Style and image

Band Logo

As pioneers in British rock-music The Shadows were naive in terms of commercial exploitation opportunities such as self-promotion via artwork etc. The Shadows allowed Vox amplification to produce small metallic badges, using an italicised Tahoma type font, with the group name to be positioned on the front bottom right corner of all three Vox cabinets sometime during the early 1960s for gig usage. This Vox made badge became a 'default' band-logo which was never commercially exploited by The Shadows.

Moreover, unlike The Beatles et al., The Shadows never used this Vox-badge band-logo on the front of the bass-drum preferring to allow their 2 drummers, Tony Meehan and Brian Bennett, to use their names on the bass-drum. Belatedly the band-logo was used only once on the artwork front of their 1975 original studio album, Specs Appeal. To date this band-logo remains untrademarked and uncopyrighted.

By contrast, thanks to its proactive management, The Beatles' band-logo with its dropped-T (qv The "BeaTles") was commercially exploited to great effect, not only on the kick-drum but also as an artwork icon in its own right, such as on stationery, posters, album releases, etc. Since the invention, and subsequent wide ranging usage, of this band-logo by the Beatles (created by Eddie Stokes in 1963), all successful UK bands have, with the aid of graphics or art-work specialists in this field, produced a band-logo often as an artwork piece of work (eg The Who with an arrow-head on top of the 'h') to further promote their group throughout its career often trade-marking it to protect it from copyright infringement.

The Shadows'-'walk'

Ever mindful of how they appear on stage as a band with or without Cliff Richard, The Shadows developed themselves numerous movement sequences using their bodies and guitars as visual enhancement devices in all sorts of different manners in tempo with the music played such as a 'walk'. As seen on BBC's Top of the pops this 'walk' has been copied by numerous groups as part of their TOTP presentation eg Mud (band), The Rubettes, Showaddywaddy, etc.

The Shadows were inspired by The Treniers wild gig routines to include the 'walk' routine as part of their live act both with Cliff Richard and without him. Used throughout their illustrious career, it simply consists of a 3 step walk contained within a 60-60-60 degree triangle formation with a reverse right-heel back-kick with optional can-can finale. This simple choreographed routine was varied throughout a typical gig to great affect during certain numbers (qv track: FBI).

During the 1980s during an instrumental number, rather than playing their instruments in a static posture or using the Shadows' walk, their live act was further refined (qv Equinoxe V) to include another stage movement routine effect featuring Marvin, Welch and the bassist synchronizing all their guitars in unison as a threesome to move them in time or in sequence with critical note or chord changes.

Occasionally, during other instrumentals, this guitars in-step presentation mode is re-engineered with Marvin and Welch acting out of sequence or alternating with each other. As a spectacle this is a visual feast for guitar enthusiasts and fans alike.

For vocal numbers they act more conventionally and play their instruments close up to their microphones with minimal guitar movements except when Hank Marvin plays any mid-song guitar-break.

Name Changes

During the late 1950s in the UK many pop-stars were forced to undergo a somewhat pointless and now outdated (sur)name change into a 'stage' name eg Billy Fury as part of the indoctrination process into show business British style. This process was initiated by either the manager or the producer or the record label who signed the pop-star. The general opinion at that time was that a pop-star without a stage name would fail to excite fans to listen to the music or buy records or attend concerts.

Unlike their contemporaries such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones or any USA band during that era, several members of the original Cliff Richard and The Shadows line up changed their birth names into old fashioned stage names. Harry Webb became Cliff Richard; Brian Rankin became Hank Marvin; Terrence Harris became Jet Harris. But Bruce Cripps became Bruce Welch and Daniel Anthony Meehan became Tony Meehan. Subsequently these were all confirmed permanent by deed poll. By contrast, as if to draw a line in the sand, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all other groups post-Beatles continued to use their birth names throughout their career in music with only a few notable exceptions during the glam-rock (eg David Bowie) or punk-rock (eg Johnny Rotten) eras.