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album reviews

The Shadows



The Shadows 8 ( 1961 )
Shadoogie / Blue Star / Nivram / Baby My Heart / See You in My Drums / All My Sorrows / Stand Up and Say That / Gonzales / Find Me a Golden Street / Theme from A Filleted Place / That's My Desire / My Resistance Is Low / Sleepwalk / Big Boy

Originally the backing group for Cliff Richard, 'Apache' in 1960 saw The Shadows hit UK number one and a string of hits followed. They were a hugely influential instrumental act, the following guitarists were directly inspired by Hank Marvin and co early in their careers - Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May and more. Their debut LP in 1961 was the first by any group or British artist to top the UK Album charts. The Shadows became a model for the 1960's groups and left a mark on a Liverpool group working the clubs of Hamburg. A lot of credit goes to the bespectacled Hank Marvin of course for his precise, delicate and clean guitar sound yet the bass playing here of Jet Harris is supremely melodic and provides an interesting counterpoint. Now, to anyone under the age of fifty, The Shadows won't mean a great deal to you, which includes me. I know of the part they played, for better or worse, in launching the career of Cliff Richard. I know that almost every other act Joe Meek recorded in 1960 and 1961 were indebted to The Shadows and that this form of instrumental music remained popular enough to populate the charts well into 1965. As other instrumental acts faded away, The Shadows ( except in America ) retained a goodwill from their original fanbase that lasts right through to this day, enough to propel a recently released Hank Marvin solo LP well up the album charts.

Around half this LP features original compositions by The Shadows in various combinations. The opener 'Shadoogie' is one of them, a fiery uptempo slice of instrumental guitar music and it's a joy to hear them sounding as alive as they do this early on in their career. 'Nivram' is a good illustration of the melodic bass playing style of Jet Harris, 'Sleepwalk' is the kind of picturesque instrumental that's enough to add a little romance into anyone's lives, it's a really nice, accomplished, atmospheric piece. The Shadows liked humorous song titles and an example here is 'Theme From A Filleted Place'. The classic sound of Hank Marvin's guitar can be heard in full effect throughout the track. 'Stand Up And Say That!' is an oddity in that it's a piano led rock n roll instrumental rather than being a guitar led one. Still, the variety on this debut Shadows LP is really rather good, tracks like 'Stand Up And Say That!' and 'See You In My Drums' clearly showcasing different aspects and instrumental possibilities. Anyroad, i'm a sucker for a track like 'See You In My Drums'. 'My Resistance Is Low' is another stylish showcase of the Hank Marvin guitar sound and what a fine tone he can get from his instrument. I'm going to sum up by declaring that reviewing Shadows albums at all is something very few other people seem to have done on the net, so hopefully this page will prove useful to some people out there once it's done. The Shadows debut? It's a good record.

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