"We're gonna play at the S.R.S.A..."

 

 

New Lynn RSA (Christmas) presents: A 'Living Doll' and a 'CuddlyToy'

  "Flingel Bells, "Flingel Bunt", Flingel all the way..." A Festive Feast of Cliff hits, Shadows hits, and many more classic rock'n' pop favourites to help you recapture those '60s "Summer Holidays" at The Mount, Orewa, Waihi Beach, Whangamata, Gisborne, Mangawhai and all of the other fabulous sun, surf and music meccas up and down this "Wonderful Land". "...Oh, what fun..."

 

 

  Draft programme
(subject to change)

2:00 pm         Shane Hales, MC "Welcome!"

2.10 - 2:25      Eden Roberts

                        (Maddi & Shannon dance/Hip Hop)

2:30 - 2:50     June Hayes

2:55 - 3:15     Dean ‘Honey Boy’ Morris

3:20 - 3:40     Roger (Skinner) & The ThreeGees

3.50 - 4:20     Black Dog

Speeches, thanks

4:30 - 5:00      Karen Davy: ‘Dreams' - Fleetwood Mac Experience

Raffle draws

5:25 - 5:55     The Joe Cocker Experience

                        (Maddi & Shannon dance/Hip Hop)

6:05 - 6:35    The Rumour + Shane

Announcement of winner of signed guitar

6:40 - 7:10    Tom Sharplin

7:15 - 7:40

 











8:00 pm        Close

Oh, what a night! (late October 1961)

Oct. 1961 NZ Tour programme cover
(Scroll down for pic of cast.)

SHANE HALES: "I went to see Cliff and the Shads on their first visit to Oz  and, after the concert, my mates and I hung around at the hotel, hoping to meet the Shadows, and I got to meet them all except Hank and Cliff Richard. So, at around 3.00 am, I went off to sleep in Hyde Park (Sydney) on a bench; even got a newspaper to keep me warm. Luckily, the weather was fine and, in the morning, I went back to the hotel where I waited until around noon. It was worth the wait. Out came Bruce Welch, then Brian Bennett, Hank Marvin and Jet Harris. I got their autographs and had photos taken with them. To top it off, out comes Cliff, saying: “Where can I get a cup of tea?” I took them down the road and they all thanked me. I was on cloud nine, and went home where dear old Dad was waiting, spitting tacks because I hadn’t come home all night." 

 
GRAHAM GIBSON: "I was in a young Auckland band called 'The Versatones' (fronted by Roger Skinner) and we had recently gone "full-on Shadows". It was around Labour Weekend 1961 and the four of us had scrimped and saved for tickets to the Auckland Town Hall concert on Tuesday, October 24. After a few support acts, mainly out of Australia but also including Auckland's own 'Keil Isles', "SHAZAMMM!!!"...and there were our heroes, surprising everyone with a Duane Eddy opener. After the break, they were joined by Cliff and a rockin' good night was had by all. We hung around after the venue emptied and, suddenly, this slim bloke with fair hair wandered out from backstage and asked for directions to "the loo". So, we kinda met Jet Harris. Then, we emerged onto Queen St, in our suits and ties, and a bunch of girls rushed up and asked us to autograph their programmes. We didn't point out their mistake, but signed our own names. Felt guilty later about what must have been a huge let-down for those fans."  

The tour party for the NZ leg. (Rear L-R)  Doug and Leo deKroo, Andy Ellis, Brian Henderson, Lou Miller, Bruce Welch, Brian Bennett, Judy Cannon, Frankie Davidson (Centre L-R)  Herma Keil, Cliff Richard, Jet Harris
(Front L-R)  Olaf Keil, Bill Fairs, Hank B. Marvin, Klaus Keil

 

Congratulations to 'Che Orton Band' - 2013 VAC 'Benny Award' winners!

 

 At last night's Variety Artists Club 'Benny Awards' dinner-show, the Benny for "2013 Group of the Year" went to the Che Orton Band. As surprised-to-be-nominated co-finalists (along with Halo), the members of The Shadz would like to congratulate Che and his bandmates on taking out this prestigious accolade. Richly deserved!

