DESCRIPTION:
Royal Command Performance 1981. The Shadows playing Apachie live on stage followed by Cliff Richard Joining them on stage.The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and The Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s.

The Shadows were also successful in the British EP charts that were compiled by several different publications during the 1960s based on sales statistics from a limited number of retailers around the country. Typically The Shadows and Cliff Richard & The Shadows each had four No.1 selling EPs.

According to British Hit Singles & Albums (19th edition), the Shadows are the third most successful UK charted hit-singles act, behind Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard.

Pioneers of the four-member rock-group format (consisting of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums) in the UK, the group enjoyed a second spell of success and interest in their music from the late seventies until disbandment in 1990. Their unique guitar sound was originally produced by a combination of American Fender guitars, British amplifiers made by Vox and echo units Meazzi Echomatic tape and Binson magnetic disc.

With singer Cliff Richard, the Shadows dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s (i.e. the five-year "Before-Beatles" period: 1958--1962), before The Beatles' first full year in the charts in 1963.

John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." As the first backing band to emerge as stars in their own right, they were early trailblazers for the beat-group boom that eclipsed them. -- The Times 30 November 2005.

In 1958 Bruce Welch went to see a concert as part of the ill-fated 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis tour of the UK of which he later said:

On the show was this black American band called The Treniers. Hank Marvin and I were at the back, and we were really impressed at the way the sax players moved in unison, taken, I suppose, from the Glenn Miller days. It looked fantastic and we thought, "We must do something like that because it looks so interesting from the front."

The Shadows developed a number of movement sequences using their bodies and guitars in tempo with the music played, such as the 'walk'. As seen on BBC's Top of the pops this 'walk' has been copied by numerous groups as part of their TOTP presentation e.g. Mud, The Rubettes, Showaddywaddy, Yellow Dog. The walk consists of three steps contained within a 60-60-60 degree triangle formation with a reverse right-heel back-kick with optional can-can finale. This simple choreographed routine was varied throughout a typical gig during certain numbers, for example, "FBI."

During the 1980s, rather than playing their instruments in a static posture, during an instrumental number, or using "the Shadows' walk," their live act was further refined to include another routine stage movement effect. This featured Marvin, Welch and the bassist synchronising all their guitars in unison as a threesome to move them in time, or in sequence, with critical note or chord changes.

Occasionally, during other instrumentals, this guitars in-step presentation mode is re-engineered with Marvin and Welch acting out of sequence or alternating with each other.

During the late 1950s in the UK many pop stars were expected to undergo a name change to a 'stage' name, (as in the case of Billy Fury or Adam Faith). Several members of the original "Cliff Richard and The Shadows" line-up changed their birth names to stage names; Harry Webb became Cliff Richard, Brian Rankin became Hank Marvin, Terrence Harris became Jet Harris, and Bruce Cripps became Bruce Welch. Subsequently the names "Cliff Richard" and "Hank Brian Marvin" were confirmed by deed poll.

The group reformed in 2004 to mount a farewell tour, and they recorded a new track, "Life Story," (written by the late Jerry Lordan) to accompany a new greatest hits package of the same name which featured '80s re-recordings of all their 1960s and 1970s hits. This opportunity to see Marvin, Welch and Bennett, joined on keyboards by Hall and on bass by Griffiths, was so successful that they extended the tour to Europe in 2005. The line-up was almost the same, but Warren Bennett, son of Brian, came in on keyboards instead of Hall. On 27 November 2008, a concert tour, with Cliff Richard, for 2009 was announced. On 11 December 2008, Cliff Richard and the Shadows performed at the Royal Variety Performance at the same time announcing their forthcoming 50th anniversary tour. The tour commenced in September 2009 with 36 shows throughout the UK and Europe and extended to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 2010. Please visit my other Channel.Keep Rockin!.
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