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HANK MARVIN • BRUCE WELCH • BRIAN BENNETT THE SHADOWS THE FINAL TOUR 30 Apr SCARBOROUGH Futurist Theatre 01723 365789 01 May NEWCASTLE City Hall 0191 261 2606 03 May EDINBURGH Playhouse 0870 606 3424 04 May DUNDEE Caird Hall 01382 434940 05 May GLASGOW Royal Concert Hall 0141 353 8000 07 May YORK BARBICAN 01904 656688 08 May SHEFFIELD City Hall 0114 278 9789 09 May LIVERPOOL Empire 0870 606 3536 10 May HALIFAX Victoria Theatre 01422 351158 11 May MANCHESTER Opera House 0870 401 9000 12 May PRESTON Guild Hall 01772 258858 14 May IPSWICH Regent 01473 433100 15 May NORWICH Theatre Royal 01603 630000 16 May NORWICH Theatre Royal 01603 630000 17 May BRENTWOOD Leisure Centre 01277 262616 19 May LEICESTER De Montfort Hall 0116 233 3111 20 May OXFORD New Theatre (Apollo) 0870 606 3500 21 May CROYDON Fairfield Halls 020 8688 9291 22 May BRIGHTON Centre 0870 900 9100 24 May SOUTHEND Cliffs Pavilion 01702 351135 25 May CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange 01223 357851 26 May NORTHAMPTON Derngate 01604 624811 27 May NOTTINGHAM Royal Concert Hall 0115 989 5555 29 May BLACKPOOL Opera House 01253 292029 30 May BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall 0121 780 3333 31 May BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall 0121 780 3333 02 Jun PLYMOUTH Pavilions 01752 229922 03 Jun BRISTOL Colston Hall 0117 922 3682 04 Jun BRISTOL Colston Hall 0117 922 3682 05 Jun CARDIFF Arena 02920 224488 06 Jun SOUTHAMPTON Mayflower 02380 711811 08 Jun DUBLIN The Point 00353 1 836 3633 09 Jun BELFAST Waterfront Hall 02890 334455 11 Jun BOURNEMOUTH International Centre 01202 456456 12 Jun LONDON Carling Apollo, Hammersmith 0870 606 3400 13 Jun EASTBOURNE Congress Theatre 01323 412 000 14 Jun LONDON Palladium 020 7494 5057 |
Photos
from Manchester Opera House 11 May 2004
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Review
of the Shadows at Preston Guildhall,
It helped enormously, having the full set-list before we started, although I was caught off-guard when the steady throb of the Apache intro started off Riders In The Sky! Then I remembered the Kingston show, where it started Shazam. Cunning blighters, these Shadows! I think I spent most of the first half in a state of being blissed-out…finally having Bruce and Brian there as well as the familiar face of Mr Marvin. Was it really 14 years since these guys played together? I was delighted to have Bruce more or less in front of me. So often, during the Polygram years, I felt he’d been mixed down on record. Tonight, however, he was there with a vengeance. Not for Bruce the frenzied thrash of Don Wilson of the Ventures. Bruce gave the impression it was all very easy and lots of fun. He and Hank seemed to have a good rapport on stage. I do hope it extended to back-stage too…no remnant of any bad blood between them, bygones being bygones, axes (tomahawks?) being buried. In one sense, it was a little bit like being in a time-warp, as I was magically whisked back to the days of my youth. Each song was played to perfection. There were no obvious attempts to change anything. I’m sure that there were probably the odd bum notes, but don’t ask me where they were! I won’t comment on every single number they played, because, unless you’d never heard the Shadows, you knew what to expect, and you got it. I would have liked to have had a less truncated version of Geronimo, but this was part of a medley of old Shads numbers from the early sixties. Much as I prefer the sixties material, I really enjoyed the adventurous Equinox, and (best of the lot), Brian Bennett’s gorgeous Mountains Of The Moon. This deserves to be an all-time instrumental classic and the rendition we got was stunning. Although Hank stuck mainly to his signature Stratocasters (several guitars with different gauge strings to suit individual songs), he and Bruce played Burns guitars on the hits Don’t Make My Baby Blue and The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt. Bruce swapped his Strat for an acoustic at times and Hank also used an acoustic as well. It was Bruce who used the now-familiar guitar-on-a-stand this year. Mention must be made of the excellent vocal numbers…from the sixties and from the Eurovision Song Contest (as Bruce says, we were robbed!), as well as two from the sadly unsuccessful Marvin, Welch and Farrar. However, a great success was the inclusion of no less than eight Cliff songs. Of course, these were all songs where the Shadows had played and sung, except the Hank Marvin-penned The Day I Met Marie (which the boys had also recorded). It’s easy to forget that the group originally started out as a vocal group and I think they have consistently done superb vocals, even if we’d prefer them to stick to instrumentals. As a Ventures’ fan I