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[alewis41]

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

Great info as always Stuart!

When I interviewed John Farrar for Shadsfax I asked him about the instrumental version of No No Nina. He said he had no recollection of it whatsoever

Andrew

[StuartD]

Hi Andrew

Well I'd never heard it until it came out. It certainly wasn't played that day with the rest of those tracks. Only The Air That I Breathe was missing from Specs Appeal/Tasty Albums.

Regards

Stuart

[manofmystery]

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.

Tony Blackburn did just that on his UK Radio show.
He played "Love Deluxe" to a panel of guests on his show but did not name the band. He asked his guests what they thought.
They loved the track and voted it a big hit. He then announced who it was by and they trashed the track saying it was rubbish, no chance to be a hit etc, etc.
I remember it well and also shouting abuse at the so called experts!

[alewis41]

Hi Andrew

Well I'd never heard it until it came out. It certainly wasn't played that day with the rest of those tracks. Only The Air That I Breathe was missing from Specs Appeal/Tasty Albums.

Regards

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

The whole thing is a bit of a mystery. To be honest I don't think the original track was that great and I don't really understand why an instrumental version was made unless it was just a bit of fun. Can't see it matching up to the tracks that were on those albums, either the originals or the covers, which were excellent.

Perhaps someone else has additional info?

Andrew

[alewis41]

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.

Tony Blackburn did just that on his UK Radio show.
He played "Love Deluxe" to a panel of guests on his show but did not name the band. He asked his guests what they thought.
They loved the track and voted it a big hit. He then announced who it was by and they trashed the track saying it was rubbish, no chance to be a hit etc, etc.
I remember it well and also shouting abuse at the so called experts!

Something similar happened to Hank. On Radio 1's Round Table they played one of his solo tracks which all of the panel hated. Hank was then revealed as the Mystery Guest! Awkward

Andrew

[alewis41]

So thanks to some great research from Dave Herbert and additional info from Stuart - who was at the sessions - we now know that the instro version of No No Nina was recorded before the vocal Eurovision version and was indeed intended to be on the Specs Appeal album before the 6 songs replaced some of the instrumentals which later appeared on Tasty. This scenario had not occurred to me and I couldn't understand why the Shads had made an instro version of a Eurovision song.

Of course It didn't actually appear until the Shadows at Abbey Road release more than 20 years later.

Much more information on the Specs Appeal recording sessions from Dave and Stuart available on Tony Hoffman's excellent The Shadows All Their Own Work FB site.

Andrew