The Fabulous Shadows - Good packaging but no content

[Bob Withrington]

Following the comments perviously made on this site I went with a completely open mind to last night's concert in Bognor Regis of The Fabulous Shadows. Words almost fail me to descibe how very dissapointed I was. The set up looked great with the band wearing smart dark red jackets and all of the so much publicised Fender, Vox & Burns gear all there as the curtains opened to an almost full theatre.

Then came the music, which was frankly pretty terrible as on most of the numbers the lead guitar failed to exert any presence. In fact he never even spoke to audience, leaving it all to the rather nervous rhythm guitarist. Whenever the passage of the tune got anywhere tricky he was almost quietly miming the notes, expecting the hard working rhythm, bass & drums to try covering up. Unfortunately this simply does not work as all Shadows music is based upon very strong clean lead guitar work that just has to be the fore. The best number of the first half set was "Little B", which the drummer performed well.

I do appreciate that this - The Golden Greats Tour has been put together in order to aid of the fine works carried by The Alzheimer's Society, however the wonderful musical heritage of The Shadows needs to be performed much better than this. Needless to say I could not endure the second half of the show and left at the interval.

Bob Withrington

[ecca]

HANG THEM !

[Glenloth2002]

HANG THEM !

Blo*dy Liberal!

[ecca]

BY THE BALLS.

[Ritchy Rich]

Reply from : The Fabulous Shadows by Ritch Rich lead guitarist

Thank you so much for your kind words especially "Hang Them" and the slating of our show...
Be very careful of what you publicize.

You people really need to understand and realise what we are doing is keeping The Shadows music alive and raising money for the much underfunded Alzheimer's Society and are actually out there doing it...... yes we do need your help...yes we will upset people...yes there has been a lot of bad things written about us...... one in three people over the age of 65 will suffer from dementia..that could be YOU, Hank or Bruce (hopefully not) but that is the reality of our cause.

We stand by the music of our ledgends who are called The Shadows (not The Fabulous Shadows) we play their music and pay them for doing so.. no matter how it is played.....we will NOT go away.

Love us or loath us we are out there doing good for our cause...if all you can do is be negative about us please leave us alone
stay away from our shows because the people with dementia really do not need people like you in their remaining years.

If you want to help jump on board do a guest spot on stage with us at a theatre and see what it is like otherwise please keep it shut.
Thank you Ritchy Rich.

[Gary Allen]

[Mikey]

Bob's comments, which he's entitled to make, could just as easily have been a newspaper critic's review in a local paper and, unlike most of them, Bob did go in with an open mind! To me there was no malice in his posting and as for Ecca's comments...surely no-one would take him seriously?!
Personally, I wish you and the band every success. I have been playing guitar for over 40 years but I probably would not have the nerve to play before a paying audience, so, well done.

[Apache1]

I remember that in the thread that was deleted it was stated that Mr D'Santini was not a member of the band and was only involved in production
Now we find that Richard D' Santini is the lead guitar in this band
It is hard to refere to the actual statement in a thread that has been deleted. As I said previously eveyone has a right to their opinions, and I dont think anyone is complaining about the cause this band is working for I think it is a very deserving cause.
The original point I personaly made was the Name this band was using - which I thought very presumptious, and from the reviews
that have been made by shadows fans it looks to me as though as a tribute band they just dont cut it.

Hope I havent said anything wrong here that Derek might take umbridge and decide to be rude again,

[Stratpicker]

Reply from : The Fabulous Shadows by Ritch Rich lead guitarist
You people - -
Thank you Ritchy Rich.

How unbelieveably arrogant!!!
The "Cause" has nothing to do with it. If you are going to take peoples' money, the least you can do is get it right.
Ian

[Twangaway]

I think playing in a pub, in your tea shirt and jeans and giving a lack lustre performance is only to be expected. Every so often you hear a great performance and that makes the guinness go down oh so smooth But if you put yourself out in a billed gig and a paying public, and in a pompous way with a band name that builds an expectation, together with impeccable stage gear and outfits, then if it falls short of that expectation then you deserve the criticism.

Whatever the cause charity or entertainment, a paying public is in this instance expecting entertainment and it seems your performance fell far short of that. I think the point was made, you could actually harm the very music and impression of it to newcomers by a poor performance. I also think you have only yourselves to blame, for not being up to the expected standard, not rehearsing enough and so on. Most Hankies can play the easy ones, so if you had played safe and did those well it would have been acceptable, but to be ambitious and tackle those intricate numbers that take skill was a foolish way to go. A tribute band be it in name or otherwise is a public persona and people are bound to be tense if you drag the name and music down. If you set yourself up, then expect to be shot down