instrumental explosion

[shadowriter]

Hi everybody. before this forum sadly draws to a close, I would like to ask for
your opinions on something that has always intrigued me.

What inspired our brief time in music history? was it the fact Lonnie Donegan inspired
3 chord skifflers had improved their skill sets and were looking for better things?


Was it purely Shadows inspired?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers
Norman

[RayL]

The inspiration came from the USA and from those who experimented with electric guitars.

From Paul Bigsby, an electric guitar pioneer (and inventor of the vibrato arm that bears his name).
And from Leo Fender, another guitar pioneer, who also made a vibrato arm for an electric guitar and put a Hammond spring reverb unit into his guitar amplifiers
And from James Burton, who bent the strings on one of Leo's Telcasters and influenced Hank (Hank mentions James' solo on Ricky nelson's Believe What You Say as an influence)
And from Duane Eddy, with tremolo on his Gretsch Chet Atkins and a Bigsby arm plus reverb from the Goldstar Studio echo chamber on Rebel Rouser.
And from Danny Cedrone with his 'flying fingers' solo that he used on Rock The Joint and repeated on Rock around The Clock

[shadowriter]

Thanks for your thoughts Ray. Very interesting view.

Norman

[Moderne]

I agree with everything Ray said above, but also – from a music point of view – I think that the ‘record-buying public’ in the ‘50s/’60s loved a good tune and if it was played by people who were clearly very talented and young, like The Shadows...so much the better. The ‘instrumental’ was a very popular musical form at that time…whether it was the piano of Russ Conway (Side Saddle etc.), the clarinet of Acker Bilk or Monty Sunshine (Stranger on the Shore, Petite Fleur), the trad. sounds of Kenny Ball and Chris Barber (Midnight in Moscow)…or the guitar sounds of Duane Eddy (Because They’re Young etc.) and The Shadows. The Shadows had the additional bonus of their partnership with Cliff…who was by far and away the biggest ‘star’ in this country before the arrival in the ‘hit parade’ of The Beatles in 1962. They were perceived to be ‘young and very personable musicians playing memorable melodies’. Of course, there were lots of other ‘beat combos’ who came along in The Shadows’ wake, but none of them had the ‘classic’ sound, unique image or the impeccable choice (until Rhythm ‘n’ Greens!) of A-sides – all credit to Jerry Lordan - as The Shads. (The Tornados probably came closest to ‘stealing their crown’ with their hit Telstar in 1962, but they never seemed to have the Shads’ potential for longevity with their queasy organ-led sound and their subsequent run of hits soon petered out. Very unfair on The Shadows that Petite Fleur and Telstar were both big hits in America.) This huge early success formed the bedrock of their career and enabled them to survive the relatively unsuccessful MWF etc. periods and still come roaring back with 20 Golden Greats (in 1977) and the tours and albums of the ‘80s. Whether they will still be fondly thought of in 100 years’ time – as The Beatles and Elvis surely will – I’m not so sure.

(Another thing to consider - most of the original American performers of rock 'n' roll were, by the beginning of the '60s, out of action for various reasons, so it was left to Cliff, The Shadows, Johnny Kidd and The Pirates and the other (mostly British instrumental) groups to keep the spirit of rock 'n' roll alive until The Beatles became successful in 1963. But whereas most British performers had their success severely curtailed by the advent of 'Merseybeat' - Cliff and The Shads had their biggest record-selling year ever in 1963! The writing was on the wall, though...)

[dave robinson]

My experience is ditto to the above contributions from Ray & Clive.
I will mention that in those formative years , every Saturday morning whilst having breakfast and getting ready for playing football in the school team, we had the radio on, listening to 'Uncle Mac' who played a lot of this type of stuff. The standout sounds for me were always 'Wheels' by the Stringalongs, 'Riders In The Sky' by The Ramrods and of course 'Apache' by The Shadows, which were mingled amongst records like ' The Runaway Train', 'Sparky's Magic Piano', Tubby The Tuba, 'There Was An Old Woman' ' et al - all very memorable even today, but it was Apache that turned my head, then I saw them on Crackerjack playing FBI and knew that's what I wanted to do, but it was Jet & Tony that stood out mainly at first, then I noticed this bloke with glasses wiggling a stick around and wanted to know what it was - the rest is history. I was a Royal Marine Cadet at the time and remained through to Wonderful Land being a hit before quitting the Marines and my promising football career at Sheffield Wednesday. Why ? because I bought a guitar and managed to learn to get a tune out of it, improving rapidly until Mum & Dad presented me with a red Vox DuoTone guitar and Watkins Dominator amplifier, the Copicat coming a while after when we started a group. Our manager (The drummer's dad) signed HP for a van, three AC30 amps and a Meazzi PA plus a Copicat for me. We rapidly payed it off in bookings and eventually all owned our own gear, in the midst of which I acquired a sonic blue Fender Strat. Happy days !

