The Shadows "re-union" 17th May 1997

report by Christophe Chen
(with additional material from John Panteny of ClassicGold 828)
all photographs © Christophe Chen and John Panteny 1997

This is to report that our French Reunion Gig with The Local Heroes and special guests Bruce Welch, Jet Harris and Brian 'Licorice' Locking has just finished over here.

UNBELIEVABLE !
We have had with us the 3 best bassists in the world in one unique live show !

The event was actually held in Nogent Sur Marne, approximately 10Km outside of Paris. In the afternoon on Saturday there was a session at the Palais des Arts in Nogent where a lot of Shads musicians where playing guitars etc and a big crowd of onlookers, plus there were a couple of record stalls.

Bruce Welch arrived at the Palais des Arts at around 5-15pm looking fit and healthy and he spent some 45 minutes signing autographs and talking to the many fans, despite the very warm and hot weather. A little intense for Bruce.

The Local Heroes came later with Alan Jones more heartful than ever and still in very good spirits despite the troubles he went through with his car accident. Brian 'Licorice' Locking definitely back on the way for our pleasure, Clem Cattini the former Tornadoes drummer, Phil Kelly rhythm and Barry Gibson the handsome lead guitarist who created the band and without his help and devotion nothing would be possible. And then of course, came the legendary Jet Harris!

Many chats with Jet and John when having SOFT drinks together. We insisted in the fact that Jet should go on singing as all his past songs were unique and great ! Jet laughed at this idea, and in his eyes, some expression of regrets. I discovered Jet as a very nice and handsome guy. Jet signed all fans items demand without problem. Jet 's got a willpower to be back at his top now.

Brian 'Licorice' Locking was and still is very charming too. Nice and good guy he is still. He's very impressive and was really willing to be back on stage for our pleasure. Brian now lives in Wales and enjoys to travel.

Alan Jones is a great heartful guy, himself a great fan of Jet and Brian L. Alan is very happy to play again and to be asked to join the Local Heroes. He had the privilege to lead the band during concert !

Bruce and Jet met together with no problem, as Bruce said he was delighted to be there with Jet again, and thank Barry Gibson, John P. for being in to help. We hope they will reunite again seriously for the 40th Anniversary as The Shads have actually split up with no chance to reform the band again. Maybe possible only for fans conventions.

The Concert (back at The Palais des Arts was due to start at around 9pm with a great French group called Guitar Express (Shadows style Band). They played Walk don't run, Kon Tiki, Tales of a Raggy Tramline, The Rumble, Man Of Mystery, See You My in Drums and Midnight We had to wait back at the hotel to take Jet and his wife Janet to the gig so we arrived at the venue towards the end of Guitar Express' set. What we heard was very good, and we were just in time to see Bruce go on and do a couple of Numbers (The Frightened City and Shadoogie) with them.

After dining in a very unique atmosphere as fans rushed around the place and asked for dedications, the gig, as wonderful it was, is still unique in our memories due to the reunion on stage of Bruce, Jet, Licorice, Alan and Cliff Hall after such a long time, playing altogether again !

The second Half started around 11pm, with the Local Heroes coming on with Flingel Bunt, Sacha, Nut Rocker and Shadoogie then introducing Jet Harris. Jet cool as ever plugged his bass guitar on Nivram, Kon Tiki, Apache and Frightened City as only he can play. Then on came Brian Locking!! who did a couple of numbers on bass guitar (Dance on and Wonderful Land) then took to the harmonica for Dakota, Argentina and Atlantis. Alan Jones then came on bass for the remainder of the set which included Time is Tight, Wipe Out, Telstar, Chariots of Fire and Theme from `Local Hero' and then, right at the End Bruce Welch came back getting his guitar astride on 'Deer Hunter', Riders In The Sky, Foot Tapper and FBI. What was good was to see Bruce in action, he went down a storm! Plus to see him on stage with Alan Jones again was great. They were using Burns Guitars except Bruce playing with his legendary red Strat, but not flamingo pink at all !. What a great sound we had ! We were emotionally captured when Licorice played on Harmonica those unique tunes 'Dakota', 'Don't cry for me Argentina' and 'Atlantis'.

Good vibrations and souvenirs though !

Despite the absence of Hank Marvin, Barry Gibson magically took the lead with his own original style which actually matched the set and ran outside the usual. Cliff Hall and Alan Jones entertained the show and took it very cool.

I hope this gives you a little of the great time we had! So, finally for those who were not there, see now what you missed ! Special thanks to Bernard BROCHE, Jacques PREVEL and all from the French Fan Club

Bruce with Bernard Broche and Jaques Préval	Alan Jones and Jet Harris
Cliff Hall and Barry Gibson with John Panteny

Cliquer ici pour obtenir la version française de cette soirée (ou réunion)

Stop Press

Bruce is planning something special for The Shads 40th Anniversary next year in England. The reunion next year will take place in London with all the international fan clubs which every world-wide fan should attend with no possible excuses to not be there! Further details about this Anniversary Reunion will be reported straight to you when more information is given. So for the moment please keep it in mind.

In the meantime however, after the Oslo Festival meeting organised by Jan Flatby, the next fans Reunion is planned for September 1997 in Eindhoven (Netherlands), and the French fan club will attend too. Same guest stars as ours.

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