THE SHADOWS
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A week or so ago, they featured in a new BBC TV documentary celebrating 60 years since their beginning. The programme featured tributes from Pete Townsend, Dave Gilmour and Brian May among others. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page have acknowledged their debt too. Neil Young took part in a tribute album. George Harrison once said "no Shadows, no Beatles". The Beatles recorded a tribute "Cry for a Shadow". Cliff Richard and the Shadows jammed with the Beatles at Paul's 21st birthday party. Lead guitarist Hank Marvin is one of the most influential guitarists. In the UK and Europe Cliff and the Shadows were the prototype pop group - Cliff and the group have had massive success independently as well as together. Cliff has sold over 250 million records. He's had a handful of American hits, he records in Nashville a lot, but America is one of very few countries where he can walk down a street unrecognised. As you can tell, I've been a fan from virtually day one. If anyone is curious, and finds anything from their incredible six-decade plus output that they like even a little, then I will be very happy.
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Is Cliff Richard still performing? I thought I saw him on the Graham Norton Show a few years ago.
Just looked him up - he was born 5 days after John Lennon!
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Nancy R, Cliff is definitely still performing - he has a UK tour sold out for this autumn (May well be postponed of course). His latest album of all-new material came out last autumn and got a good reception. YouTube has a huge number of items from his entire career. There is a great clip recently of him and Gary Barlow duetting under lockdown from their respective homes. Cliff still does 2-hour full-on shows as he approaches 80. A DVD of his Manchester gig in 2018 was excellent.
