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I have read Mike Read's book : "The Cliff Richard File" and I have the following questions:
- August 28: Cliff and The Shadows starts a six-week season at Blackpool 's Opera House - The Big Show 1961 - until October 7th.
- September 10: Cliff and The Shadows at NME's all-star concert at Wembley's Empire Pool
- September 17: Cliff and The Shadows appear at th Royal Albert Hall - The Great Prom
- September 22: The wives of Hank and Bruce arrive in Blackpool, Jet moves into a bungalow with Cliff.
- ???
- September 24: Cliff and The Shadows performed in De Montfort Hall, Leicester (confirmed with ticket stub).
-???
-September 29: Southport fans present Cliff with a ten-week-old Pyrennean Mountain puppy.
-September 30: Cliff wathces Preston North End play Leyton Orient at Preston's Deepdale ground as a guest.
October 1: Cliff and The Shadows performed in Hippodrome, Birmingham (confirmed with ticket stub)
-??
October 6: Tony Meehan leaves The Shadows and is replaced by Krew Kats drummer Brian Bennett
October 7: Cliff and The Shadows appears on "Thank Your Lucky Stars, with Brian Bennett on drums.

I don’t know the exact chronology of it all but I think Sunday 1st October was the day Brian took part in Thank Your Lucky Stars, which ABC Television used to record in Birmingham on Sundays for transmission on ITV the following Saturday. Brian will also have appeared with the Shadows on stage at the Birmingham Hippodrome on the same day as the TV recording.

On the 6th October, the NME published the story of Brian’s new role, trailing his appearance on TYLS the next day, Sat 7th October, miming to Tony’s drumming on Kon-Tiki.

As I figure it, Tony will have left the Shadows some time in the last week of September. The well-documented dressing-room row will have taken place then, ending with Tony telling them they needed to get another drummer. We know the Shadows had to do one gig with a stand-in drummer, meanwhile Bruce will have rung Margaret Bennett, she will have called Brian in Great Yarmouth, he will have called Bruce and subsequently headed for Birmingham to take over.

According to what Bruce Welch wrote in his book, when Tony Meehan announced he was leaving the Shadows, Bruce called Brian Bennett and proposed him the double of what he was earning then. Brian didn't hesitate long !
At this time Brian was not yet a full member of the Shadows, I believe he became a member when the Shadows reformed in the seventies.

Didier

Cliff Richard & The Shadows did concerts on either the 24th or 25th of September, 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark. A recording of The Shadows' set was released on the "In Concert Vol.1 1961-1962" CD, last year.

iefje wrote:Cliff Richard & The Shadows did concerts on either the 24th or 25th of September, 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark. A recording of The Shadows' set was released on the "In Concert Vol.1 1961-1962" CD, last year.

On 24th AND 25th but August not September.

Hi

Tony left/was sacked on September 29th Friday after the show. They used a local stand in drummer on the Saturday and Peter Gormley drove Brian to the ATV Studios on Sunday 1st October. The show was recorded in the afternoon and He mimed to Kon Tiki and then played the concert at the Birmingham Hippodrome the same night Then it was back to Blackpool to finish the Summer Season

Regards

Stuart

That will be the Alpha Studios, jointly operated by ATV (weekday) and ABC (weekend). TYLS was an ABC production.

Iain Purdon wrote:That will be the Alpha Studios, jointly operated by ATV (weekday) and ABC (weekend). TYLS was an ABC production.

ABC had access to their own presentation suite at Alpha (in Aston, Birmingham) even on weekdays. During the 1960s, they broadcast "ITV"-branded Wrestling coverage mid-week (with the theme tune being "Oranges And Lemons" by the Eric Delaney Band). Obviously, this was all OB and Aston was only needed for coverage of Midlands bouts, so there was limited implication for the indoors studios at Alpha.

Did Sir Clifford keep the puppy?

Is it true Brian was planning to leave The Shadows at the end of the 1990 tour?