Dakotas Play The Shadows (sort of....)

[GoldenStreet]

Yes, indeed. There is some great playing by Robin MacDonald, with his own distinctive sound and style, before he switched to bass after Ray Jones's departure from the Dakotas. It seems he is no longer associated with the music business.

Bill

[GoldenStreet]

After years of searching I finally tracked down a USA only CD ("The Best Of Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas") from waaaayyy back in 1991. The attraction for me was the mixing into stereo (by Ron Furmanek - from the original master tapes) for the very first time of 16 of the 25 tracks. So far so.....etc. The previously unreleased "I'm In Love" (Lennon - McCartney) features about a minute or so of studio chat / banter (including John Lennon who was present at the session) as Billy J gamely tried to capture a reasonable vocal 'take'. Meanwhile lead guitarist Mike Maxfield can distinctly be heard (just off mic) 'noodling' around with little riffs / breaks / fills from "I'm In Love". After a couple of 'breakdowns' and while Billy J chats to both John Lennon and George Martin, Mike (as this was the 32nd take!!!!!) clearly getting a bit bored suddenly breaks into "Theme From A Filleted Place"!! It's only a few seconds (& Robin MacDonald can be heard humming along in harmony) - but there's no mistaking it!! Not surprsingly, both Mike & Robin were big Shadows fans. Really obscure bit of trivia & that track is only available on the far from common USA CD (EMI CDP - 7 - 96055 - 2). Just great if you want to hear "D Y W T K A Secret?", "Bad To Me" and "I'll Keep You Satisfied" in stereo. Just thought that someone might find the extremely tenuous Shadows connection interesting.

Rob

A feature from yesterday's Sunday Telegraph money supplement. Towards the end of the piece, Kramer expresses some less than enamoured views of EMI!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/fame-f ... at-was-my/

Bill