Congrats too, to jazz/session drumming legend Frank Gibson Jnr on receiving a VAC Scroll of Honour, and to all the other Benny winners.

       

We shook the "Chev" - now, let's "Rock the Hithe"

 

SUNDAY 10 NOV. The Lions Club of Greenhithe, with members of the local community and Hospice North Shore, are once again putting on a Blues & Rock ‘n’ Roll event at the Greenhithe School.

The inaugural event, in November 2012,  was the dreamchild of Hospice patient Chrissie Wykes, who wanted to give back to Hospice North Shore before she died. Daughter Shireen Garrett, friends, Greenhithe Lions and Hospice staged a fantastic event, with a great lineup of singers/bands contributing. Because it was such fun, the organisers have been asked to repeat the event and many of the artists are thrilled to return. Chrissie Wykes recently passed away and this year’s Rock the Hithe will be in her memory.

Shane & The Shadz are on the bill. So are our good buddies Karen Davy, Ken Strong.and the "Dreams" Band with their stunning Fleetwood Mac Tribute Show. And Shadz members G. Betti (Garry) and G. Gibson (Graham) will join Motivation bassman G. Judd (Graham) to back Roger Skinner, as Roger & the ThreeGees. (You should be dancing, yeah?)

Gigabout

(All gigs featuring Shane & The Shadz)

 

2013

• Nov. 10 - "Rock The Hithe" North Shore Hospice Fundraiser, Greenhithe Primary School
• Nov. 15 - Silverdale RSA, Viponds Rd, Stanmore Bay
  
• Nov. 17 - Dairy Flat Music Club (Fundraiser) Dairy Flat Hall
• Dec. 15 - Entertainers Club, Tauranga
• Dec. 21 - "Shane & Shadz Christmas Party", New Lynn RSA

2014

• Jan. 5 - Matakohe Music & Arts Festival, Matakohe
• Jan. 11 - Whangamata Club, Whangamata
• Feb. 8 - Soundgarden, KohuKohu, Hokianga Harbour..(TBC)
• Feb. 22 - Matakana Gig, Matakana.

Check out "The Shadz feat. Shane"  live on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/shadzbandnz

And the rest, as they say...

On June 17, 1960, 18 year-olds Hank (Brian) Marvin and Bruce Welch, Terence "Jet" Harris (21 in July) and Tony Meehan (17), plus their 19 year-old "boss" Cliff Richard, Columbia Records producer Norrie Paramor and EMI recording engineer Malcolm Addey, assembled in the soon-to-become legendary Studio 2, Abbey Rd, London to lay down two tracks for a 45rpm single to be released under the name of "The Shadows".

The intended A side was a Johnny & The Hurricanes-type arrangement of a trad. soldiers' song - with title corrupted to "Quatermasster's Store" as a play on the "Quatermass" sci-fi TV serial. For the flip, the boys had their own haunting arrangement of a new tune composed - on ukulele - by young entertainer/songwriter Jerry Lordan.

On "Apache", Hank played the newly imported Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster (S/N 34346). Bruce borrowed Cliff's Gibson J200 jumbo acoustic guitar. Cliff did the intro-middle-outro "tom-tom" bits on a studio-owned Chinese drum.

Listen to the flipside, 'Quatermasster's Store
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm2RO4Y-ds0

The story goes that - as with Cliff's 1958 breakthrough hit "Move It" - Norrie Paramor's daughter convinced her dad that the intended B side should be promoted to A. Released in July 1960, "Apache" rocketed to No. 1 by Aug. 25, displacing Cliff & The Shadows' "Please Don't Tease" (penned by Bruce Welch & Pete Chester). It stayed on top for 5 weeks and a sound - and a cult - were born. Here endeth the history lesson...

...and here (below) is the only known photo of that historic session. Probably rehearsing "Quatermasster's Store" here because Bruce is playing his sunburst Fender Jazzmaster electric. Hank and Bruce using 2-tone Vox AC15 amps (or maybe early AC30-4s). Norrie's in charge. Jet has his ashtray - he's cool.

