No Rock And Roll Fun

THE SHADOWS FALL DARK: You can stick the tagline "end of an era" on anything, from the withdrawal of Florence Nightingale tenners to the departure of Bev from Corrie, but The Shadows playing their final gig after fifty years does have a genuine feeling of era-end about it. Once called The Drifters, and once little more than backline to the then slightly demonic Cliff Richard (as opposed to current, Faust-with-the-book-of-common-prayer model we have today), the band successfully extended their shelf-life by moving effortlesstly from milk bar hep cattery to providing instrumental reworkings of light pop, churning out albums of the stuff, many of which weren't available in any shops.

Sir Clifford turned up to help out with the final gig, topping off a farewell tour which had been the Shadow's first in fourteen years. Last week, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett had been awarded OBEs; Hank - wild child to the last - turned down his "for personal and private reasons."