Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

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

Postby neil2726 » Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:05 pm

Ive always wondered why Hank continued to play Burns after the Shads disbanded and he went solo , if he was unhappy with them. He certainly could have afforded to buy a Strat at any time, and I don't recall him being tied to any contract with Baldwin at that time?
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby dave robinson » Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:33 pm

It is well documented here that I found one of Hank's stolen Burns Marvins', a greenburst one, in Sunderland. It's owner boldly boasting that it had been one of Hank's, though never mentioned it had been nicked. I contacted the Shadows management to offer details as I had taken the serial number, but they weren't interested. Shortly before this I had met Hank on a one to one at The Cavendish (Baileys) in Sheffield, chatting with him for over three hours, it was 3-30am when I bid him goodnight. During that conversation he told me that his Burns guitars had been nicked and that he wasn't fussed because he had bought himself a other Strat from Barrats in Manchester (the white one that was sprayed black).
When pressed on the subject he revealed that he liked the Strat better as it was easier to handle. Having used my white Marvin on our recent tour, I agree 100%. :)
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Iain Purdon » Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:46 pm

neil2726 wrote:Ive always wondered why Hank continued to play Burns after the Shads disbanded and he went solo , if he was unhappy with them. He certainly could have afforded to buy a Strat at any time, and I don't recall him being tied to any contract with Baldwin at that time?

I'm not aware that Hank was "unhappy" with his Burns guitars. He did later concede that they hadn't turned out quite as well as he'd hoped, but that's a lesser thing. As you say, he could easily have changed guitars any time he wished after the Shadows first split.

Allclaphands wrote:Just as a matter of interested after the Burns guitars where stolen did HBM ever at anytime play
any type of Burns/Baldwin again at a live concert or any other venue that anyone can remember.

Yes, in the final tour 2004/5

Hank Bunrs 2004.jpg
Hank Bunrs 2004.jpg (36.31 KiB) Viewed 20238 times
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby cockroach » Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:24 am

Scene:

The Marvin household...

Hank arrives home home late after the gig..Carole is still up waiting for him before going to bed...she's in her dressing gown..

Carole: 'Hallo darling, how did the gig go? You must be tired, wanna cuppa tea before you turn in?

Hank: Thanks pet...the show went OK, but I've got some bad news..somebody stole my guitars from the van....so I'll need to buy a new one'

Carole: 'Whaaat??!! D'you think we're made of money???!!

Hank: 'Well, er...yes...any spare money in the Oxo tin?

Carole: 'well, you've not had to buy one before, why now??!

Hank: 'Well, that was the last free one I'd been playing...early on, I used Cliff's one which he bought, then when we got big, they kept giving me all those nice new ones whenever I wanted one...I'll have to ask where a music shop is round here...

Carole: 'Sod this, I'm going to bed...
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Uncle Fiesta » Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:48 pm

I have to say, I've had a couple of Burns Marvins now, loved the looks and the sound, but failed to bond with either of them.

Bit like Les Pauls really.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby David Martin » Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:59 pm

We've gone off the point a little...

There will, I guess, always be pro and anti Burns views, but what of the music from that era? Who will "preserve" it for the future? Or should we just turn the light out and, quietly, close the door?
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby Iain Purdon » Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:40 pm

Hard question, David. You gave the music a great revival by starting Legend. I'm glad the lads still play material from the era but it sounds as if they've discovered what other Shads bands have found, that you can only play so much of it in a gig and the way to keep an audience is to widen the range. (Many of the Shads guitar clubs are also diversifying to keep the attendances up.)

It's not a question of closing the door, a good tune is always worth the occasional outing, but time has passed and I don't think the seam is rich enough for further mining. The Shadows themselves didn't bother with it much afterwards.

Was that the right answer? It wasn't easy to write.

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

Postby cockroach » Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:46 am

David Martin wrote:We've gone off the point a little...

There will, I guess, always be pro and anti Burns views, but what of the music from that era? Who will "preserve" it for the future? Or should we just turn the light out and, quietly, close the door?



It may be that some of the tunes from that era were not as memorable as the early hits. Also, there was so much other memorable vocal stuff from other groups after 1963 which led to the decline in popularity of guitar instrumental music generally..

That's my recollection of the era, so I may be wrong...also, the Shadows didn't get seem to get as much airplay (radio, TV etc) in the whirlwind that came after the Fabs and others broke big..probably most Shadows record sales were mainly to hardcore fans by about 1965..

Maybe they should have changed to vocals, who knows?
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby JimN » Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:18 am

cockroach wrote:It may be that some of the tunes from that era were not as memorable as the early hits?


As far as I recall, the only numbers from the days when the Burns guitars were played in public which made it through into the 1970s-1990s revival of the stage act were The Rise And Fall of Flingel Bunt, Don't Make My Baby Blue and Somewhere. The latter two intermittently only - you couldn't guarantee they'd be played on a tour, though they certainly were performed from time to time.

During the Burns era 1964-1969, remarkably few of the group's current recordings were played on the theatre dates of which they played many, as well as many TV shows.

Apart from playing a few (and only a few) of the early hits, The Shads tended to promote their latest single (of course) and to play a few LP tracks. These came mainly from the "Dance With The Shadows" LP, with a few added from the "Sound of The Shadows" album the following year.

Choose a few from...

Dance With The Shadows: Tonight, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Big B, In The Mood, maybe Temptation as well.

The Sound Of The Shadows: Brazil, A Little Bitty Tear, Five Hundred Miles, Deep Purple (not totally sure about that last one).

Shadow Music: no tracks.

Jigsaw: no tracks.

From Hank, Bruce, Brian and John: no tracks (other than those specially recorded for BBC Radio but not performed live on stage or TV; the Shads also mimed to Snap Crackle... on Christmas Day 1967).

Established 1958: no tracks.

In the sixties, after 1962, the only early hits you could be reasonably confident of hearing were Apache, FBI, Dance On and Foot Tapper, plus The Rise And Fall.., as mentioned above.

Songs I never heard live in the 1960s included Man Of Mystery, The Stranger, The Frightened City, The Savage, Wonderful Land (except for one occasion in 1962 while it was still in the charts), Guitar Tango, Atlantis or Nivram. I did hear Midnight played live, however, with Peter Carter on rhythm guitar.
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Re: Burns Era Shadows Music: The end of the road?

Postby RogerCook » Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:07 am

There are some great tunes from the era and I would love to be in a band playing them. However, if you're gigging and your typical audience want to chat, have a drink and a dance, then you have to play material for them which means well known songs (ie vocals) and only the occasional instrumental.

Burns numbers still get an airing at Shads clubs, they were heard at Lakeside last year (Chas de Lacy), and half a dozen were featured at our Shadowsmix charity gig.
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