Starting off with the
most iconic of them all, the first promo film for:
Apache - 1960
Created and possibly directed by Jack Good, who described it as a "visual record", it was filmed on the 28th of September 1960 somewhere in Park Lane in London. It was intended to be shown on British TV, or also maybe for the French market on a video jukebox machine like the Cinebox, which was a phenomenon mostly confined to the continent.
For a layman it's easy to jump straight to the shiny suits and show business when they think of The Shadows... But
these are the Shadows back in 1960, pioneers and purveyors of "That
Sound" resplendent in moody monochrome. That opening shot of Jet,
with his often mentioned striking film-star looks, smoking a cigarette
in his leather jacket, is still the coolest thing ever put to film.
Bruce in his hat, Tony in his - well, that - jumper... Hank with that Strat... I could write a book about these three minutes!!!
The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt - 1964
Very little info about this promo film, apart from that it was filmed in Brussels around the Atomium and was shown on Top Of The Pops.
Maroc 7 - 1967
This one is priceless - the
boys larking about on the beach at Canvey Point in military costume,
duelling with swords and guns, at the mercy of Lynn Waller (John
Rostill's girlfriend at the time) wielding a spiky flail! It was
officially released a couple years ago as an extra feature on a Network
DVD release of the Maroc 7 film; I was thinking about buying a copy of
the DVD literally just for this small clip... but I decided I'd wait it out and see if it surfaced online... and it did! So here it is, courtesy of The
Shadows Collectors Corner. The spoken introduction - not part of the
promo film - is taken from a special demo version of the single, intended to be played in cinemas.
Bombay Duck - 1967
Filmed at the same time as the Maroc 7 promo and also starring Lynn Waller, this time as a 'Bombay Duck' to be shot at by the Shads with shotguns! This film was made, but is either lost or just very hard to find. There's some photos of the boys and Lynn making the film on this page here. In the astronomical event that anyone reading this has ever seen this film or has a copy, I would love to see it!
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| photo from Echo Archives |
London's Not Too Far (Hank Marvin solo record) - 1968
This promo film is lost, it was shown on Top Of The Pops so probably got wiped... In this thread from the now closed ShadowMusic site, someone who watched
it at the time remembers it as:
"a little girl standing at the front door watching the rain coming down, then returning to the lounge, where her father is reading the paper. He puts the paper down, and behold! it's ... Hank!"
He was also smoking - or pretending to smoke - a pipe!
Let Me Be The One - 1975
Filmed 24th February 1975 in the Wells Street ITN studio. Bruce
is miming the bass like he did at the Eurovision Song Contest - but unlike Eurovision,
Brian's allowed to have his pink psychedelic drum kit this time. This is my favourite promo film apart from Apache - maybe I'm biased because I love this song, and I love Bruce's voice, and his smouldering good looks, and this song should've won the contest that year... etc... etc... etc...
It'll Be Me Babe - 1976
Filmed 27th May 1976 in the same studio as Let Me Be The One. Last time, Bruce was miming to Alan Tarney's bass playing, now he's miming to John Farrar's falsetto! Look at him screaming at the end! But I really like this song, with all its multi-tracked guitar going on, and not forgetting the solo - though, did Hank play that on the record or was it John? Also I love Hank's vocals here too... and after who knows how many times of listening I managed to decipher what he says in that slightly odd spoken part as it fades out: "...because it's gonna be me that's with you tonight baby, and I've got a whole lot of greenbacks in my pocket"(?!?) Anyway, finishing off with an awkward zoom onto Brian's bass drum skin....
Apache - 1977
I believe that this film was created as part of EMI's Video Show experiment in 1977, where video equipment was installed in selected record retailers around the UK as a novel method of promoting new artists as well as well-established acts, including The Shadows. This clip would have been part of a one hour long film on a VHS tape featuring many different EMI artists. More info on this scheme can be found in Music Week, 16th July 1977 on page 3.
Judging from the artwork at the end, this was part of the
promotion for the 20 Golden Greats compilation, using clips from The
Young Ones, Summer Holiday, and Rhythm & Greens, as well as the Let Me
Be The One promo film. There's also a black-and-white clip of the boys
with Cliff in the mid 1960s, playing their Burns guitars. It's a bit of
fun but nothing can compare with the original Apache promo film. They
should've used that one instead.
Love Deluxe - 1978
Theme From The Deer Hunter (Cavatina) - 1979
Equinoxe (Part V) - 1980
Filmed 4th September 1980 in the Top Of The Pops studio. Featuring George Ford miming bass, a lot of smoke machine going on, and Hank waving his guitar around a lot even for usual Marvin standards...
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| Pic from the 1981 tour programme - a still of the Equinoxe video in much better quality and unfaded colours than the actual full thing above- or what I can find of it. |
Also, see Hank clowning around during the filming of TOTP before the Shads filmed their promo video!
Shadowmix - 1990
Going out with a whimper.... Here it is for completionist purposes!
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