have to admit that the Ventures have never come remotely close to the Shadows when it comes to singing! (The word embarrassing is perhaps too harsh, but the Americans really should stick to playing.) Hank and Bruce were ably helped by Mark Griffiths, who is an able singer, as well as being an awesome bass guitarist. Keyboards were equally ably handled by Cliff Hall, who never overwhelmed the proceedings, as I sometimes felt he did on record, to the detriment of Bruce’s contributions. Let’s not forget the little guy at the back…Brian Bennett seemed like a man with a mission: to demolish his kit! His playing was exciting and powerful, as it always has been. His signature drum solo from Out Of The Shadows: Little B was so good that even my wife, who isn’t exactly keen on drum solos, was suitably impressed. I can’t recall another live solo which included such variation from whisper-quiet to thunderous. For a man who is even older than me, he is still a powerhouse. I am not knowledgeable about drumming, so I can’t legitimately compare Brian with either Mel or Leon Taylor, but let’s just say he is different but just as impressive. My overall comment on the evening was that I felt incredibly happy. It may surprise you to learn that I have only ever previously seen the Shads once before…on the Change Of Address tour in 1980. I’m sure they were even better this year. There were no disappointments, though, naturally, there were songs they didn’t play which I would have loved to hear…War Lord, Stingray, A Place In The Sun, Maroc 7, and lots of album tracks, and not forgetting Rusk. But what we did get was a long and marvellous concert. It would be a shame and a pity if this really was IT…the very last Shadows concerts, however difficult it may be with Hank living down under. But, in a way, what have they left to prove? A sell out tour and a top ten CD…what more could there be? Why not quit when they’re ahead? I sure we could easily answer that…a tour with Sir Cliff, a new album of originals in the same vein as their classics, NOT a set of wall-to-wall covers of chart vocals such as we got throughout the eighties… Speaking of CDs, I can only admit my admiration for the recycling of The Shadows At Their Very Best, the re-recordings from 1989 of the Shadows classics. These were, of course, also available as two other still-available hits compilations even before Life Story came out. I am not too terribly impressed at issuing a double CD with ONE new track. This excellent song was played over the PA as we left the theatre. I haven’t bought it…yet. I think a little more thought in selecting either original Shadows numbers or covers of instrumentals such as Diamonds, rather than yet another dip into the vocal hits would have been better, and this could have so easily been done from the Polygram archives. However, I digress. If the current record company wants a sure-fire top ten hit again, a recording of the Final Tour would go down so well, provided it was the Full Monty…a great double album. And if they do, please can we have the pre-concert announcements about things like mobile phones – it’s a killer! Les Collinson, aka The Rocking Vicar |
| More Tour Reports Caroline Firth has kept an admirable record of the tour and if you visit her site, you will find a collection of fans comments/reports from every concert (as well as news of sheep etc) |
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| PRESS RELEASE
… together again – for one last time!UK dates: April 30th-June 14th 2004 cd: ‘LIFE STORY: The Very Best of the Shadows’ (26.4.04 on Universal) (Catalogue number: 9817819) 2004 heralds the return
of the legendary SHADOWS – Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian
Bennett – together and on tour for one last time! Kicking off at
Scarborough Futurist Theatre on April 30th 2004 the tour
spans the entire UK over a massive 37 dates and culminates at the London
Palladium on June 14th. |
Photos from the first concert at the
Scarborough Futurist Theatre on 30 April
For more concert photos, visit the SHADOWS GUITAR CLUB EAST YORKSHIRE site
 PRESS
RELEASE (cont'd)
To coincide with this unmissable tour, Universal are to release ‘Life Story – The Very Best of The Shadows’, a magnificent double CD featuring 45 classic Shadows tracks which celebrate the 45th year of their existence. The essential collection is named after the title track, ‘Life Story’, which was the last tune written by Jerry Lordan – composer of ‘Apache’- and the most recent to be recorded by the band. WINNER OF A SIGNED COPY OF LIFE STORY What was the LAST Shadows single to be released commercially in the UK? The correct answer was SHADOWMIX/ARTY'S PARTY . The winner chosen randomly from all the correct answers is: Mark Pentecost from Co Durham. |
page last updated 05 August 2004
