UNTIL last month, in 20 years they hadn’t performed together, but when Cliff Richard and The Cardiff tonight shadoes recevie, it’s sure to be a night to remember, writes Lydia Whitfield.
Fifty years on from when they first recorded and performed, this reunion and final tour lasts four months and takes them to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Grandparents their original fans, but they will be sure to be going wild in the aisles when the band takes to the stage at the CIA tonight.
Cliff remains the only UK artist to have reached No 1 with a single in five consecutive decades.
And his reunion with the band Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett promises to be a suitably impressive send off tour. Fellow original Shadow, Jet Harris, left the group in 1962 after a row and now lives on the Isle of Wight, but is not joining the tour.
They are still surprised that half a century ago, rock bible, the New Musical Express, criticised Cliff for his ‘violent hip swinging exhibitionism’ under a headline asking ‘Is this new boy singer too sexy for Britain?’
And Manchester’s Chief Constable drafted in extra police for a Cliff gig ‘because we all know the trouble that this wild young man can incite’.
“The tour is going rather brilliantly,” says Cliff, who is entering his 70th year he will be 69 on October 14.
“I wasn’t actually worried about it as we’ve been around a long time. These guys wrote most of the stuff, so they know it and I’ve been singing it since the day I was born. So I feel confident and quite rightly it’s turned out how I expected. It’s not easy, but it’s been good.”
Cliff and The Shadows dominated British pop in the late ’50s and early ’60s, enjoying solo and joint success, and starred together in feelgood flicks ‘Summer Holiday’ and ‘The Young Ones’.
In 1959, The Shadows (then still going by their original name, The Drifters) landed an EMI recording contract of their own, and throughout the ’70s and ’80s toured regularly, enjoying Top 10 successes, and often competing with Cliff for the No 1 spot.
Between them they achieved no less than 19 No 1 hits, including; ‘Living Doll’, ‘It’s All In The Game’, ‘Travellin’ Light’, ‘Bachelor Boy’ and ‘Apache’.
They were taken aback at how 250,000 tickets for this Reunited tour sold out immediately and their new album Reunited leapt into the Top 10 within a week of release.
Known as the Peter Pan of Pop since rocketing up the charts aged 17, baby faced Cliff experimented with Botox when he hit 60, but wasn’t keen on the way his eyebrows drooped.
He isn’t worried that many of their lyrics are about being young, but for the tour has changed the lyric of A Girl Like You, to ‘a girl like you, a guy like me’ instead of ‘Boy like me’.
But he says, “I don’t worry about it at all. The Young Ones, for instance, is a state of mind.”
Cliff Richard and The Shadows perform at the CIA tonight and on Tuesday, October 20. All tickets are sold out. Ring 029 2022 4488 for returns
Fifty years on from when they first recorded and performed, this reunion and final tour lasts four months and takes them to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Grandparents their original fans, but they will be sure to be going wild in the aisles when the band takes to the stage at the CIA tonight.
Cliff remains the only UK artist to have reached No 1 with a single in five consecutive decades.
And his reunion with the band Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett promises to be a suitably impressive send off tour. Fellow original Shadow, Jet Harris, left the group in 1962 after a row and now lives on the Isle of Wight, but is not joining the tour.
They are still surprised that half a century ago, rock bible, the New Musical Express, criticised Cliff for his ‘violent hip swinging exhibitionism’ under a headline asking ‘Is this new boy singer too sexy for Britain?’
And Manchester’s Chief Constable drafted in extra police for a Cliff gig ‘because we all know the trouble that this wild young man can incite’.
“The tour is going rather brilliantly,” says Cliff, who is entering his 70th year he will be 69 on October 14.
“I wasn’t actually worried about it as we’ve been around a long time. These guys wrote most of the stuff, so they know it and I’ve been singing it since the day I was born. So I feel confident and quite rightly it’s turned out how I expected. It’s not easy, but it’s been good.”
Cliff and The Shadows dominated British pop in the late ’50s and early ’60s, enjoying solo and joint success, and starred together in feelgood flicks ‘Summer Holiday’ and ‘The Young Ones’.
In 1959, The Shadows (then still going by their original name, The Drifters) landed an EMI recording contract of their own, and throughout the ’70s and ’80s toured regularly, enjoying Top 10 successes, and often competing with Cliff for the No 1 spot.
Between them they achieved no less than 19 No 1 hits, including; ‘Living Doll’, ‘It’s All In The Game’, ‘Travellin’ Light’, ‘Bachelor Boy’ and ‘Apache’.
They were taken aback at how 250,000 tickets for this Reunited tour sold out immediately and their new album Reunited leapt into the Top 10 within a week of release.
Known as the Peter Pan of Pop since rocketing up the charts aged 17, baby faced Cliff experimented with Botox when he hit 60, but wasn’t keen on the way his eyebrows drooped.
He isn’t worried that many of their lyrics are about being young, but for the tour has changed the lyric of A Girl Like You, to ‘a girl like you, a guy like me’ instead of ‘Boy like me’.
But he says, “I don’t worry about it at all. The Young Ones, for instance, is a state of mind.”
Cliff Richard and The Shadows perform at the CIA tonight and on Tuesday, October 20. All tickets are sold out. Ring 029 2022 4488 for returns
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