June 17. 1960. EMI Studio 2, Abbey Road. London
L-R: Jet Harris. Tony Meehan, Norrie Paramor, Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Cliff Richard

"O for a Muso on fire...

...that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention, a kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!" {corrupted from "Hank the Fifth" - apologies to Billy the Bard)

Athletic support band* (will play for pinot, plum-pud and pavlova)

 

*No, not 'Jock Strapp & the Elastic Band' (or 'The Crickets' ;-)

 
OK, to be strictly calendar-correct it was a "Mid-Winter Boxing Day" (July 26, right?) but, otherwise, last Friday night's fundraiser event at Te Pai Netball Centre in Henderson had all the requisite Christmas trimmings - fabulous food, festive fun and even some high-value 'prezzies' (for the lucky raffle winners). 

And, of course, it was freezing - outside.

The Shadz were privileged to strut our stuff and contribute to the merry-making of a great evening, organised to help fund travel costs for Netball Waitakere rep. teams. We also enjoyed backing guest artist Gerard Smith (host/producer of "The Beat Goes On" weekly TV magazine show for Baby Boomers and lead singer for legendary band, The Rumour).

Noting that July 26, 2013 was Mick Jagger's 70th Birthday, Gerard packed the dance floor with a rip-roaring extended rendition of "Satisfaction" - a word that pretty much summed up the night.

Demon drumming, "Savage" strumming, jumpin' jive

 

Set 5: "Shadoogie", "Wonderful Land", "The Savage", "Do You Wanna Dance?", "Got a Funny Feeling"

 

One for Mum, four for the "Young Once"

 

Set 4: "Living Doll", "It'll Be Me", "D in Love", "The Young Ones"

 

Two toe-tappin' tunes by "nivraM knaH" & Co.

Set 3: "Nivram", "Foot Tapper" 

"Spliff Pilchard" with "The River Herringz" (aka: "Shadz")

Set 2: "Move It", "Please Don't Tease", "I Could Easily Fall in Love With You", "Gee Whiz, It's You"

Rare footage (medium quality)

 

That whole Variety Artists Club "Shakin' the Chev" event (at the Pt Chevalier RSA) back at the end of April was captured in splendid HD video/sound, and we recently received a DVD of the Shadz+Shane segment. After a lot of tricky re-encoding/conversion, some decidedly amateur "splitting/editing" via Windows Movie Maker and brutal compression to shrink the file size from 965mb down to inside Blogger's 100mb limit, here's the first slice. More - including Shane performing as "Sir Spliff Pilchard" - on the way.

Set 1: "Dance On", "The Rise & Fall of Flingel Bunt", "F.B.I."  

They played on words, too!

When we early Shads fans got our hands on the group's first LP ("The Shadows" - 1961), we were amused and delighted by some of the track names:  "See You in My Drums"; "Nivram" ("Marvin" backwards), "Shadoogie" and "Theme from a Filleted Place" (think "Summer" and "Plaice"). The Shadows' name games would continue over their recording career with titles like "Stars Fell on Stockton" (not Alabama), "Rhythm and Greens", "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Arthur" and many more.

Here are Pete and Graham {fooling around at rehearsal), "Strato-nising" on that fishy "Theme". Polka Time!
 
  

Tracking our covers...

 

Here are a few more covers of early Shadows' tracks (1960-62)  - once again captured live and "in the rough" on Al's pocket recorder during a garage rehearsal:

Always wun for a pun...

 

While eagerly awaiting some more rehearsal trax from Alistair, decided to have some PhotoShop fun with our images. OK, the Strat's a bit oversize but had to cover up a Lee Enfield 303 being held by Capt. (Betti) Mainwaring. Also, Garry's not that short and Al's not that tall.

Wonder if this pic will help get us some RSA club gigs (or get us blacklisted forever)?