[roger bayliss]

Probably Duane Eddy got instrumental guitar to the fore late mid 50s and in UK Bert Weedon towards end of 50s.

Surf guitar was more early 60s , with the use if Leo Fenders guitars and amps with drippy reverb. It must have been the arrival of Fender and Gibson guitars and amps, that enabled rock n roll and instrumental music and the explosion that followed.

The arrival of echo units and Fender reverb must have been a big factor as well.

[dave robinson]

I had seen Bert Weedon on 5-O- Clock Club which eventually transversed into Blue Peter, but he never interested me one iota, in fact I thought he was boring. He reminded me of an aging uncle, very 'grey' and uninspiring.
Agree about Duane Eddy though who I forgot to mention in my previous post, Peter Gunn being the tune everybody seemed to want to play.

[JimN]

I had seen Bert Weedon on 5-O- Clock Club which eventually transversed into Blue Peter, but he never interested me one iota, in fact I thought he was boring. He reminded me of an aging uncle, very 'grey' and uninspiring.
Agree about Duane Eddy though who I forgot to mention in my previous post, Peter Gunn being the tune everybody seemed to want to play.

Hmmm...

"5 O'Clock Club" was the final version of what was essentially the same ITV (Rediffusion) weekly childrens' magazine programme. It started as "Lucky Dip" sometime around 1959, with hosts Muriel Young and Neville Whiting* and regular appearances by Bert Weedon, who not only played, but also explained, the pieces he was performing. In 1961, the format changed slightly and its title was changed to "Tuesday Rendezvous". Bert composed and played a new theme tune for this format. He played it on air and asked for suggestions from viewers for a title. The winning entry was for China Doll and there was some prize for the successful correspondent. That programme carried on into the mid-1960s, when the format was changed into a twice-weekly show by the title "5 O'Clock Club". There was a new theme song, which had the not-quite Larry Hart-standard lyrics (sung by children on the session):

5 O'Clock Club - Da dah da da
5 O'Clock Club - Da dah da da
5 O'Clock Club - Da dah da da
Tuesday, Friday, 5 O'Clock Club.

I can't remember exactly whether Bert was retained for the start of this new version, but even if he was, he didn't last long. For its final year (or so), the guitar-playing hosts were Wally Whyton (now seen on screen, instead of only doing the voice for Ollie Beak) and - believe it or not - the late Alexis Korner, who played a blues song every week with a live band in the studio. Alexis played a Guild Starfire (original single-cutaway model). This variant of the programme definitely survived into late 1965 or very early 1966, but was dropped in favour of a revamped Rediffusion programme called "Action", hosted by Pete Murray. It was notable for two things:

(a) the theme tune was The Shadows' Stars fell On Stockton, and

(b) though the intro sequence and trailers for the show described it as "where the action is", it was as about as exciting as cold rice pudding (nowhere near as good as its immediate predecessor). The lack of a studio audience of invited children absolutely didn't help, and neither did Pete's decidely wooden and hesitant on-screen presentation skills.

It didn't last long. I can't remember what replaced it, but am sure that it didn't survive until the end of the Rediffusion franchise in the summer of 1968.

"Blue Peter", of course, was a BBC programme. Its success probably sparked the ITV network (meaning Rediffusion in this case) into formulating "Lucky Dip".

But I'm pretty sure that Bert never appeared on "Blue Peter".

Now... just where did I put my coat...?

[* I almost forgot: Neville Whiting had his biggest TV success in Granada TV's 1960-ish adaptation of the Capt. W. E. Johns character "Biggles". He played the title role and John Leyton played sidekick Ginger. I can't remember who played Algy or the trio's arch-nemesis Von Stahlheim. Neville also performed as a singer / host on an ATV programme, but I can't remember the title. It'll all be on http://www.imdb.com.]

[artyman]

China Doll was the name of a National Twelve dinghy design by Phil Morrison that I sailed in the early seventies. Another useless bit of information

[JimN]

China Doll was the name of a National Twelve dinghy design by Phil Morrison that I sailed in the early seventies. Another useless bit of information

It is also the title of a fairly-well-known country song.