RAPIERS ARE GO!

Rapiers Ring in 25 Big Ones in Amersham

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Word just went up on the Amersham Rock 'n' Roll Club site: The Rapiers celebrate their Silver Anniversary there next March. Er, never mind the "to be confirmed" bit...

Double your pleasure! As the plug suggests, instrumental fans can nurse their musical hangover and extend their wild weekend by taking in the annual Pipeline Convention the next day (Easter Sunday) in Watford.

Amersham Rock 'n' Roll Club
White Eagle Hall, Polish Club Complex, Raans Road
Amersham, Buckinghamshire HP6 6LX
(01494) 727173

Couldn't The Rapiers Include a Few of Theirs?

One of the most provocative post-Shadowmania comments concerns tried (or is that tired?) and true set lists. Rapierwatcher Moderne7 gets right to the point:

"The Rapiers—excellent as always, although I would echo [an] earlier comment that they seem to have played a similar set now for several years running. Other bands play their own originals—couldn't The Rapiers include a few of theirs in their set? Jet seemed on good form, but again: he always plays the same set. Aren't there any numbers off his recent CDs he'd like to feature?"

Once more, the Shadowmania 2007 set lists, certainly familiar territory:

The Rapiers
The Stranger / Saturday Dance / Quarter to Three / Be-Bop-A-Lula / Feelin' Fine / Theme From Shane / Baby My Heart / See You in My Drums / Rhythm & Greens

Jet Harris (with The Rapiers)
Man With the Golden Arm (Main Title Theme) / 36-24-36 / Jet Black / Scarlett O'Hara / Applejack / The Tall Texan / Dance With the Guitar Man / Besame Mucho / Nivram / Theme From Something Really Important / Diamonds

Though a Shadowmania appearance carries (rightfully so) certain expectations to offer (naturally) Shadows-associated numbers, this corner would gladly plump for slotting in Straight to the Point, Breakfast at the Ace, Return of The Rapiers or Robbesque, all mighty R instrumental originals, all spiritual heirs in one degree or another to the mighty Shads Empire. Plus a stab at hidden Shadows gems like Breakthru from 1965's The Sound of The Shadows, my personal undiscovered fave.

As for Jet, I've campaigned repreatedly for Footstomp, the kick-ass vocal B-side of Diamonds.

Doesn't hurt to ask, eh?

Images di Stefano (Spotlight on John Tuck)

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Images courtesy Stefano Rivoir

Post o' the Week, Too: Proper Bass

Dear Rapiers:

A huge thank you for your magical performance at Shadowmania. All I can say is "Wow!"

As a bass player (of sorts) I must confess that, to my ear, Nathan sounds like a proper bass player... and seems to get the closest to the '60s bass sound, especially on that gorgeous '62 Sunburst Precision.

Luigi Ciapparelli

Post o' the Week: Detailing

Dear Rapiers:

I attended Shadowmania 07 this weekend just gone by. Your attention to detail is phenomenal. You do The Shads a lot of credit.

Allister Hardwick

P.S. How about doing Hank's Driftin' next year?

Images di Stefano

Salute!

Something 'bout The Rapiers' performance at last month's Summer Jamboree festival in Senigallia, Italy, brought out magical lenses. Photographer Stefano Rivoir pinged us, noting he, too, framed our lads on stage ("... one of the best gigs... one of the most consistent bands I've seen in three editions of Summer Jamboree...").

Below are shots from Stefano's fine flickr archive.

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Images courtesy Stefano Rivoir

Farewell Piccadilly

The New Piccadilly Cafe was my favourite London caff, a place Rapier Colin Pryce-Jones felt intuitively at home, a place where time seemed to stand still, the calendar perpetually 1959.

Sadly, last call for this venerable Soho institution came late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Blame progress, blame developers, blame fast food nation.

Commented observer Mark Fitchett on the Girl in the Cafe blog:

"You know even at 11:45 people were waiting in a queue to say goodbye. By the time I came back at 1 pm the place was packed and full of such happy sounds. People had brought bottles of wine and were just sitting, talking, jumping from one table to another to meet up with friends old and new. I stood and watched the queue: people whose first journey here had been as a result of reading of its closure and older people who must have grown up with this place a fixture in their lives. I guess we always thought it would be there, trapped in time and comforting as all around us there was change and rush.

"Inside people walked around with video cameras trying to capture every last moment of the cafe and the staff began to buckle with the number of orders.

