Out of the Shadows
TEN years ago this week the Shadows had their first No. 1 hit with a disc called “Apache,” and two of the original members of the group, of course, were Tynesiders Hank B. Marvin (or as his old school mates remember him, Brian Rankin) and Bruce Welch.
Well, the good news on this tenth anniversary is that Hank and Bruce are collaborating again. They’ve teamed up with an Aussie guitarist, 24-year-old John Farrar, and they’ll be hitting the pop scene as soon as Marvin. Welch and Farrar.
The odd thing is that up to now the three have never played together, but they’re putting that right at Bruce’s home in Albulfeira, Portgual.
Once they’ve got on to one another’s wavelength they plan to start recording in October. The first aim is an album, with the possibility of a single release from the L.P material.
And they have a major tour with Cliff Richard lined up for November. Very appropriately it starts right here in Newcastle (at the Odeon) on November 11.
Manufactured
And talking of the Odeon reminds me that yet another pop group has been “manufactured,” in much the same way as the Monkees and the Archies were.
They figure in a film called “Toomorrow” and they’re called, believe it or not, Toomorrow! In real life they’re Olivia Newton-John, a dishy 21-year-old singer from Australia; 22-year-old Karl Chambers, a very good rhythm and blues drummer from Philadelphia; Vic Cooper, 25, pianist and organist from Devon, and Ben Thomas, 24, Georgia-born singer and guitarist.
The film is all very glossy and bright, and the music just a wee bit on the bubble gum side, perhaps.
But there are one or two numbers in it which I’m pretty sure we’re going to come across as singles - and I’m quite prepared to hear more of Toomorrow, if they’re allowed to break out of cinematic pop into the cold, hard commercial world outside.
The numbers they put over in the film (showing next week in Newcastle, by the way) were composed by Mark Barkan and Ritchie Adams, and if the names don’t mean anything to you, think back to “Pretty Flamingo,” which Manfred Mann took into the Hit Parade, and that other chart-topper “Tossing and Turning.”
Mark, who has written music for three Elvis Presley films, and songs for Dusty Springfield and Tommy Steele, composed “Pretty Flamingo,” and Ritchie was responsible for “Tossing and Turning.”
Between them they’ve penned songs that account for 18,000,000 record sales throughout the world.
Photo: THE “Toomorrow” line-up: left to right, Vic Cooper, Karl Chambers, Ben Thomas and Olivia Newton-John.