Riding a bike

[RayL]

Not having seen the film Summer Holiday, I caught a glimpse of a clip on the TV the other day. Cliff is 'driving ' a double-decker bus past The Shadows who are riding bikes. Now, bike riding is one of those skills (like putting your fingers in the shape of a 'C' chord) that come from practice and bike riding is best learnt when you are a boy. Having read Bruce's autobiography, I don't recall him mentioning bike riding. Did the guys have to learn for the film?

[Teflon]

I notice you put the word driving in speech marks. You might be surprised to know hat Cliff did indeed drive a double decker bus for real - he learnt specifically for the film. There's even a Pathe news clip showing him driving one on a skid pan. I believe at the time, one newspaper commented that the skill would likely come in useful for him once his pop career ended and he needed a proper job .

Of course, he may well have been in the film studio in the particular clip that you saw.



Cliff

[JimN]

My money is on "in the studio".

It is well known that the Bachelor Boy sequence was studio shot. It seems to me that the casual overtaking of the Shadows on bikes was added in in order to lend a little verisimilitude to the later song setting.

[Uncle Fiesta]

That sequence puzzled me - admittedly I was only 8 at the time, but it was still puzzling me 50-odd years later!

First the bus overtakes the Shadows on bikes, then when they get to the next town, they wander into a club and the boys are sat there playing, having arrived before them. How did they do that?

I only figured it out quite recently; in between the two scenes was all the shenanigans' with the girls and their broken-down car. While they were dancing around, and Cliff was going on at great length about the bush upon the rotor pump, etc. ... the Shads must have slipped past unseen.

[Moderne]

That sequence puzzled me - admittedly I was only 8 at the time, but it was still puzzling me 50-odd years later!

First the bus overtakes the Shadows on bikes, then when they get to the next town, they wander into a club and the boys are sat there playing, having arrived before them. How did they do that?

I only figured it out quite recently; in between the two scenes was all the shenanigans' with the girls and their broken-down car. While they were dancing around, and Cliff was going on at great length about the bush upon the rotor pump, etc. ... the Shads must have slipped past unseen.

Bruce listed 'cycling' as his greatest kick in The Shadows by Themselves book which Royston Ellis wrote. I would guess that learning to ride a bike would have been a 'rite of passage' which most kids would have gone through - and probably still go through now. The sequence in the film has a definite 'on location' feel to it - as opposed to the obvious 'in the studio' feel of the Bachelor Boy section...IMHO!

[Moderne]

BTW...shouldn't Brian have had the band's equipment in the little bike trailer he was towing...rather than the two girls?! Unless it was all set up and waiting for them at the Paris club...

And Ray...how can you not have seen the film Summer Holiday??!!

[RayL]

BTW...shouldn't Brian have had the band's equipment in the little bike trailer he was towing Unless it was all set up and waiting for them at the Paris club...

The French must have had 'Shadows Clubs' ahead of the UK . . . .

And Ray...how can you not have seen the film Summer Holiday??!!

I wa at college and it must have passed me by. The films I remember seeing in the early 1960s were Jazz On A Summers Day and The Party's Over (music by John Barry). Oh, and Forbidden Planet (the first film to have an electronic music score).

[Moderne]

Apparently a few years ago (sorry if you've already heard this story) Brian was in an airport departure lounge along with a group of kids - who were singing Summer Holiday. Brian sidled up to their teacher and said, "I wrote that song, you know."
The teacher replied, "Go away"!!

[Moderne]

I was at college and it must have passed me by. The films I remember seeing in the early 1960s were Jazz On A Summers Day and The Party's Over (music by John Barry). Oh, and Forbidden Planet (the first film to have an electronic music score).

The Party's Over - scary John Barry music in that film!

[RayL]

The Party's Over - scary John Barry music in that film![/quote]

Agreed.
And around about that time he would have been writing for the cimbalom (used in The Ipcress File). The Bond music came later. A very talented composer.