"I took my bill and went to the till to say good bye to [owner] Lorenzo [Marioni] and walked away from a piece of my past…"

Gracing this post are photos Mark took on the New Picc's last day of service.

Shadowmania IX: Honours Roll

From Nathan J. Hulse:

We would like to thank everybody who helped make yesterday's Shadowmania show possible for The Rapiers, including:

• Mark Alderton
• Geoff Strachan
• Tony Chan
• Brian (thanks for the colour photo)
• Roger Allcock
• Eric White
• Steve and Helen Terrell
• Roy and Cathy Cresswell
• Legend
• Bill Bryon

Finally, a big thank you to Bruce Welch for inviting us back again.

Shadowmania IX: The Morning After

Jet Harris and The Rapiers in a new shade of blue. Photo by Tab.

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Bedecked in brand new blue suits, mixing and matching Fenders, Burns and Gretsch guitars, soloing and supporting Jet Harris, The Rapiers continued their perfect attendance record, now at nine, at Shadowmania Saturday, joining Bruce Welch's Shadows, Licorice Locking, Legend, The Foot Tappers and The Seaside Shadows.

Below are the immediate highlights I've plucked so far. Special kudos to sharp-eared Rob Bradford for scribbling the set list in the dark. Speaking of which, glad to see The Stranger and Theme From Shane augment the tried and true.

Music

The Rapiers
The Stranger / Saturday Dance / Quarter to Three / Be-Bop-A-Lula / Feelin' Fine / Theme From Shane / Baby My Heart / See You in My Drums / Rhythm & Greens

Jet Harris (with The Rapiers) * = + The Songbirds
Man With The Golden Arm (Main Title Theme) / 36-24-36 / Jet Black / Scarlett O'Hara / Applejack / The Tall Texan / Dance With the Guitar Man*/ Besame Mucho* / Nivram / Theme From Something Really Important / Diamonds*

Comment

nicknivram:

The afternoon and evening were rich in different styles of Shadows music, the breadth of which is incredible when you look at the different eras they have moved through. Legend pay homage to the Burns era and Jet to Jet's, The Rapiers to the early years and this specialisation does us all proud.

stanquentin:

I thought Bruce's band were terrific as were The Rapiers.

Flingelbunt4:

The Rapiers are just so professional and whether you've heard the numbers before or no, they cover a valid part of the "early years" which I know Colin P-Jones enthuses over... and Rhythm & Greens—excellent! Jet—well, what can you say—I thought he'd recaptured his phrasing from the early years which it seemed he'd lost a little in recent years—this was most noticeable in the Nivram bass solo—very fluid. And his dry humour, "Let me give you a tip—don't take sleeping pills and Ex-Lax at the same time!" Priceless!

Paul_Razzmataz:

They were as awesome as usual.

Images

Rich Cowling
Tab

Gear

Paul_Razzmataz:

... they did "re-tool" for this year's Shadowmania. Colin with a new Maple fingerboard Strat, Neil with a Sunburst Jazzmaster and Nathan with a Sunburst Precision, i.e., the first Shadows all-Fender line up.

Jim Nugent:

... Colin Pryce-Jones was unwontedly using a maple-necked, gold-plated, Fiesta Red Stratocaster... Similarly, Nathan was using a 1960-style Sunburst Precision Bass, with Neil wielding a Sunburst Jazzmaster—just as Jet and Bruce did during 1960 and part of 1961.

Stuart Bailey:

The maple Strat Colin was playing belongs to a friend named Tony Chan... the guitar Colin played on Nivram was a Gretsch.

Images di Libero (Faccia)

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All images courtesy Libero Api.

Images di Libero (Cinque)

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All images courtesy Libero Api.

'Round My Rapiers Web

• Not fade away. I spy another Fury Return of The Rapiers EP [FEP3018, 1991] on offer for £12.00 on eBay. Says seller cactuskay123: "Great retro 1960s Shadows-styled instrumentals/vocals. Sleeve has been signed by all 4 on the front, but the signatures have become faded."
• Hello, Campers! Lordy, our Rapiers MySpace pad recently pushed past 2,000 friends worldwide. Do please talk among yourselves.
• Do you know the way to Shadowmania? I can't attend Bruce Welch's ninth edition Saturday in the Surrey countryside, so I expect fellow Shaddicts, Saddoes and Shadoraks to be my eyes and ears. In the run-up to this ab fab all-dayer, the chit chat is banging on across the MSN Shadow Music board.