Have a dekko at my new 'deco'

 

GG here. Just had to share a visual of the gorgeous amp that arrived at my place, today, from down-country. It's not quite new, but it's nowhere near as vintage as the styling might suggest (built in China, 2009). It's also rather large for a 1 x 12-inch speaker combo amp, and incredibly heavy - like, heavier than some 2 x 12-inch amps I've owned (roadie recruitment underway).

Epiphone, known today as a quality sub-brand of Gibson, was originally a musical instrument-manufacturing family business that started in Turkey in 1873 and moved Stateside with the owner-operator in 1903. It started manufacturing very good and quite unique-looking guitar amps in 1935. Seventy years later, in 2005, Gibson Labs introduced the E-series lineup, which included this Triggerman 60W DSP 112 - all with distinctive deco/retro cosmetic styling.

Rich, powerful and handsome, you could say it's the great GATsby of Gat Amps (now, all I need to go with it is a 'red Ford').  

"Yeee...hawww!"

  

So, the other day, at a Shadz rehearsal in the "Garriage" (Garry's garage), Alistair plonked down this little hand-held recorder amidst the amps and drumkit - no mixing desk, no placed mics, no balancing or post-mixing/fixing...nothing. Here's one of the tracks we were working on - in fact, it was our first attempt at this 'stampede' called "Big Boy" (Welch/Marvin) from The Shadows' 1961 debut album..

"In the Country"

 

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, MAY 10-12, 2013

Karen Davy Band at Bay of Islands Country-Rock Festival, featuring the "rhythm section" of The Shadz (Al, Garry, Graham), working with Karen, Linde Walker (Backing Vocals), Keri Betti (Harmonica-playing frontman of Indigo Blue) and Ken Strong (Lead Guitar, Vocals and Musical Direction). We were comfortably accommodated at the Haruru Falls Resort, checking-in Friday afternoon ahead of our first gig - later that evening at Hotel Tanoa Paihia.

Haruru Falls from the deck

First gig (Friday. May 10, 2013) at Hotel Tanoa Paihia

The weather forecast for the weekend had been "rain, rain, rain" but it was wrong. In fact, after cresting the Brynderwyn Hills, the only weather problem some of us encountered was sun-strike making it hard to see the road ahead to the Bay of Islands.

Saturday dawned sunny and mild as we assembled/set-up in front of the Information Centre at Paihia Wharf for a 2-hour stint (9.30-11.30 am), which went very well. Good audiences all morning, and even a photo-journalist from the Northland Age/Northern Advocate, so we had a photo featured in the papers' website slideshow.

Karen, Ken and Graham at Paihia Wharf (Sat. morning), captured by Northland Age photographer

Karen Davy Band (lunchbreak photo-op) at Paihia Wharf, Sat. May 11, 2013.
Standing, l-r: Graham Gibson, Garry Betti, Karen Davy, Keri Betti, Alistair Taylor
Seated: Linde Walker, Ken Strong

 The weekend's third gig involved driving to Opua, a car-ferry crossing to Okiato and a short drive on to Russell, where we performed at the grand ol' Duke of Marlborough Hotel. Then, all the way back to Paihia to get ready for.
.
...Paihia Pacific Resort Hotel, where we were set to follow that great entertainer Dennis Marsh. Our band really "hit its straps" in this gig - just felt tight-and-right.

Paihia Pacific (Sat. May 11, 2013).
L-R: Alistair Taylor, Keri Betti, Linde Walker, Garry Betti, Karen Davy, Ken Strong, Graham Gibson

 
Sunday evening at the TMO Sports Bar (ex-Cruza Bar) was supposed to be our final gig, but we managed to add one more performance at the "musos' wrap" party at Haruru Falls before joining in the general "jam session". All in all, a great weekend (with splendid weather).

Haruru Falls Resort "wrap party" (Sun. May 12, 2013)

Belated Update:

 

Amazing what you can fake with PhotoShop, eh!

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2013
 
The Shadz+Shane performance at the Blockhouse Bay 'End of Summer Blues' Festival went really well (and went down well, according to crowd feedback), It was a blast having Shane (complete with pink jacket made for him by the Sir Cliff NZ fan club a few years ago) working with us on a great set of Cliff & Shadows numbers.



SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2013

Next up was the Variety Artists Club day/night show, 'Shakin' the Chev' at Pt Chevalier RSA. The afternoon kicked off with a rousing rock'n'roll dancing session led by a rocking 'no-name' band which just happened to feature all four Shadz members plus songstress Karen Davy and her collaborator Ken Strong (guitar/vocals/musical direction). No prior rehearsals, just a full-on jam that felt and sounded great! First "name" act of the day was the irrepressible, always impressive Marian Burns with a typically crowd-pleasing set.

Then came the formal set by the Karen Davy Band (Karen plus Ken Strong on lead guitar and vocals, Linde Walker on BVs, and Shadz members Alistair Taylor on bass, Garry Betti on drums and Graham Gibson on rhythm guitar). After an intensive rehearsal programme, this was a valuable dress rehearsal for the band's upcoming appearances at the Bay of Islands Country-Rock Festival (10-12 May).

After a quick-change for three of us, The Shadz+Shane stepped out for our set. This was really well received and we got a lot of very positive comments afterwards. Once again, drummer Garry Betti was working overtime, anchoring the first three bands and staying on to power Indigo Blue, which was the next act on the bill. Finally, Shane & Band rocked the show to an after-dark close. Excellent event and a useful fund-raiser for the VAC.

"Move It!" - Shane & The Shadz "Shakin' the Chev" (frame capture from compressed video clip)

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, MAY 10-12, 2013

A couple of weeks later, Garry, Al and Graham were on the road to Paihia to perform six gigs as members of the above-mentioned Karen Davy Band. More on that, and a few pics, to come...     

 

Sha-Sha-Sharing the spotlight

 

We decided that, since the legendary vocalist 'Shane' is gonna be on the Blockhouse Bay Festival bill - with his own band - we should invite him to perform some :Sir Cliff" numbers with us. And, being a big Cliff/Shads fan, he agreed. So, we've had a couple of workouts and it sounds great! If you're going to Blockhouse Bay Primary School for tomorrow's (Sat. April 6) "End of Summer Blues Festival", make sure you catch this at around 4.30 pm:

 

"Whau!" There is a cure for the Summer's Gone blues...

In between photo-ops, The Shadz have been rehearsing hard for our third* hit-out of 2013, as part of the entertainment line-up for the Blockhouse Bay (Auckland) 'End of Summer Blues Music Festival', set to "rock the Westies" on Saturday, April 6 at Blockhouse Bay Primary School. Also appearing are Shane, Indigo Blue and many more acts - all with a local connection. Hope to see you there!

*We started 2013 bright and early with a loooong, HOT day's/evening's work up north at the '2013 Matakohe Music & Arts Festival' (in home territory for our bassman Alistair) on Saturday, January 5, in the beautiful grounds of a restored 1890s villa - now a home-stay. Besides appearing as The Shadz, we backed longish sets by Paul TT, Karen Davey and Tom Sharplin. Garry, as drummer for both The Shadz and Indigo Blue - whose powerful set gave at least three of us some welcome respite - was on-stage almost non-stop.

*Gig #2, on Friday, Feb. 15, was a little closer to home but still north of Auckland city limits  - a mainly outdoor wedding on a stunning riverside estate at Matakana. By bridal request, Pete and Graham strapped on acoustic guitars and trilled versions of Lenny Cohen's 'Hallelujah' and Chris Knox's '(Love) Not Given Lightly' for the ceremony on the lawn. Then, back to the amps and PA on the patio of the magnifique Provencale-style mansion, where we rocked the young and old guests through the sudden rain and on until 'round midnight - even though the disco guy was supposed to start much earlier.

 First photo-sesh: Thursday 14 March 2013

 

"EYEZZZ...

 ...FRONT!"

 Alistair Taylor (Bass), Peter Wallace (Lead Gtr), Garry Betti (Drums), Graham Gibson (2nd Gtr)