Monday 25 March 2019

The Shadows, Jet, Shirley, and me.




I lived in London between 1964 and about 1968. London at that time was languishing in its new-found reputation as the hippest city in the world. 'Swinging London' was at its height, and, providing that one lived in roughly the right areas, meeting the world's celebs was commonplace.

One of my more interesting London flats was in Paddington Street W1, just down the road from the Beatles famously painted 'Apple' shop. Our flat was right opposite a pub called 'The Baker and Oven', where the barmaid was a 'resting' folk singer called Shirley. Shirley had previously been married to Jimmy MacGregor of singing duo Robin Hall and Jimmy MacGregor fame (Football crazy, etc).

One of the fellow regulars at the pub was Jet Harris, and we quickly became good friends. Jet was wildly in love with Shirley, but the feelings were not reciprocated. He was the bass guitarist (in the middle, above) with The Shadows.

I must admit to having rather fancied Shirley myself, and I later booked her to perform at the College where I did my degree course. I think she's still around, and still performing.

Jet had problems with alcohol, violence, bankruptcy, and rejection, and is now sadly no longer with us. He left The Shadows in 1962; a year after the above video. I think one can see that both Hank and Bruce appear calm and contented, whereas Jet looks hyper and nervous. He had become 'the odd one out'.

I'm very pleased that our paths crossed, and we became mates, but he was a very complicated and unpredictable person.


23 comments:

  1. I must be running short of things to write about. Must try harder!

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    1. Still interesting...have you written all your memories down?...keep going!

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  2. Just back from my early walk with little Billy. Beautiful morning here, and I heard the first Cuckoo.

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  3. I always liked Jet Harris best.

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    1. He was a very funny little guy, but had emotional problems. He was always very nervous.

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  4. This is the first time I see them, there was no television here
      In the sixties, but we heard them endlessly on the radio.

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    1. I always liked their music; it sounds very dated today.

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  5. The Shadows were 'my group', my contemporaries were all Cliff fans. My husband was, with his group, the support to Cliff & Shadows in Kenya playing darts backstage. We last saw Hank in Halifax on a last tour event. Memories brought back by your 'running short of things to write about' keep 'em going.

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    1. I don't know what made me think of Jet; something must have jogged my memory.

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  6. Replies
    1. He was a very unassuming guy; you'd never have known he'd been a super-star.

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  7. They should have had a better choreographer!

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  8. What a sad story. I was just a tad too young to fully appreciate them but my husband was a great fan and still has some of his original Shadows records, even though we no longer have anything to play them on.

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    1. I'm the same; plenty of albums, no record player!

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  9. Cliff Richard lived around the corner to us so we glimpsed The Shadows sometimes .... I can remember my friend and I being ‘ moved on ‘ by a policeman on a Lambretta !!!! Also, my Dad backed Cliff Richsrd before he was famous !!!
    Shirley must have been something .... sounds like everyone fancied her ! XXXX

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    1. I never met, or even saw, any of the others. Yes, Shirley was nice; in many ways the perfect barmaid.

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  10. I used to laugh at their silly, half-arsed dance routine when I was a kid. I still do.

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    1. I hope they don't watch the old videos themselves. Maybe they still do the same routines

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    2. Well they did in Halifax and I still loved it. I hate the crotch holding 'routine'!

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  11. So enjoy all your post. You talk about everything . I mostly talk about my gud dugs and the growing hell of living in a Border State and City.
    I rather liked the 60's before all the drugs took over.

    cheers, parsnip


    cheers, parsnip

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    1. The mid-60's was a wonderful time to be living in London. I was very lucky.

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  12. I have known these 'jittery' people in the past. They were nice people and good fun but....well I don't know. A bit hard work at times and most died young.

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