Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

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Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby David Martin » Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:39 pm

When I was in LEGEND, we played only the Burns era tunes, and some quite obscure stuff that The Shadows never played live. That took us all over England, and to Holland and Germany resulting in an L.P. for a Dutch company - said to have been very popular in Belgium- and, later, an EP. It's my belief that Bruce booked us so frequently for Shadowmania precisely because we were out of the ordinary.

Sadly, LEGEND now play very little from the Burns era, relying on hits, Fender era music and Cliff vocals. Some members of the band tell me that there is now "no interest" in the previous material, and I find that sad... it's what made us.

What's your take on this?

:ugeek:
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Hank2k » Thu Jan 04, 2018 2:20 pm

Its all about the venue i guess. I really enjoyed Shadowmania for the variety of music it was nice to hear the more obscure stuff. Lee Rastaricks band at last years Lakeside band was a real treat playing a lot of tracks from the 70s and 80s era that have probably never been played live.

Unfortunately though most of the general public don't know them and I know in particular for my band when we gig they want music they can dance to etc. We do a number of the hits of the shadows but even some of them the general public wont know
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby JimTidmarsh » Thu Jan 04, 2018 2:28 pm

Unfortunately, the Burns era is only of interest to Shads fans.

I worry about the future for 'our' sort of music generally. The 1960s are now something like three generations (or more) in the past & the audiences for Quiff & The Shades (in particular) are getting older, along with those of us in the bands that are playing the music.

We've adapted ourselves away from Cliff & The Shads and now include more general 50s & 60s music that, as Steve says, people want to dance to.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby RogerCook » Thu Jan 04, 2018 4:17 pm

I enjoy listening to and playing the Burns era stuff. It's often musically more interesting and is a different challenge to play than the earlier red Strat material. However, I suspect that if you asked an average music fan about the Shadows in the 60s, they would speak of the bloke with glasses and the red guitar. Certainly the Shadows were at their most popular before they took to Burns guitars even if as a group, they used the Burns for longer. I also think that if you're a gigging band playing for dancers in clubs, then the pre '64 rockier material is what is called for.

In a concert scenario aimed at the inevitably dwindling core of Shadows fans, I'm sure the Burns stuff will still be popular.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Tigerdaisy » Thu Jan 04, 2018 5:12 pm

I was only a Shadows 'fan' in the very early days (Red Strat etc) and to be honest never realised that on later stuff Burns guitars had been used- there is only a very subtle difference in sound and I didn't notice it, bearing in mind The Shadows sound 'changed' anyway...which I did notice. The thing is that a good tune is a good tune irrespective of what era it came from, but the best numbers IMO with only a few exceptions came from the early days.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Iain Purdon » Thu Jan 04, 2018 5:41 pm

The first and biggest hit from the Burns era is The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt. Listen to the original 1964 recording and there you have it: classy rock'n'roll played by four musicians at the top of their game; and not a red guitar in sight.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby RogerCook » Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:10 pm

Not much after Flingel Bunt in terms of hits though, but some good album tracks. But pop music had changed by 1964, new groups and styles had come along.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Iain Purdon » Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:22 pm

The lead guitar work in Rhythm And Greens was excellent.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby chas » Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:22 pm

In The Evening Shadows, we have in recent years incorporated a Burns set. Although we offer ourselves as either The Shadows or Cliff and The Shadows, most venues want a Cliff, so we do a 50/50 split between instros and songs doing 4 or 5 of each alternating. We do a Burns set and explain to the audience of the change of guitars in '64 - this gives a visual change and we play 5 instros of the era and then 5 Cliff songs of that era. We usually open the second half with the Burns, then change back to the red Fenders to finish off. Nowadays it doesn't seem quite right to play a Burns era number on a Fender - lol!

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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Iain Purdon » Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:33 pm

Another aspect which is more about the instruments than the music.

When the Shadows moved to Burns in 1964, it wasn't specifically for their new material. They used them in their TV and Stage gigs for all their numbers, everything from Apache onwards. I think we have all contributed to the lower profile of the era by tying the guitars only to the records they were on. If we followed that logic, we would play the 1963 hits on White Fenders, not Red.

Rather than doing a Burns set, I'd be all for doing a full Shadows gig using the Burns guitars throughout, just as they did for over five years. We would be just as authentic as we are using Red Fenders: more so, because the Red period was relatively short. (Yes, they did go back to them later, but it was much later.)
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