For the Shadows, the road to Eurovision started
on 27th October 1974, where they reunited with Cliff Richard to perform
at the Colin Charman Benefit Gala at the London
Palladium. This was a one-off memorial concert in aid of BBC producer Charman's widow. Here they all are backstage on the night:
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The very next day, they received an offer from Bill Cotton
at the BBC, who had been in the audience at the concert, for the band to represent Great Britain in the song contest, and they accepted. Since they had been out of doing stage work for a few years, the Shadows did a few concerts at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon, as well as Eastbourne and Bournemouth, to get back into playing as a group again. At the Fairfield Hall they played two sets - one of their early sixties numbers and the second featuring new material, as well as a couple of Marvin, Welch & Farrar songs.
Bruce talks about the contest in Record Mirror, 15th February 1975. He was particularly keen on the idea (especially for the monetary aspect!)
"Everyone knocks Eurovision, but that's the interest. It shows how many writers would love to win Eurovision. As a writer myself, I'd love to win and pick up the fifty grand or whatever it is worth."
Though he said that:
"The trouble is none of the writers knew what to write for the Shadows because when we were having the hits we were an instrumental group"
Well that didn't stop 350 entries for potential songs from being submitted in just three weeks! Six songs were shortlisted by a panel from these entries for the Shadows to perform and for the public to vote on: No No Nina, This House Runs On Sunshine, Don't Throw It All Away, Cool Clear Air, Stand Up Like A Man, and Let Me Be The One. In fact, two of these songs had been co-written by members of the Shadows: This House Runs On Sunshine was written by Brian Bennett and Mike Redway, and No No Nina was from John Farrar and Peter Best. Bruce and Hank did not find this out until the songs had already been shortlisted, and this connection would have not been known to the voting panel either since their copies of the songs had blank labels.
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| Press photo from 12th January 1975 (from my collection) |
From 4th January 1975, these six songs were featured, one a week, on Lulu's eponymous TV show.
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| Lulu with the boys! |
The songs were all shown again on a special A Song For Europe episode on 15th February 1975:
1st - Let Me Be The One - 17,477 votes
2nd - Stand Up Like A Man - 14,294 votes
3rd - This House Runs On Sunshine - 10,451 votes
4th - Don't Throw It All Away - 3099 votes
5th - Cool Clear Air - 1601 votes
6th - No No Nina - 1261 votes
And
so, Let Me Be The One, written by Paul Curtis, was the song the Shads
took to the Sankt Eriks-Mässan exhibition centre in Stockholm, on Saturday
22nd March.
These photos were taken at Heathrow Airport on the 19th, when they were about to leave for Sweden.
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All of the acts that year painted a portrait of themselves as a way to introduce their song in the show.
Here's the boys creating their masterpiece:
The only live part of this was the orchestra conducted by Alyn Ainsworth, and Bruce, Hank, and John's vocals - the Shadows' own instrumental backing was prerecorded, and the only notable difference to the studio version is the intro. Bruce, once again miming the bass as Alan Tarney's on piano, forgets the second line of the song and then says "I knew it!" It didn't help his nerves that his microphone had fallen off its stand and was replaced mere seconds before the cameras started rolling!
Let Me Be The One finished in second place with 138 points, behind the Dutch group Teach-In and their 'Ding-A-Dong'... Truth be told, I like the winning song, it's quintessentially 'Eurovision'!
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| Here's an interesting pic... it's John and Hank looking very merry, with singer Getty Kaspers and some of the other members of Teach-in!! No idea where this photo is from, or who the lady in the fur coat next to John is. |
All
six of the Shads' songs for Eurovision were included on the Specs Appeal album released in 1975.
In order to fit these songs on the album, some tracks recorded from April-August 1974
that were intended to be on it were held back. Four of these (the covers of Superstar,
Honky Tonk Women, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and The Most Beautiful
Girl) ended up being released on the Tasty album in 1977. The fifth was a
cover of the Hollies song The Air That I Breathe - which was eventually
released in 1992 on the More Tasty CD as a bonus track.
An unreleased track
called Life On Mars, a cover of the David Bowie song, was possibly also going
to be on Specs Appeal. Apparently it was one of the few tracks that the entire group hated, and so it was left incomplete and unmixed. According to Bruce they were "experimenting with different sounds", and Hank said that his guitar "sounded like a trombone!".
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As for the six 'songs for Europe' - personally,
I agree with the order that the public ranked the songs in 1975, except that I would swap No No Nina (so it's 3rd) and This House Runs On
Sunshine (so it's last).
1st - Let Me Be The One
This is one of my favourite Eurovision entries. I don't know what else to say other than it's so catchy and it was the best choice of the 6 for the contest. This video is from a French TV show, in which Bruce isn't
miming bass anymore, Brian's got his drum kit back, and Alan Tarney has
disappeared...
2nd - Stand Up Like A Man
Released as the B side of the Let Me Be The One single. A different feel to the A side, with a message about moving on from heartbreak that everyone can relate to at some point in their life. I like the contrast between lead vocalists here, where John starts off and does the verses, then Bruce takes over for the chorus.
3rd - No No Nina
I'm
surprised that this song got the least votes, it's perfect as a
Eurovision entry and it always puts a smile on my face. Hank's voice is perfectly suited to the song, it almost feels like a 'companion piece' (don't know how to describe it really) to Bruce's Let Me Be The One! There's a nice little guitar solo too.
Interestingly,
an instrumental version of No No Nina (finally released in 1997 on
The Shadows At Abbey Road) was recorded before the vocal version and
originally intended to be on the Specs Appeal album. It's interesting, and I like the effects on
Hank and John's guitars, but maybe not so much the talk box! The
intro really reminds me of another song too but I can't place it. Overall it's better as a vocal...
4th - Don't Throw It All Away
What a poignant,
moving song. As always, the trio's harmony singing is beautiful, their voices blend so well in the chorus. However, it's not really
Eurovision material...
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| The band rehearsing Don't Throw It All Away for the Lulu show |
5th - Cool Clear Air
I have nothing bad
to say about this great song, but once again it's not the right sort
of stuff for the contest. It would have worked so well if Marvin, Welch,
and Farrar had recorded it a couple years prior, as it's really in the
same vein as songs like Lady Of The Morning, and stylistically I think it also
sounds like some of the songs from Tarney and Spencer's albums.
6th - This House Runs On Sunshine
This
one definitely comes sixth for me, and that is not an unpopular
opinion... even the Shadows didn't like it. While it's not the worst vocal they ever did, that
doesn't mean it's any good either - even for Eurovision standards, it's
all too insipid to the point that it makes your skin
crawl! Still, it is very catchy...
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Some merchandise...
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| Photo from the web of an EMI International press dossier, promoting the Shadows at Eurovision. I would love to own that poster - it's one of my favourite photos of the boys, the same one used inside the gatefold cover of Rockin' With Curly Leads. |
Other promotional items were pin badges and a T-shirt. The badges come up for sale occasionally online. I want one, but at the same time not enough to actually buy one at the price they go for, so I found a good photo of one and cleaned it up as a reproduction of the original design.
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