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--- In , "Brian Neal" <bneal@i...> wrote:
> Soo...did anyone make it out to Toronto? Ivan, have you recovered
yet? How'd it go?
It was great!! As far as recovery, well, it's taking a while. I
think I'm coming down with something - let's hope it's not SARS!!
Anyway, the show: we got in on Friday night (after a hellacious
drive, being stuck in rush hour traffic around Detroit for an hour
and then for another hour at the border - Dane was driving for 12
hours, the rest of us somewhat less), and immediately were treated to
a long practice/soundcheck set by Bruce Welch, his lead guitarist of
several years Phil Kelly (who is as good as Hank and plays with the
feeling and excitement that Hank had in the sixties but lost a long
time ago), and Licorice Locking, Shadows bassist from '62 to '64
(between Jet Harris and John Rostill). Bruce and Licorice, while
having spent a lot of time together over the last few years, have not
PLAYED music together since '64! Seeing them playing togegher was a
big thrill. They had a Toronto pro drummer to play with them, who
was not a good match - his bag was very obviously country and '70s
rock, so he didn't really have that 'swing' to his playing, and most
importantly couldn't reproduce the Shadows signature syncopated ride
cymbal figures. Anyway, they played a bunch of songs while we were
just hanging around together with another 10-15 people. That was
amazing. When they packed it in, I talked with Bruce and Licorice
briefly, and asked Bruce if I could play his guitar before the
weekend was over. He offered it immediately! Now, this is the
legendary guitar that Cliff Richard bought for Hank directly from the
USA in the summer of '59, one of the first Strats in UK. Hank used
this guitar to record Apache, Man Of Mystery, FBI, Gonzales, all the
classis Shadows songs from late '59 until early '61. I found out
later that the guitar is estimated to be worth a quarter of a million
UK POUNDS!!! Holy s*&#!! Even without knowing that I still got
shivers as I was putting it on. It's a fiesta red '59 Strat with a
highly figured bird's eye maple neck, and stock gold hardware - top
of the line in the '58 catalog. Bruce put on jumbo frets which felt
weird, but the neck was like a dream. I was playing the guitar with
which Apache was recorded!!! Wow. That was awesome.
The next morning we had a lengthy soundcheck, and we played a bunch
of songs, cause we were nervous as hell and thought that would help.
Hung out with Bruce and Licorice more. We played one relatively
obscure Shadows song from '65 to which Bruce responded with a
question: "What song was that?" He couldn't remember the name of his
own song! Our drummer Dane practiced four songs with Bruce and co.,
since the other drummer didn't know them or couldn't do them justice
(he hurt his wrist, or something): Guitar Tango, Shadoogie, The
Frightened City, and The Savage. Then Dane, our bass player Jim and
I got in the car and hit about five different music stores in
Toronto. Two of them were mostly used gear, and they were absolutely
incredible. I hadn't seen anything like it in years. Dane bought a
beautiful and great sounding blue Yamaha birch snare that he's been
wanting for a while, which matched his set. He was over the moon the
rest of the day b/c of this snare.
When we got back the second half of the evening was starting, meaning
all the real bands (rather than club members). I missed almost
everything in the beginning cause I was in my room warming up,
getting dressed and trying to shake off the nerves. I missed almost
the entire set by the New Fentones. The old Fentones were Shadows-
soundalikes in the sixties. They only released two singles, "The
Breeze and I" (the first rock instro version of this song that I know
of) and the incredible "The Mexican", a truly awesome song. Both
were just moderate hits The only original member of the Fentones on
Saturday was the bass player, but the others did very well. I only
heard their last two songs: "The Mexican" and Bach's "Jesu, Joy Of
Man's Desire". The former was good, but way too slow, and the latter
was incredible, I'd never heard such a cool arrangement of that
piece - lot of guitar pyrotechnics. The crowd of 300 (not bad) was
on their feet afterwards.
