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The Shadows evolved from a group called the 'Five Chesternuts' which went under the stewardship of Pete Chester, son of broadcaster and comedian Charlie Chester. The line up of the new group was soon to look like that shown above and became Cliff Richard's backing group 'The Drifters'. Although the original bass player had been Ian Samwell, he was soon replaced by the more skilled guitarist, 'Jet Harris'. 'Sammy' then concentrated his efforts on songwriting and was responsible for some of the finest examples of British rock and roll which would become several of Cliff Richard's hits- including the now legendary 'Move It!'. The group were signed to the same EMI, Columbia.label as Cliff Richard although Norrie Paramor used session musicians on Cliff Richard's earliest recordings. The 'Drifters' as they still called themselves cut two unsuccessful singles under this name before renaming themselves the 'Shadows' to avoid confusion with the US group who were gaining UK popularity at the time. Despite Cliff's immediate record success, none of the group's first three releases were successful including those which included their own vocals. However, 1960 brought them 'Apache' written by singer/ songwriter Jerry Lordan. Despite also being recorded by the popular British guitarist Bert Weedon, the Shadows' version became the smash hit. The number was so strong that it provided the template for the many Shadows hits that followed and gave inspiration to a myriad of other British guitar groups. |
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The Shadows have a large number of EPs credited to them, but the one shown on the left (SEG8094) is one of very few to show the original line up. Interestingly, the sleeve notes written by James Wynn of the New Muscal Express lead us to believe that bassist, Jet Harris was the leader of the group at this time. |
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Despite the group's seemingly endless string of successful hits, both Meehan and Harris announced their departure from the group and they were quickly replaced by Brian Bennett (b. 9th February 1940, London) and Brian Locking respectively. However, Locking was soon replaced again by John Rostill (b. 16th June, Birmingham). Despite now being in competition with former group members Harris and Meehan, the new line up restarted along the same series of successful hits as the original group. By the mid-1960s competition from the 'beat boom' had grown and their chart placings were not generally as high as they had been but they sustained regular chart appearances until 1967. The early 1970s were troubled times for the group which had ceased to play regularly in 1969. Worst of all was the loss of John Rostill in 1973 who was electrocuted by his electric guitar. Nevertheless by 1975 they had reformed to enter the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Let Me Be The One' which also gave them their first chart entry of the decade. They went on to a new series of hits including 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' and 'Theme From The Deer Hunter (Cavatina)' , both of which reached the top ten. The Shadows remain the most popular UK Instrumental group of all time. |
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