Shadows Club woes

[Uncle Fiesta]

Well that may be correct but it's also irrelevant at what is supposed to be a Shadows club. One of our members even put in much time and effort starting a rock and roll club, so they can't use the excuse that they've nowhere to play.

Perhaps it might be better if they just stopped calling it a Shadows club, as for me it's already ceased to be one.

[Iain Purdon]

Perhaps it might be better if they just stopped calling it a Shadows club, as for me it's already ceased to be one.

Maybe you should save your petrol then, or raise it with the club organisers as Dave suggested?

[neil2726]

A bit of a dodgy one this! If its a dedicated Shadows club then it should be just Shadows music that is played! But didn't the Shadows play stuff by other artists - Everlys, Elvis etc etc. They even included Folk and Country songs in their act and recordings not to mention Classical Music renditions!

[abstamaria]

As there are fewer and fewer folks here on the island that know the Shadows (fewer still, those who play their music), two friends and I are getting those musicians together. This is now just a Viber group, but a goal is to have a jam session with all on board, with drums, amps, echo boxes, spring reverbs, and such. Almost all members are amateurs who played instrumental guitar music in high school in the very early 1960s. There are about 30 now, and some never met the others. If we were to all meet each other, that would be an accomplishment in itself.

To keep the focus and theme tight, the group is for 1960s instrumental combo music only. This includes not only the Shadows, but also the Ventures (who were very big here), the Chantays, Surfaris, Dick Dale and the Deltones, the Fentones, the (UK) Eagles, the Spotniks, and their ilk. (It will be great to hear Misirlou through a Fender Showman amp!) Those who like the Shadows, we figure, will appreciate those other bands as well. There will be no vocals or earlier or later music, to prevent the focus from morphing into other genres. We are conscious that, in the over 50 years since guitar combo music fell generally out of favor, each of us acquired differing musical tastes. The only interest we have in common may be the early 60s guitar-band music.

An analogy might be car clubs. There are and have been many car clubs here, but few fail to survive. I think that is because they lose their focus (and core members) in a bid to expand. In 1967, when I was in college, two professors and I founded a sports car club, agreeing that only sports cars will be allowed in. Since the founding, there has been much pressure to admit other types of cars, such as muscle cars and rally cars, which pressure was always resisted. The result is that the club is the oldest car club in the country, older than the next oldest (also a very focused, one-make club) by some three decades. It has been the tight focus that I believe was the critical factor. The club focused on the only interest all the members have in common. (I have a 1948 MG TC, in case you are wondering.)

Looking for examples and experience in Shadows clubs, I trawled the forum and found this interesting old thread, which is instructive

Best,

Andy

[Iain Purdon]

Good luck with your new venture, Andy.
It was interesting to re-read this thread. It brings to mind many groups from our young days who would make line-up changes because of “musical differences!” A music group works well when it has a shared purpose and enough talent to achieve it. I reckon the same is true of music clubs. There cannot be rigid “oughts” and “ought nots”. Music isn’t like that. There does need to be consensus, though, and clubs that have that can hope to thrive.

[iefje]

During the last 30 years, I have mainly attended the International Cliff Richard & The Shadows Fan Meeting events in Tilburg, Eindhoven and Berkel-Enschot (near Tilburg). I agree that during those events, the emphasis must be on music by Cliff Richard & The Shadows, but there were editions where almost every band only played the familiar hits, which meant sometimes like six live versions of "Apache" or "Wonderful Land". As much as I still like both tunes, I don't need to hear them that often on one day. There were also editions where the choice of numbers between the various bands was much more varied, which I like best. Having said all that, I'm also a fan of the music of The Ventures, Duane Eddy, The Spotnicks, The Torero's, The Jumping Jewels, Willy And His Giants, ZZ & De Maskers and René & The Alligators to name but a few and numbers from those artists have been featured a lot too, which I think is fine. On the other hand, I find the Rautalanka variant of instrumental music quite boring and monotonous, despite the fact that it's played quite fast and with considerable technique. There was once even a band on the bill who specialized in numbers by Roy Orbison, which they did very good in fact. I think they were called the Driftin' Five.

[JimN]

When The Secrets (Ray Liffen, Peter Walter, Trev Faull, Martin Verrill and I) played at Tilburg in 2005, we performed an all-instrumental set with no Shadows music at all. It included a couple of original compositions. It seemed well-received.

[Teflon]

Our local Shadows club seems to have no issues in playing non Shadows material, and I see that as a good thing. The Shadows get little exposure in main stream media these days, so new Shads fans are hard to come by and we're all getting older by the day. A mix of material may well attract new members who may find themselves staying for The Shadows stuff. It also helps keep the attendance numbers up which in turn keeps the club active.

The main attraction for me will always be The Shadows, but a little bit of Elvis\Beatles\Whatever can sometime be a welcome break from the norm

Cliff

[abstamaria]

Thank you, Iain. I don't how the group session will go, but it is fun to plan. There are new people I just met virtually, but they seem great guys. It will be good to meet them. (One did superb backing tracks for Ventures pieces.) To avoid Apache ad nauseam, we might agree beforehand who plays which tunes. As we will cover a wide range of early 60s instrumentals, there should be interesting variety.

On non-Shadows numbers in a Shadows meeting, the critical factor may be the portion of the program they constitute. Maybe 5% is ok, for some variety? Is 50% still all right? Rock & Roll might fit in, but what about Sinatra? Sting? I don't know. It seems a slippery slope.

Opening up the program will, of course, attract more people. Shadows enthusiasts are few and far between (at least one having to drive 70 miles to a meeting!). A variety show will have a greater audience, which is why our Madeleine Cookie Company shows featured many vocals (although confined to a specific era - 1958 to 1963). A Shadows event, if expanded to attract a wider audience, may extend its relevance, but I wonder if it will still be the same event. A Shadows club could take the same tack for the same purpose, but will it then be the same club still? I don't know.

[abstamaria]

To continue with the car club analogy (which may be inappropriate, as musicians' brains are said to be wired differently!), here is a picture of me (in the helmet) at a vintage sports car Hillclimb. The three fellows at the back, holding the car to keep it from rolling down from the start line, flew in from Japan to participate in the event. I am sure they would have been disappointed if the field included modern cars, off-road vehicles, hot hatches, and other vehicles that don't fit the description of the event.

Ten years from now, there will be far less of us who know the Shadows first-hand. I do not know if that makes this discussion academic. It may, but perhaps that eventuality makes the discussion more critical, because there are so few enthusiasts and so little time left.

My sentiments are with Uncle Fiesta here, but these are my thoughts only, arrived at in the course of planning what to do with Shadows and Ventures fans here. They may be specific to this little island and inapplicable elsewhere. I am sure the Shadows clubs in the UK, with their long histories, are doing their best to adapt and keep enthusiasm alive. I wish them the best.

Andy