John Friesen - thread updated Oct 2022

[Gatwick1946]

When I worked in Chessington, Surrey I discovered John Freison's shop in Ashford, Surrey. This would have been in the 1980's. I got my copy of The Shadows by George Geddes there, and went back several time for bits of Shads records and related items. When I moved to Gatwick Airport in 1988, I never went back. I do not know when the shop closed, but have often wondered what happened to the stock?

Kindest regards,
Christopher

[Teflon]

Oddly enough, only today I was wondering what happened to John Friesen. He seemed to be "all things Shadows" back in the 70's & 80's, but I seldom see his name mentioned these days. Is he still around on the Shadows scene?

Cliff

[drakula63]

I actually spoke to John on the phone... must have been about 2015 at a guess... and he still seemed fine. He told me that he does occasionally keep an eye on this forum although I'm not sure if he actually posts or not.

[Gatwick1946]

Thankyou Chris (Drake).

Nice to hear John was still around in 2015. About the first thing I looked at when I first visited his shop, was a 12' disc of The Shadows at the Coliseum Johannesburg, i.e. the four live tracks. There were also imports from other european countries. These I enjoyed looking at but did not buy, as I already had the tracks on the UK LP's.

Kindest regards,
Christopher

[davec]

I lived in Feltham Hill Road -- about half a mile from John's shop -- in '73 and '74. I think Ashford was in Middlesex in those days .

I've still got a lot of the vinyl I bought there. The price stickers say "Record Scene £2.75".

DaveC.

[bosunbob]

Now stepping back into the Shadows again after a twenty year hiatus, I'm reminded of the many faces I had the pleasure to know back then and further still, into the 1970's after the release of: "Twenty Golden Greats" that caused collectors in great numbers to start out on a hunt for compilations from foreign lands.
My interest was in tracks I hadn't heard before or weren't released in my country and it was my correspondence with John Fresian that went a long way to expand my collection in the direction I wanted it to go. Other notable Shadows experts to, but this here is about John - and his wife who often went out of their way to help this collector Kiwi to get what I needed.
So a massive tanker load of thanks to you, if your here, John.
Cheers
Bruce Gibbins.

[MRR]

I used to work with John 42 years ago. I recently found a video on YouTube of his band, The Wadash. Rather ominously the video states that it's "In Memory of John Friesen". I hope that someone has got their wires crossed or something got lost in translation and John is still around. His Facebook account seems to have been abandoned around 2015

Has anyone had any recent contact with him.
John if you're reading this "hello".

M.

[Iain Purdon]

I used to work with John 42 years ago. I recently found a video on YouTube of his band, The Wadash. Rather ominously the video states that it's "In Memory of John Friesen". I hope that someone has got their wires crossed or something got lost in translation and John is still around. His Facebook account seems to have been abandoned around 2015

Has anyone had any recent contact with him.
John if you're reading this "hello".

M.

Sorry, John’s death was announced here a couple of years ago. He was indeed a great friend of Shadows Music.
Here’s a link to the thread: http://shadowmusic.bdme.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=17696&p=116537&hilit=friesen#p116537

[jay.ashford]

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this board. I was actually searching about John Friesen who lived in Ashford Middlesex and found this group.
I have seen a lot of msgs regarding John and his collections. my name is jay and i bought his property from auction. his house is full of music records/vinyls/tapes and documents. i wanted to check here if anyone is interested in these items.
you can get in touch with me on jatin_aroraa@yahoo.co.uk

[drakula63]

I'll guess that John's house must be like a Shadows museum. I spoke to John on the phone, maybe ten years ago, and we had a good chat, having previously spoken about 20 or 30 years previous! John was certain that he had a video tape containing Cliff and the Shadows performing Love De Luxe. He said he'd try to find it, one day. I'd suggest that this tape is well worth finding. I was sorry to hear of John's death. I met his parents in 1985 and had some photos taken in the house. Sadly, I don't have them now.