The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the pre-Beatles era from the late 1950s to the early 1960s.

[4] The core members from 1958 to the present are guitarists Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch and drummer Brian Bennett (who has been with the group since 1961) with various bassists and occasionally keyboardists through the years.

The Shadows are the fifth-most successful act on the UK Singles Chart, behind Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Cliff Richard and Madonna.

At the insistence of the group's producer and manager Norrie Paramor, in order to ensure a strong sound, two session players, guitarist Ernie Shear and bassist Frank Clark, played on the "Move It/Schoolboy Crush" single.

[8][9] In spring of 1959,[10] the owner of the United States vocal group The Drifters threatened legal action over naming rights after the release and immediate withdrawal of "Feelin Fine" in the US.

The name "The Shadows" was thought up by bass guitarist Jet Harris (unaware of Bobby Vee's backing group) while he and Marvin were at the Six Bells pub in Ruislip in July 1959.

From The Story of the Shadows: With a combination of the American situation, Cliff Richard's first number 1 hit, the runaway success "Living Doll" had by now sold over a million copies in Britain alone and after a bit of nudging from Norrie Paramor, they set about finding a permanent name, which arrived out of the blue one summer's day in July 1959 (maybe the 19th).

[11] The Shadows were also becoming a popular band in their own right and in 1960, "Apache", an instrumental by Jerry Lordan, topped the UK charts for five weeks.

Bennett and Locking were friends from the 2I's who had been in Marty Wilde's backing group, the Wildcats, who recorded instrumentals as the Krew Kats.

The Shadows had met John Rostill on tour with other bands and had been impressed by his playing, and so in autumn 1963 they invited him to join as Locking's replacement.

Instrumental numbers also continued to chart, including "Genie With The Light Brown Lamp", "Stingray", "The War Lord", "A Place In The Sun" and "Maroc 7", all top 30 hits.

During the 1960s, the group appeared with Cliff Richard in the films The Young Ones, Summer Holiday, Wonderful Life, and Finders Keepers.

They also appeared as marionettes in the Gerry Anderson film Thunderbirds Are GO, and starred in a short B-film called Rhythm 'n Greens which became the basis of a music book and an EP.

[12] The group began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's review of the '60s music scene, Pop Go The Sixties, performing "Apache" and backing Richard on "Bachelor Boy", broadcast across Europe and BBC1, on 31 December 1969.

Monkman left after that tour, and the line-up settled as Marvin, Welch and Bennett, supplemented on records and gigs by Cliff Hall (keyboards) and Alan Jones (bass).

With the influential arrival of keyboardist Cliff Hall, the musical style shifted from the traditional sound, becoming more electronic-based, with prominent keyboards and synthesizers burying Welch's contributions.

In July 1984, the Shadows reunited with Cliff Richard for a series of celebratory concerts at Wembley Arena and Birmingham NEC.

Due to Alan Jones's involvement with the Dave Clark's musical Time, the bassist was not available to contribute to the album, and Paul Westwood temporarily sat in.

In June 1989, the Shadows once more reunited with Cliff to celebrate 30 years in show business, where the singer filled London's Wembley Stadium for two nights, with a spectacular titled "The Event", in front of a combined audience of 144,000 people.

As a special surprise for the fans, Cliff invited onto the stage former and classic-era members of the group Jet Harris and Tony Meehan to perform "Move It" with him and his band.

On 30 June 1990, Cliff and the Shadows performed to an estimated 120,000 people at Knebworth Park as part of an all-star concert line-up that also included Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Elton John and Tears for Fears.

In December 2004, each of the then-current members of the Shadows was offered an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but Marvin declined.

This opportunity to see Marvin, Welch and Bennett, joined on keyboards by Cliff Hall and on bass by Mark Griffiths, was successful enough that they extended the tour to continental Europe in 2005.

The original artwork group silhouette was modified each time a member changed: the last version featured Brian Bennett and Rostill in the late 1960s.

[citation needed] In 1958, Bruce Welch went to a concert as part of the 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis tour of the UK of which he said: On the show was this black American band called the Treniers.

Hank Marvin and I were at the back, and we were really impressed at the way the saxophone players moved in unison, taken, I suppose, from the Glenn Miller days.

It has been copied by other groups as part of their Top of the Pops performances, notably Mud, the Rubettes, Showaddywaddy and Yellow Dog.

[citation needed] During the 1980s, rather than play in a static posture during an instrumental number, or using the walk, their live act was refined to include another movement.

The early set of Queen (who played their first gig on 27 June 1970 with Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May) included a cover of Cliff and the Shadows' "Please Don't Tease".

[25] In the words of Crni Biseri member Vladimir Janković "Jet" (who got his nickname after Harris), "[at one point] even the Beatles weren't as popular in Belgrade as the Shadows were".