I grew up regarding The Shadows as a kind of comedy act; hardly surprising really when they could regularly be seen goofing around in the Cliff Richard movies shown on TV during the school holidays, or as main features of the Saturday Morning Pictures at Wood Green Odeon, not to mention the regular goofing around on Cliff's own TV Show, a kind of 1972 version of 'Saturday Night Take Away' usually on just after Pertwee era Dr Who. By the time I hit my teens however, they had become what I then regarded as grinning old men in cardigans, twanging away at MOR cover versions and taking up valuable TOTP time, whilst I sat all teen stroppy, hoping for an appearance by The Jam, The Stranglers or The Specials. Even The UK Subs would do......
One of the first singles I ever acquired was a Shadows single. I remember going to a church jumble sale, aged about five and a half, somewhere around the summer of 1970. Somewhere amongst the 'jumble' I must have spotted and picked up what I thought was a copy of the then current England World Cup song, 'Back Home', but I had in reality picked up a copy of 'The Frightened City' and read the wrong side. I loved that single and took it into school with annoying regularity each and every end of term 'record party' until, as kids tend to do, I moved on and just kind of forgot about it.
Of course, along came Bowie, The Beatles and eventually punk, The Jam and all the other stuff I got into as I grew. As for The Shadows, well they just goofed around in the background, twanging away in their cardigans and my once precious single most likely found it's way back to another jumble sale.
Fast forward then a decade or so to 1988 and I was spending a weekend near the Lake District with my fiance and some friends, most of which we spent sheltering from constant rain in a welcoming but fairly down at heel pub, in which there was a jukebox that seemed to play 'Wonderful Land' if someone so much as coughed in the bar . I was so taken by this tune that we ended up having it played at our wedding the following year and - such is the mix of emotions it generates - I have threatened those I will one day leave behind with a full on clanking chains and wailing haunting if it does not get played at my funeral. In my humble opinion, the most beautiful melody you could possibly hear. So, two decades and just two tunes of any real bearing, but I did at least pick up a copy of '20 Golden Greats' when we got back from the Lakes.
My inspiration for writing this - and apologies for any rust around the edges, I haven't so much as tried to write anything of note in a long while - was a recent (and completely on a whim) bargain price download of 'The Shadows - The Early Years (1959-1966)' box set ('box set' meaning in my case, a completely intangible collection of MP3 files rather than 6 shiny CDs and a booklet) which I had a whole lot of fun - in a sad kind of way - splitting up into all the separate studio albums, EPs, singles and b-sides. Being a '20 Golden Greats Only' follower so far, there is much to be enjoyed and discovered. Without doubt, the 1960-62 era stuff - this was the era when they probably were the biggest British band in terms of chart success and popularity - is the strongest, with some real treasures to be found amongst the more familiar tunes ('Peace Pipe' - the b side of 'The Savage' is a current favourite) Other top notch discoveries are the tracks that make up the slightly western themed debut EP from 1960 and the emotive Spanish music to be found only on an EP called - you guessed it - 'Los Shadows'
The later stuff (1963-66) - from the years when the hits were harder to come by and popularity waned in the wake of the Beatles / Stones / Who / Kinks there is much to discover too. Not everything works, especially some of the Beatle-ish vocal tracks, but listened to with an open mind and a curious ear, there is so much in this body of work to enjoy and hopefully provide a soundtrack to everything the average day can throw your way, good bad or indifferent. I'm pretty sure that this is where it will stop for me - I can't really ever envisage myself getting into their later 'twangy cover versions in cardigans' stuff, but I'm glad to have this huge collection to get tucked into in the lighter, warmer months to come.
On a final note - I discovered recently that Jerry Lordan who wrote two of The Shadows most famous hits; 'Apache' and 'Wonderful Land' amongst other tunes and songs that they recorded, went to the same school that I did, admittedly about 30 years before me, so no tales of shared smokes by the cricket nets or punch ups near the music house sadly. I don't recall any sort of acknowledgement of this; perhaps a statue is in order..........