Images di Libero (La Crema)

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All images courtesy Libero Api.

OT Video Triple Play + 1: Move It!

Cliff and The Shadows breathe life into English rock 'n' roll

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Move It spins at 78 RPM

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The Rapiers rip it up at a Rockers Reunion

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Jet Harris and Tony Meehan rock out at The Event, Wembley

Fun Fayre Foto

Another from the lens of Nathan J., this local amusement scene launches into interstellar overdrive thanks to a very slow camera shutter.

Post o' the Week: Rapier Dave on Tape

Dear Greg:

That Dreamers cassette on eBay was produced by Freddie Garrity. We did not play on any tracks (and if you listen to it, you will be relieved).

Freddie was very conscious that we had a strong following when we joined him, and was keen to capitalise by using our images on merchandise and advertising. A shame he didn't take much care to ensure that our names were spelled correctly.

Dave Lawes

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So much for appreciation. Winning bid for item was a bargain £3.35, probably less than the original on-sale price.

Images di Libero (Dolce)

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All images courtesy Libero Api.

Like Dreamers Do

As the '80s rolled into the '90s, the Brad Dallaston-John Tuck-Dave Lawes-Colin Pryce-Jones Rapiers line-up moonlighted as Brit Invasion singer Freddie Garrity's latter-day Dreamers, from '60s festivals to pantomime. To my knowledge, no live recordings or vids from this period exist. But here's a real curio for sale on eBay:

Freddie and The Dreamers
I Am a Singer in a Sixtie's [sic] Band

The seller, trustchoice-limited, describes it as a: "...14-track cassette sold at their concerts... The Dreamers of that era were in fact The Rapiers and there is a photo of Colin, Brad, Dave, and John on the colour insert with Freddie."

I'd fathom the collection combines re-makes of Freddie's smashes (I'm Telling You Now, If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody) and originals (a John Lennon tribute, the title track). However, I can't locate I Am a Singer... in online Dreamers discographies: 1, 2, 3, 4. So the players are unknown.

Sadly, Freddie passed away in May 2006.

NB: Irritatingly, besides that trapped apostrophe—"Erm, what am I doing at the end of the Sixties?"—every Rapier's surname is misspelled in the cassette credits.

Images di Libero (Secondi)

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All images courtesy Libero Api.

Potters Bar Pleasant

What is Potters Bar? "A pleasant place to live, fresh and clean," proclaims the cheerily biased Potters Bar Society. Nestled in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, 18 miles north of London, Potters Bar "started life in the early 13th Century and remained more or less unchanged until the arrival of the Great Northern Railway in 1850", reads its Wikipedia listing.

To further quote the PBS:

"... it retained its village atmosphere until the 1930s when residential development around the station brought a change in its focus and a dramatic rise in the number of inhabitants, and some light industry. Consequently the present town, on high ground within the Green Belt, is a mixture of old and new, and of residential and commercial areas... the surrounding countryside is beautiful. Little Heath adjoins the town to the north and South Mimms and Ridge are self contained villages to the west. The area is well served by road and rail."

Good thing as The Rapiers, Jet Harris, Mike Sarne and Billie Davis come to town the first Saturday in November at the Wyllyotts Theatre, site of their the July 2005 memorial concert for Wayne and Jackie Nicholls. Click here for details.

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Map of Potters Bar [Google]
Book Early for the Wyllyotts Theatre [RAG!]
Mike Sarne Guests on Fall Rapiers Show [RAG!]

OT Video Triple Play: Medway Delta Beat

The Masonics go Outside Looking In

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Billy Childish and The Buff Medways spin Medway Wheelers

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The Len Price 3 find Sailor's Sweetheart

Images di Libero

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All images courtesy Libero Api.

Post o' the Week: Summer Jamboree

Dear Greg:

The Rapiers: The most wonderful concert of Summer Jamboree!

Libero Api,
Senigallia, Ancona, Italy

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Libero, who also goes under the all-seeing moniker eyeinthesky, knows his way around a Canon lens. His unique portraits of The Rapiers at the recent Summer Jamboree party are works of art, way off the beaten rock 'n' roll visual path. View more of Libero's work here and here.

John Tuck on 3 Wheels

On his photo depot, Nathan J. Hulse features this jolly outtake from a recent Rapiers' day out at Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands Weybridge, Surrey, part of Rick Wakeman Celebrity Golf Classic festivities in aid of the SPARKS charity.

Any guesses on the age of the transport?