The Shadows were the strongest brand in British pop, adored and widely imitated. When they went out of fashion, no-one wanted them to change. Bob Stanley salutes their enormous influence and creation of the guitar hero and unravels their rapid post-Beatles decline in his superb new book, ‘The Shadows: the Definitive Story’. And talks to us here about …

… Hank and Bruce arriving in London aged 15 when the 2i’s coffee bar was a labour exchange and a social club

… entering a talent contest won by a Malayan opera singer

… the magic of cowboy culture transported to British suburbia and their four cartoonish stage names

… meeting Jacques Tati at the Paris Olympia and being asked to write a song for his upcoming movie

… the rapid post-Beatles crash – bow-ties, panto and Cliff announcing his Christianity

… “being thrown through a mangle twice a night by Arthur Askey in Stockton-on-Tees is not why they joined the music business”

… getting Hipgnosis to design their album sleeve while stuck playing Batley Variety Club

… the return of instrumentals with Albatross and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

… when Hank was asked to join the Move

.. the Swedish vogue for “barbed wire groups”

… and Neil Young’s ‘From Hank to Hendrix’ – which everyone assumed was about Hank Williams.

Order copies of Bob’s book here: https://tr.ee/rSilFTJwfO

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