Shadowmania 2008
Report Chris Kennedy, Photos © Phil Mcgarrick, web page design & upload Cazz
It
has taken me a while to put pen to paper after Shadowmania 10. It was a day
full of emotions: the enjoyment of what was by a country mile the best ever
Shadowmania coupled with reflecting on Bruce's closing comments at the end of
another 8 hour festival of music which, to me, implied that we won't be making
the annual pilgrimage to Frimley Green any more. It was also (disregarding the
£7 charged for sausage and chips) a day full of surprises and I hope that the
following words will capture some of those.
The first group on stage was The Runaways and they chose a solid opener in
Shindig before moving on to Kon Tiki and then one of my favourites: Theme for
Young Lovers. Soon it was one of my lesser favourites: Cavatina, well played
though, and the set included a range from across the decades including
Goldfinger, Find me a Golden Street and Moonlight Shadow.
I seem to recall a fans' poll which once voted Hank's riff in Moonlight Shadow
as the best ever and Gary on lead guitar did it justice today. The group's
playing of Midnight was a gem as was Stranger on the shore although it was
curious to hear them perform it; this was usually one of Licorice's harmonica
numbers. His replacement though would emerge to be the first real surprise!
The second group of the afternoon was The FootTappers. Daniel, Joel, Craig and
Timothy, remember the names. They had first performed at Shadowmania 9 and had
gone down a storm, perhaps partly down to the novelty factor with them being so
young. I was looking forward to seeing them again but felt that they would need
to raise the bar this time.
In short, they delivered; perhaps not in some of the opening numbers such as I
wish I could shimmy like my sister Arthur and Stingray which aren't to me 'grab
them by the lapels' tunes, but by the time they had got to The sound of silence
and then, later, Guitar Tango and Atlantis they were delivering (in my,
controversial?! opinion) the best set of the day.
The audience participation section of Little B brought back memories of Brian
Bennett's surprise appearance at Shadowmania a few years back, with 'Little T'
getting a standing ovation, and The FootTappers chose a fantastic closing number
with We are the Champions. They are the future of our favourite music and the
future is in safe hands.
And so to Licorice's slot and a wonderful surprise when he opened with Mountains
of the Moon, the combination of harmonica plus guitars from The FootTappers
worked very well and it was just a shame that the drum solo seemed to be cut a
bit short. Licorice also played harmonica, accompanying The FootTappers, with
the evergreen favourite Dakota and other surprises included a solo (harmonica
plus backing track) rendition of I will always love you. Wonderful stuff and he
took to the guitar to play Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto De Aranjuez.
Next up, The Reflections opened with The Rumble and then some nice guitar
effects in The Cruel Sea before they performed I'm absolutely Hank Marvin which
tune apparently had been found on 'You Tube'. Nicely played but I'm not sure
the title did justice to the kinds of sounds that Hank has created on (for
example) the Guitar Player album or One night in Bangkok.
Removing my anorak... I enjoyed The Reflections rendition of Parisienne Walkways
and they were then joined on stage by Indra who reprised I saw her standing
there from his first appearance at Shadowmania, some years back. Other hits
from Indra and The Reflections included The Stranger and then Quatermaster's
Stores morphing into Red River Rock before the group finished with the
traditional classic Old Spinning Wheel.
As always with Shadowmania, we had already enjoyed three fantastic sets but
there was still so much more to come. For now though, and to paraphrase that
'You Tube' composition, lots of people were saying "I'm absolutely Hank Marvin"
and so it was time to investigate some of those £7 sausage and chips...
As the MC said, "It wouldn't be Shadowmania without The Rapiers" and this
brilliant group kicked off the evening session with The Savage and then Bongo
Blues. I had heard some comments that The Rapiers should play some different
tunes this year which to me seemed a bit strange - a bit like asking Hank & Co.
to give Apache and FBI a break - but they did include some new airings including
Theme from a filleted plaice and Do you wanna dance which the group had also
performed just six days earlier at the London Palladium.
Finishing their mini set with the William Tell Overture, previously performed at
the 25th Anniversary Concert in Amersham and probably never to be performed
again, given that even the audience needed oxygen, as always The Rapiers had
opened the evening part with great style.
Now Jet was on stage to start not with The man with the Golden Arm but instead
36-24-36 and then Jet Black, followed by Scarlett O'Hara. Jet was on top form
with great guitar playing and his usual dry sense of humour: "at my age eating a
toffee is a work-out!" although there was another surprise with Cliff Hall
joining him and The Rapiers (after a 3 year gap) for a sequence including Dance
with the Guitar Man and Besame Mucho.
It was a nice surprise for all the Cliff fans in the audience but also
apparently a surprise (or shock) for the man himself, who was an 11th hour
replacement and had even written the notes on some scrap player backstage! You
wouldn't have known as the performance was spotless although Cliff was doubtless
buoyed by Jet's humble and profuse thank you speech for standing in!!
Mention must be made of Jet's performance of Song for Tony, the composition by
Richard Cartridge, which held the audience spellbound in one of those 'hear a
pin drop' moments; a very moving tribute.
And so to the final act of the evening, with Bruce's Midnight Shadows starting
with Riders in the Sky - minus the Apache opening (put anorak away again!) and
then the ever popular Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt. Next up was Time is Tight
with Cliff on 'regular' keyboard duties although not this time performing the
one-legged stand on seat (put that anorak away!!!!)
Almost every other tune was a surprise and I think the group enjoyed playing
some less often heard numbers, including Cosy, Some are lonely and Theme from a
summer place. Bruce enjoyed singing Peggy Sue got married and showed just how
he is the complete musician whilst Phil Kelly had fun with his echo-box before
delivering an excellent Perfida.
Other highlights included the always brilliant Equinoxe (with Alan Jones wearing
some interesting spectacles, I'm not sure I'll be visiting his optician) plus
Bob Watkins playing the washboard for Putting on the style. Bruce paid tribute
to Clem Cattini who was in the audience to watch the Moonlight Shadows deliver
Telstar; "one I wish The Shadows could have had" said Bruce.
All too soon we were heading into Wonderful Land and FBI and now Shadowmania 10
was coming to an end. Bruce closed events by paying heartfelt tributes to all
those involved in making Shadowmania happen including thanking his Moonlight
Shadows for encouraging him to start playing again.
It sounded strongly like a farewell speech; we have got used to Bruce saying at
the end of each Shadowmania "shall we do it again next year?" He didn't say it
this time though and just concluded with "see you next time" which led me to
believe that this might have been the last time that Shadowmania will take
place, especially given the fact that all the groups today had really pulled all
the stops out, I can’t see how any future Shadowmania could top what we had just
seen.
Since starting to write this report, it appears there is going to be a new a new
album from The Shadows plus Cliff & together with an appearance at The Royal
Variety Show in December, perhaps we shall see a series of concerts in
2009 which is what all the fans are really really hoping for.
"I'm very much up for that - if it happens (!)" - Cazz
Chris
Final word from Cazz - "As ever many thanks Chris for taking the time to do the report - cheque is in the post (!) & also to Phil for allowing me to reproduce a couple of his photos on this page