Shadoz 2011 Review

The 8th anniversary of  “Shadoz”  was held on Sunday 12 June 2011 at the Northcote RSL in High Street, Northcote (Melbourne). We had to acknowledge the sad passing of two of our favourites in recent months – firstly John Barry, the music man behind the classic James Bond movies and a host of other familiar movie themes. Of course, you’ve probably all heard that Jet Harris passed away on March 18 – Jet was the original, and some say the best, bass player with The Shadows, and indeed it was he who actually came up with the Shadows’ name. We paid tribute to John and Jet throughout the day.

The day kicked off at 12 noon with TONY KIEK’s keyboard skills. Tony was joined by a special guest from Cheshire,  UK, DAN TOFT on guitar. They pleased with a fine selection of ‘later’ Shadows-based tunes, including “Eye Of The Tiger”, “Crocketts Theme”, “Stack It” and “Sultans Of Swing”.

KANE WHISTANCE opened our 2009 show as the Neau Starlight Wranglers. This time he had drummer RAY JOHNSTON and guest IAN WILLIAMS on bass, for a short set of instro favourites such as “Apache”, “Pipeline”, “Surf Rider” and more.

BILL FORRESTER made his last appearance at Shadoz way back when – our first show in fact. So it was great to welcome him back with his green Burns Marvin, with a selection from his own CD’s, paying dues to the “Hank Plays Holly” CD.

“CLASSIC ROAD”  is a group of new (and one very old!) faces to “Shadoz”. JENNI ANDRE handles the vocals, WILL ROBINSON is on the drums, and JACK COLLINS plays lead guitar. Many recognise the old man on the bass, DAN McLACHLAN. They contributed a fine set, mixing instrumentals and some (very good!) vocals!

MICHAEL BUYUKOZ made his “Shadoz” debut a couple of years ago, and returned with another set of great instrumentals from the past.

TONY KIEK and GEORGE LEWIS are from NSW, and are collectively known as TURNING POINT.  George has a lovely tone on his white Strat, and as with most of the Tony Kiek collaborations, they concentrate on the Shads’ later output. This year, they played “Jezebel”, “Granada”, “Zambezi”, Turning Point”, “Wonderful Land” and others.

BOB KERSTJENS (Lead Guitar), BRIAN SAVAGE (Rhythm), HARRY REITER (Bass), RAY RIED (Keyboards and JOHN HALL (Drums) are HARRY’S WEBB. The group have been strong supporters of “Shadoz” and have won the “best dressed” award on a number of occasions. They should also win the award for ‘most improved’ – a most enjoyable set of mainly Shadows’ favourites.

RICHARD CODRON has appeared a few times at “Shadoz”- this time he returned with his own band, comprising RICHARD on lead guitar, PHILIP NANSCAWEN on keyboards, BOB SMITH on bass, MIKE HARDWARE on drums, and PETER MADDEN on guitar and vocals.

We were proud to present the original line up of the popular 1960’s group BOBBY YOUNG & THE AVENGERS. ROB WATSON (Bass) has appeared at “Shadoz” before, in “Shazam” and “The Shedows”. He is joined by NELLO GIANSIRACUSA (Lead Guitar), SAM MANUELE (Rhythm) and JOHN FAGNANI (Drums). They featured a selection of tracks from their new CD “Our Tribute To The Shadows”.

BRYAN BROWNE needs no introduction to Shadoz regulars – he made his ‘debut’ in 2004 as a 10 year old, and it has been interesting to see and hear his amazing progress since. His Atkins / Travis / Bryant / Reinhardt / Maphis influences are obvious.

As mentioned earlier, we sadly lost Jet Harris back in March. MARTIN CILIA prepared a special musical tribute, featuring “Nivram”,and guest CON ANAG with “Diamonds”,

Fantastic to welcome back KIM HUMPHREYS. Kim has been sadly missed since his last appearance in 2007, and has been a strong supporter of “Shadoz” since we began, with his invaluable help with the sound system and sensational playing, this led to the 2006 “Stewy” award. In 2011, he featured a couple of Australian classics (“Bondi Stomp” and “Goofy Foot”), two by his “all time favourite”, Jeff Beck – “Love Is Blue” and “Beck’s Bolero” and others (“The Stumble”, “Cry Of The Wild Goose”, “Mercedes” and others. Welcome back Kim!

Our ‘resident’ band are SHADAMATAZ. Introducing RUSSELL BAIRD and JOHN BESHARA (“DINK” to some of us) on guitars, DAN McLACHLAN on bass, LISA BAIRD on brass, JEFF MANNING on keyboards, and last but by no means least, JOHN HALL on drums. They included an entertaining tribute to the late JOHN BARRY in their set.

The “STEWY” award is presented in honour of the late Stewart Male, one of the stalwarts of early “Shadoz”. Stewy was well –loved among all of us and was a superb luthier, one of his clients being non other than Hank Marvin. Stewy passed away on 10 December 2004 after a long battle with cancer.
Recipients since 2005 have been IAN B. ALLEN, KIM HUMPHREYS, JOHN HALL, THE FIVE O’CLOCK SHADOWS, and BRYAN BROWNE
This year we honoured one of our favourites, one who has tirelessly promoted “Shadoz” and his band The ATLANTICS. Yes, we were proud to present the 2011 “Stewy” to MARTIN CILIA.

“STACK IT” is TONY KIEK, back this time with guitar wiz BAZ WOOLLETT. Another fine set of recent Shadows tracks (“Devil Woman”, “The Saturday Western”, “The Old Romantics”, “Theme For Something Really Important”, “Summer Love” and more). Thanks to Tony, Dan, George and Baz for making the trip down from Sydney.

The Atlantics have a well justified reputation as the best rock instrumental band in Australia. Guitarist MARTIN CILIA once claimed that “BOMBORA” should be Australia’s National Anthem, and who could argue with that? Joined by bass player HAYDN PICKERSGIL and the hard working JOHN HALL on drums, he featured Mermaid Beach, 1963, Big Swell, Pipeline, Walk Don’t Run, Flight Of The Surf Guitar and others, some with guest BEN ROGERS. Check out Martin’s new CD “Surfabilly” – you won’t be sorry!

BEN ROGERS INSTRUMENTAL ASYLUM  also have a new CD “Instrumentally Disturbed” (some say we’re all in that category! They feature a mix of rocking originals and instrumental classics. BEN ROGERS (Guitar), NIKKI SCARLETT (Bass) and DENIS CLOSE (Drums) are collectively THE INSTRUMENTAL ASYLUM.

THE FUTURAS featured in our 2009 gig and we welcomed back GORDON JOHNS (Bass), MICHAEL GALVIN (Guitar), DUNCAN TALBOT (Drums) and JUSTIN WHEELAHAN (Hammond Organ) with a set of Booker T & The MG’s – based tracks. Most enjoyable.

After a bit of unpaid overtime, we finally ‘closed shop’ at 11.30pm. Many thanks to all the musicians and bands, Brett for the sound and lighting, the staff and management of Northcote RSL, Jenny, Sue and family for taking your money, Elaine and Alan for the CD sales, Bryce Grainger, Mandy Hall and Harry Subritzki for the photography and videos, and most of all, to everyone for coming along. Anyone we’ve forgotten, our apologies. We hope you enjoyed it. Let’s hope we can do it again!!

RUSSELL BAIRD and GEOFF JERMY