.

Fast Forward to the beginning of 1977 and we have a golden opportunity and reason to release another album ASAP. It was quite a long time between 74 and 77 and I do wonder what would have happened to those four tracks if Tasty hadn't come along. Not least of all because by then the band looked and sounded quite different. As speculated, I do wonder if they had originally intended to put another 1974 track on Tasty, or maybe even put another brand new track (i.e. rec 1977) on, until they realised that for timing reasons they didn't need it.

This is all speculation, of course. Personally I don't feel that there was any 'plan' by either EMI or the Shadows themselves to wait until they had enough tracks down to release another album. 20GG pretty much saved the band, after a string of flops and a few not very successful albums, and I think we can really thank its success for getting the Shadows not only back out on tour, but also back into the studio. When I said 'new' I meant recorded in 1977 as opposed to recorded in 1974. Again, I don't believe that EMI were waiting (as you suggest) for the Shadows to record some more tracks to add to those already recorded. It's just the way it worked out. Serendipity!

[Moderne]

First of all, big 'thank you' to James for posting these ads which I'd never seen before!

So presumably, The Air That I Breathe and Life on Mars were the fifth and sixth of the '74 tracks which would have been included on the original Specs Appeal LP before Eurovision came along. But I'm guessing Life on Mars wasn't finished (maybe it was the last one they started...?) and the running time of the new '77 recordings meant that one of the remaining five (Air That I Breathe) had to be dropped between the ads for Tasty and Tasty actually being mastered. I've got The Air That I Breathe on my More Tasty CD...don't know if it's been issued elsewhere...?

Incidentally - I've sometimes wondered whether there were ever lyrics written for Creole Nights and Another Night; the tunes sound quite 'lyrical' to me. Just a thought...
Brian Bennett once said that the Tasty LP (by which I presume he meant the '77 recordings) was a bit rushed and sounded like "a demo album - we did it too quickly. We'd all been away from each other for too long". Maybe they were under pressure from EMI to make up the numbers for a new album so that they could cash in on the success of 20GG. It had to be recorded before Hank started his 'Guitar Syndicate' project...

[iefje]

So presumably, The Air That I Breathe and Life on Mars were the fifth and sixth of the '74 tracks which would have been included on the original Specs Appeal LP before Eurovision came along. But I'm guessing Life on Mars wasn't finished (maybe it was the last one they started...?) and the running time of the new '77 recordings meant that one of the remaining five (Air That I Breathe) had to be dropped between the ads for Tasty and Tasty actually being mastered. I've got The Air That I Breathe on my More Tasty CD...don't know if it's been issued elsewhere...?

Apart from the four 1974 tracks and "The Air That I Breathe", I think the sixth 1974 track for "Specs Appeal" would have been the instrumental version of "No No Nina", which was finished in October of that year. "The Air That I Breathe" has appeared on a compilation CD of 9 Shadows and 9 Ventures tracks called I think "Back2Back" and on the 2004 French double CD "Specs Appeal/Tasty", containing all tracks from the "Specs Appeal Plus" and "More Tasty" CD's, as well as the instrumental version of "No No Nina", the modified version of "God Only Knows" and both tracks of Bruce's solo single "Please Mr. Please"/"Song Of Yesterday".

[Moderne]

Thanks Ivo, I'd forgotten No, No Nina...actully I think this has been discussed before.

[drakula63]

I have always disagreed with Brian Bennett over TASTY... I think it sounds incredible and is one of their best sounding albums, as well as the compositions being among their best. Return to the Alamo, for example, is certainly in the same league as Wonderful Land and Atlantis. I am sure that EMI must have put pressure on them to get the new tracks recorded; possibly so that they were finished by the time their 20 Golden Dates tour started. Perhaps if they'd had longer we might have got four or five more brand new recordings... but you can only record so much in any given time frame. It must have been fortuitous to discover/remember that there were half a dozen or so completed instrumentals still on the shelf from 1974. I'm sure they only recorded two songs in 1976, which I will speculate may have been intended as singles... maybe once they were finished they decided that they weren't strong enough to release? 20GG was the right album at the right time and must have been the catalyst that sparked off the new recordings. Although Tasty was not a chart success, I think it's a fantastic album and one that I never tire of listening to. All I will say is that, in my opinion, Walk Don't Run would have been a much better choice as a single than Another Night. I agree that it does have a lyrical feel to it and I'll assume that it came about whilst jamming with Alan Tarney.

[jfenn78]

Found another one, EMI not quite going for the hard sell

lovedeluxe.jpeg (86.01 KiB) Viewed 3143 times

surely it would make sense to prepare yourself for the surprise BEFORE listening to the record? Unless, of course, the surprise was supposed to be that you listen to it without knowing it's The Shadows,in which case putting their name at the bottom spoils that one slightly.

[jfenn78]

equinoxe.jpeg (157.84 KiB) Viewed 3123 times

[Moderne]

Found another one, EMI not quite going for the hard sell

lovedeluxe.jpeg

surely it would make sense to prepare yourself for the surprise BEFORE listening to the record? Unless, of course, the surprise was supposed to be that you listen to it without knowing it's The Shadows,in which case putting their name at the bottom spoils that one slightly.

[jfenn78]

Come to think of it, Love Deluxe was played by Tony Blackburn on his review feature, without telling his guests who it was. So this might well have been the angle EMI were going for

[StuartD]

I was at the Mixing of the Album that became Specs Appeal. It was the original intention to put the 'other Farrar Tracks' on it. It was the week after they had been chosen for Eurovision.

When it came out it had the six Eurovision songs on there. There were only five more tracks scheduled and four of them cam out on Tasty. The only one that didn't was The Air That I Breathe, which was held back for much later.

There were no others 'mixed at that time. I heard all the tracks and there were just the eleven. If the instrumental version of NO No Nina had been recorded then, It was certainly not mixed with those other tracks.

Regards

Stuart