We went on next and played a great set, relatively mistake-free. Had
a really fun time. The guitar amps were provided for us, and I
should mention something for the gearheads (i.e., everybody on this
list!). The Vox AC30 I was using for lead featured this little
device called the Vintage Unit. It's an add-on preamp that is easily
wired into the amp, and acts as a whole new channel! Why, some of
you might wonder? Well, it's a preamp designed around the EF86 tube,
which was used in the early AC15 amps AND the very early AC30s (they
eventually switched to 12AX7s cause EF86 are less mechanically stable
and fail quicker due to vibrations from high volume, especially when
bass is played through the amp - this is also what necessitated the
introduction of the Top Boost, to recapture some of the tone lost by
the switch to inferior 12AX7s). Hank recorded all the Shadows early
songs (until '62 probably) with either AC15s or early AC30s, so the
guitar sound was based around the EF86 preamp. Well, I kept
switching between the ordinary AC30 channels and the Vintage Unit
while playing the show, and the VU definitely recreated that rawer,
more rock'n'roll sound of the early Shadows! I was quite thrilled,
and will be getting it for myself. Here's the best news: it's only
115 UK pounds!! Check out the website here:
Our setlist, for those interested:
Temptation
The Rumble
Shindig
Blue Shadows
The Frightened City
Find Me a Golden Street
Big Boy
National Provincial Samba
36-24-36
Fandango
Bossa Roo
Main Theme
Round and Round
Genie With the Light Brown Lamp
My Resistance is Low
Midnight
Little 'B'
The Lost City
Gonzales
Man Of Mystery
Shadoogie
And, BTW, Malcolm, Man Of Mystery is one of the best known and best
loved songs by the Shadows. Dan Forte AKA Teisco Del Rey in an
article for Guitar Player mag a few years ago put it in upper five of
the best rock instro songs ever, and I gotta agree with him. Also,
The Cruel Sea was definitely originally by the UK band the Dakotas.
They had several other great songs, they were produced by George
Martin, and they often used a 12-string guitar (Fender?) for lead, as
they did in the original version of the The Cruel Sea, which was
written by their lead guitarist. I think the Ventures covered this
song before the Challengers, but I'm not sure about that.
Finally, Bruce, Licorice, and Phil. Their set is a blur, cause I was
still high from our set, and cause I was quite relieved to be done!
But they played a bunch of classics: Dance On, Foot Tapper, The
Savage, Guitar Tango, Shindig, Nivram, Theme From Deer Hunter,
Atlantis, Theme For Young Lovers, Peace Pipe, Atlantis, Spring Is
Nearly Here, FBI, Apache, a bunch of others. Bruce and Phil were
extremely good, and Licorice was INCREDIBLE (I often thought of him
as the weakest bassist the Shadows had, but he showed on Saturday
that was totally wrong - he played an amazing improvised jazz solo in
Nivram that blew me away, and peppered all the songs with imaginative
bass fills). But the highlight of the entire night for me was when
Dane played The Savage with them. He played all the floor tom parts
flawlessly, and as it came to the end of the song he had to do a few
fast snare fills. Well, he played the first one in what can only be
described as an explosive manner! Bruce, Phil and Licorice just
turned around and looked at him with amazement on their faces! It
doesn't get better than that. Oh, BTW, Bruce introduced The Savage
by saying that as a young man he had a very fast right hand.
Uproarious laughter from the audience. He went on: "Playing this
next song only gets harder with age, though nothing else does"! Then
he said something about "Sherman Tank", and we had no idea what he
was talking about. Only later did I find that he's referring to,
ahem, an activity similar to polishing the gun on a turret of a
Sherman tank. :) I guess it's a British thing. Well, a British
TERM, anyway! I pointed out to him later that there was a guy by
name of Rip Thrillby who ascribed this same factor to guys' greater
ability to play double-picked surf guitar parts, which he found
entertaining.
Anyway, they played a great set, and things wound down. We tore down
the equipment, and all went to the hotel bar at 1am, and stayed there
til 3am. I got to talk to Bruce a LOT, which was amazing.
Apparently just a few weeks ago, the Brit music industry association
gave the lifetime achievement award to Pete Townshend and Pete
personally requested ahead of time that Bruce introduce him at the
event. When Bruce did that, Pete said that when he was growing up
and learning to play the guitar, everybody wanted to be Hank and play
lead guitar. Then he said, "Not me - I wanted to be him" - points to
Bruce and starts strumming an air guitar. Pretty cool, eh? Heard a
lot of stories like that, and much more talk about Sherman Tank and
such.
After five hours of sleep, we all gathered again for breakfast.
Great camraderie all around, and I got to talk to Licorice quite a
bit. Bruce, Phil and Licorice are SUCH nice people, it was quite
amazing. Such talent, too. Anyway, we left around noon, and I'm
still not completely recovered. We were lobbying very hard to be
invited to next year's Shadowmania (the real one, in London,
organized by Bruce), and I think we have a shot at it. We'll see..
Man, I'm tuckered out, too much writing. Sorry about that, got
carried away. Nice to meet you there Malcolm, and I was sorry that
no members of the six Toronto surf bands were present, I would have
enjoyed meeting them.
Ivan
