Episode Ep 953 August 18, 2026 42 min 57s

The Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band

From Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

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