SHADTASTIC THROUGH THE AGES

When Shadows tribute band ‘Shadtastic’ were offered a slot in Skegness for a 3 day rock ‘n’ roll convention, it was a sure sign that they were finally gaining recognition on the club circuit.

"Its our most memorable gig to date," claims Derek Brown the bands bass player with a smile. "The event was well organised and included a full sound crew, which enhanced our music and generated a festival atmosphere." The band received a rousing reception from the 1,000 + audience, and have been asked back by the organisers for next year.

However, Shadtastic haven’t always had the opportunity to play at gigs of this capacity. In fact, their first booking was held outside a school in Nottingham to an audience of around 100. Derek recalls, "I really enjoyed our first performance, although the surroundings weren’t particularly glamorous and the fee we received relatively small, it was worth it just for the buzz of performing live."

The group formed during the summer of 1998, initially consisting of singer Dave (34) (who has since quit the band and emigrated to Australia) drummer Dave (40) John Garner (36) and Daniel Dillon (32) who play lead and rhythm guitars respectively. They are all based in the Mansfield area, a once thriving mining community, and practice after work in their spare time. "We are hoping to find a suitable location to house a studio, as practicing at one another’s houses isn’t ideal," says Derek.

Derek met John at a works social evening when they played a one-off gig.  He fondly recalls, "during the 70’s I was part of a group called ‘Back Track’, it was aptly named because we covered popular artists tracks of the time such as ‘Bowie’, the ‘Animals’ and of course the ‘Shadows’."

Although the group broke up a few years later, the bass player doesn’t regret the experience. "The venues we performed at in those days were buzzing, many were miners institutes that had regular crowds and plenty of work as a result."

Derek isn’t the only Shadtastic member with musical roots. John, who learnt how to play the guitar at 12 has a qualification in music and along with Terry are the band's front men. The cover band’s early performances consisted of predominantly instrumental sets, with crowd favourites such as ‘Foot tapper’ and ‘Apache’, but few vocal songs. However, after a few gigs it became clear that the crowd’s enthusiasm would sway by the mid session interval with a solely instrumental set so, in order to combat this, the ‘Shads’ increased the amount of vocal numbers in their set so that the audience could participate more in their performance.

Derek recalls the problem well, "We needed to change the set and include more songs that people could sing and dance to. It was a balancing act really, we wanted to improve our music whilst being careful not to detract from the distinctive Shadows sound."

Around the same time Terry Shooter (56) joined as the new ‘Cliff ' and Terry made an impact from the offset, with his authentic looks and voice. "What impressed us about Terry is that he actually looked and sounded like a modern day Cliff Richard," re-iterated Derek. "The previous singer might have had a good voice, but the audience didn’t think much of his Cliff persona." 

The introduction of more vocal numbers including, ‘Summer holiday’ and ‘On the beach’, led to the group gaining greater notoriety on the club circuit around the Midlands. Up until then Shadtastic’s act had played second fiddle to bingo in some of the welfare clubs they had appeared in. "We’d often arrive at a venue and set up our equipment whilst the audience played bingo, and have to wait until someone called ‘full house’ before we could start our gig." He added, "the audiences didn’t always take to us as they weren’t used to live entertainment, however when Terry joined us the crowd began to participate by dancing and singing along to the numbers, even giving us encores."

The ‘Shads’ have a big following in Derbyshire who regularly attend shows in that neck of the woods. After watching a recent gig at the local Kirk Hallam Working Men’s Club in Derby loyal fan Roger Wallis claimed, "I’ve watched the group on numerous occasions and their performance tonight was the best yet. The new singer really adds atmosphere to their performance, although I am a bit jealous because my wife idolises him."

As word got around the band started to receive more and more bookings from agents present at their performances and clubs who asked them back for future dates. The demand was such that the group decided to set up a website. It’s been online for a year now and already received around 3,000 hits.

The site entitled www.shadtastic.com includes information on each of its members and live tracks from a demo CD they had recorded in a studio last year. Derek is certainly pleased about how the site has shaped up. " Its marvelous that the band have their own web pages. Before we created the site we used to send out tapes and posters to agents in order to find work, but now they can listen to our music online and book us."

"However, the entertainment industry is very competitive. Nowadays we have to compete with the cinema, nightclubs, sporting occasions and other recreational activities. Another problem is people don’t watch bands play live that often, as most have entertainment systems in their homes. This means that social clubs can’t always afford to book bands every week, so opt for singers with backing tapes that are cheaper." Despite all this Derek remains adamant about one thing. "Whether we turn professional or not, we will continue to play to the masses as there’s no substitute for live music."