The Shadows: The Final Tour (DVD/CD)

The Shadows? you ask, scratching your head… Weren’t they a sixties band or something? And if I say Cliff Richards? Always liked the guy; pop, but with taste. The Shadows were his supporting band. What if I say Riders in the Sky, Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, Atlantis? The more you hear, the more you realize you know these guys. The more you realize they have been around all these years.

In 2003, after more than 40 years together, The Shadows decided to bow out gracefully. And they did it in full-style! Musically, the CD and DVD are identical: a whopping 42 tracks!!! (the DVD is 180 minutes long!!!) That’s not a typo…

Although they didn’t write all these tracks, they done them justice as only they know how. Proof is in the amazing version of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Equinoxe V. You’ve got to know what your doing to cover Jean-Michel Jarre. Admittedly, when I saw the title, my reaction was more like: “they’ve got to be kidding!” But wow: guitars galore rendering a wonderful version of this timeless classic.

In the end, what’s surprising about that? Working together for fourty years, you can’t go too wrong. Especially with musicians who know what they’re doing.

Will you get bored by 42 tracks, you ask? Not at all, because what is so nice about this album is that it’s all over the place. Sixties pop, seventies musical, eighties progressive-rock to so many not-quite identifiable things. But who needs a label?

I definitely recommend this to older people for the memories, to the younger crowd to see how great musicians evolve over time and to all just for the fun of it!