jukebox

THE SPOTNICKS - Moonshot // Highway Boogie - Along with Duane Eddy, The Shadows & The Ventures, The Spotnicks have now clocked up 50 years in music. A tremendous achievement. At the heart of this success is Bo Winberg's spacey guitar sound, which has changed little over the years. This recording is a superb arrangement of The Fireballs' Gunshot and the tune has become a regular part of The Spotnicks' stage act. This version is a re-recording from 2003 and can be found on the 'Back To The Roots' album. From the same album comes the brilliant Highway Boogie. Written by Bo Winberg and certainly one of the better tracks from recent years. Spotnicks website here. These tracks have been uploaded with Bo Winberg's permission.

LEGEND - Yaeko - Legend's story began at Ian Harper's East Yorkshire Shadows Club when David Martin, Terry Carter, Chris Jarvis and Martin Verrill realised they all shared a passion for The Shadows' Burns guitar era. They decided to form a group purely for fun and such was their dedication towards the authenticity of the Burns sound that they were soon asked to perform at various Shadows fan events all over Europe, including three appearances at Bruce Welch's Shadowmania.
In 2002 they released their debut CD 'In The Beginning' which contained cover versions of Shadows favourites from the Burns period. The tracks were recorded and mixed by Warren Bennett & Dick Plant at Brian Bennett's Honeyhill Studio.
In 2007, to coincide with their 3rd Shadowmania appearance, Legend released a 5 track CD-EP called 'Something's Afoot!
The Jukebox track is from that CD and David Martin wrote the piece and dedicated it to their No.1 Japanese fan, Yaeko.
Both CDs are available from Leo's Den.

ROGER CHILDS - Roanne - Roger has been a keen supporter and contributor to the 'Shadsfaxers' series of CDs and this track is taken from the second album 'From The Heart'. The Shadsfaxers is the general term I use for readers of the Shadows publication Shadsfax who play and record their own original music, mostly in the style of Hank and The Shadows.

BRIAN FILMER - In Search Of The Nautilus - Another fine player and welcome guest on the Shadsfaxers series, this track also features on 'From The Heart'.

TANGENT - Beyond A Shadow (of a doubt) - Hailing from the West Country, 'The Bristol Shadows' were very popular in the 1980s-90s and recorded several CDs with guest bass players Jet Harris and Alan Jones.
We've not heard much from them lately but here's a reminder of this great band with the title track taken from their 1993 CD, 'Beyond A Shadow Of A Doubt'.

THE ATLANTICS - In The Shadows - Australia's greatest surf band reformed in the late 1990s and recorded a brand new album called 'Flight Of The Surf Guitar'. In The Shadows is from that CD and is available from the Atlantics' website.
Composed by guitarist Martin Cilia. See their website here
© The Atlantics

THE STRANGERS - Walkin' - The Strangers were Melbourne's premier band in the 1960s with regular TV work and a legacy of superb recordings. They started out as an instrumental group but when John Farrar replaced original guitarist Laurie Arthur their focus turned to vocals and intricate harmonies inspired by The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons.
This track is from the Farrar era and is one of only a handful of instrumentals recorded during that period. I simply love it!!!

CHRIS WATTS - Midnight In London - Yet another Shadsfaxer and more importantly a talented composer of contemporary guitar instrumentals. Chris is a good friend of mine and has written and recorded many fine tunes over the years. Sit back and enjoy this jazzy offering. Red Shadows website

TONY HOFFMAN - Shadow Dreams - A melodic Chris Watts composition with little ole' me doing a passable 'Marvin' impersonation (even though I say so myself).
Originally from the Shadsfaxers CD 'Shadow Dreams'.

THE FENTONE FOUR - Lullaby Of The Leaves // Golden Earrings - A Yorkshire band who draw their inspiration from a variety of instro groups, most notably The Fentones. The Fentone Four are Bill Smith - lead, Steve Longden - rhythm, Barrie Dickinson - bass and Dave Harrison - drums and here they perform The Ventures' arrangement of Lullaby Of The Leaves, currently available on their 'Out Of The Mexican' CD. Golden Earrings is another tasty working from the Fentone 4 and sticks faithfully to the original by The Hunters.

WARREN BENNETT - Across The Border - Choosing a musical career like his dad (Brian Bennett) was the right decision for Warren because not only is he a sought after composer and arranger for TV and library music, he is also a dab hand at writing and recording catchy guitar instrumentals like the one found here. This interest led to Warren forming The Vibratos with recording engineer Dick Plant. After three excellent CDs and several CD-EPs the Vibratos folded leaving Warren to release the occasional CD-EP under his own name. This track is lifted from a 2006 EP entitled 'La Mort De Henri'.

SPACE BABES - Tornado - Inspired by Joe Meek and the sounds of The Tornados, Space Babes have continued the tradition with a CD album entitled 'Worlds Apart'. Tornado is the first track out of 21 and captures the atmosphere and melody of those old Tornados faves. Byron Elwell is the man behind Space Babes, he penned the track and plays all the keyboards on the album. Space Babes website
© Space Babes

THE JUMPING JEWELS - South Of The Border - Glassy Fender tones effortlessly dispatched by one of Holland's finest instro bands, The Jumping Jewels. With singer Johnny Lion they proved a popular act in the early 1960s and like many backing bands were soon creating their own music in the form of guitar instrumentals. The original line up were Hans van Eijk (lead), Tjibbe Veelo (rhythm), Joop Oonk (bass) and Frits Tamminga (drums).

LES NOSTALGICS - Destination X - Very little is known about this outfit. I first saw reference to them in the brilliant rock instro mag 'Rumble'. Rumour has it that they were a bunch of French session musicians brought together for the project. As can be seen from the LP sleeve (borrowed(?) from ebay) the artwork is similar to The Shadows' 1st album which comes as no surprise because Hank & Co are certainly the musical inspiration here. All titles appear to be originals and great they are too. The LP dates from 1982 and if the master could be located it would make a worthwhile CD release.