by drakula63 » 02 Jul 2020, 13:55
The Rolling Stones manage to continue... mainly because they are and have always been somewhat loose and ropey. Keef just staggers around, muscle memory playing his guitar for him. Mick has always been a rubbish 'singer' and more interested in pouting and preening. And Charlie, although I'm sure he is a nice guy, is nowhere near the drummer that either Brian or Tony were. The Stones will continue until they drop... even then, I doubt that they'll stay down!
The Shads, on the other hand, were always more precise, professional and demanded the best of themselves. There comes a point where it is more difficult to maintain that level of perfection and, when that is what the audience wants, it's time to knock it on the head. There are plenty of bands out there - much younger than the Shads - who insist on carrying on long after they should have called it a day and hung up their guitars. Playing in the studio does allow one to achieve a greater level of perfection than is possible on stage; but apart from their little 'get together' at Abbey Road for the documentary, I can't see the Shadows ever recording again... not an album anyway.
Personally, I think a new Shadows album would be problematic from the start. Would it be covers? Would they write new material? Would they select material that had been sent to them? Would they go for the classic 60s sound or something more contemporary? And so on...
I think we can all safely say that, apart from reissues and maybe the odd undiscovered gem, there won't be any more albums or recordings from the Shadows. Personally, what I would like to see would be ALL the albums remastered, repackaged and rereleased with a few bonus tracks. That would be more than enough for me... plus, of course, the 1967-1979 box set!!!