Tracks You Wish They Had Recorded.

[hernando]

Many thanks for linking my original post to the existing thread on the subject. It makes very interesting reading and reveals a number of good guitar instrumentals that could be well within the capabilities of a Shads style band.

Personally, I have always wondered why the Shads never did more classical covers, especially in the early 1960's when we had the likes of Swan Lake (Saturday Nite at the Duckpond) by The Cougars, Hall of the Mountain King by Nero and the Gladiators and the William Tell overture by Sounds Incorporated. I was at school at the time and we would really annoy the "musical appreciation" teacher by suggesting that we listen to such music in class!

To follow up on the theme, I did a quick browse on my trusty wikipedia only to find that the The BBC's director of music, Sir Arthur Bliss, wrote wartime instructions banning "pop" versions of classical pieces. These rules were still in force in the 1960's, and Saturday Nite at the Duckpond and Hall of the Mountain King are among many, explicity listed as having been banned by the beeb!

It must have made it very difficult to get any kind of airplay in the UK for the genre. It would also have been a poor investment for the record labels.

Perhaps this is why The Shads never recorded any such?
I sure they would have done a brilliant job if they had!

Dave

[JimN]

Personally, I have always wondered why the Shads never did more classical covers, especially in the early 1960's when we had the likes of Swan Lake (Saturday Nite at the Duckpond) by The Cougars, Hall of the Mountain King by Nero and the Gladiators and the William Tell overture by Sounds Incorporated ... I did a quick browse on my trusty wikipedia only to find that the The BBC's director of music, Sir Arthur Bliss, wrote wartime instructions banning "pop" versions of classical pieces. These rules were still in force in the 1960's, and Saturday Nite at the Duckpond and Hall of the Mountain King are among many, explicity listed as having been banned by the beeb!
Dave

Dave,

It is true that the sleeve notes of The Cougars EP "Saturday Nite With The Cougars" make the claim that the parents of teenagers wrote letters to the papers protesting about Saturday Nite At The Duckpond, but there is no claim about it having been banned by the BBC. As a matter of fact, it was definitely played on the BBC Light Programme, as was the follow-up Red Square (based on part of Tchaikosky's first Piano Concerto). The same is true of The Clyde Valley Stompers' 1962 version of Peter And The Wolf and no doubt others I can't recall offhand.

I'm sceptical about the legend of the BBC banning "pop" interpretations of the classics, partly because I remember hearing them on the Beeb, but partly also because there were several well-known "non-pop" songs which were clearly based on other classical melodies which wer never even considered for a ban. What happened was that the BBC had (and may still have) a system of proscribing individual records for being in poor taste. It famously led to Je T'Aime (moi non plus) by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin being banned in 1969 - but didn't stop them playing Benny Hill's Harvest Of Love or Terry Scott's My Brother!

This sounds like another "You couldn't get American guitars because of an import ban". You could get American guitars during the 1950s (Gibson were available via Selmer) and the BBC were never so po-faced as to throw an automatic hissy fit over Spike Jones or Sounds Incorporated!

Mind you, you've shocked me with that tale of Sir Arthur, who memorably wrote the music for the Korda film "Things To Come" and the ABC-TV start-up march Armchair Adventurer (as well as their six-note ident motif).

Whodathoughtit?

JN

[Arpeggio]

Hi Jim,
Well I never knew that Sir Arthur Bliss wrote the music for Armchair Theatre and the ABC TV motif. Wonderful. My wife did a special study on his music as part of her music degree course (mostly concentrating upon his ballet music for Checkmate and his Colour Symphony amongst other things). Mind you this was all over 30 years ago. Plus, I was (until fairly recently) unaware of his role at the BBC. From time to time I keep in touch with Spencer Leigh. A couple of years ago he'd been researching 'Banned Recordings' from the BBC Archives. He did send me a few sheets of notes from just part of what he'd discovered.

Now, if memory serves, "Saturday Nite At The Duckpond" was definitely banned by the Beeb. If it was aired on the radio (as Jim attests) then it must surely have been some kind of oversight and I wouldn't be surprised if someone was subsequently 'rapped over the knuckles' about it. As a general rule of thumb (although there would always be exceptions) any 'rocked up' or 'disrespectful' arrangements of 'serious' classical music were likely to be banned. It all depended upon what the censors classified as 'serious' music. Clearly Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite was deemed to be 'serious' enough as Nero & co's "Hall Of The Mountain King" was banned. Ditto the music from Swan Lake was held to be 'serious'. Not so the Nutcracker Suite (no ban for B Bumble) - which, along with such as "Peter & The Wolf" or, say, "Can Can 62" (from Orpheus In The Underworld) were held to be 'Light' or 'Popular' Classics and therefore of little consequence. By the time of the Cougars later releases in 1964 the tide of this kind of censorship was beginning to turn and such policies were beginning to be less rigorously enforced. It's hard to imagine nowadays that Link Wray's "Rumble" was banned (likely to incite teenage violence) or "Night Of The Vampire" (unsuitable for persons of a nervous disposition) and so on and so forth. Still - the Shads never fell foul of the censors!

Bests....Rob

[Mary]

My suggestion would include the theme from the Clint Eastwood film Unforgiven. I have always thought that it would have been a perfect track for the Shads to play. In fact I would have enjoyed an album of film and tv western themes.

Best Wishes
Mary

[Pedro]

'Devaney' played by Pete Korving would have been a good Shadows No.