From: Shadsfax Issue 43 (2003) 4–5
The Shadows
"An Evening With The Shadows"
Universal Music S Africa MMTCD 2224 134
Released April 2003
Wonderful Land / Guitar Tango / Walk Of Life / A Whiter Shade Of Pale / Chariots Of Fire / Chi Mai / Riders In The Sky / Strawberry Fields Forever / Mountains Of The Moon / Dancing In The Dark (album version) / Every Breath You Take / Hey Jude / Memory / Just The Way You Are / If You Leave Me Now / Up Where We Belong / Going Home / I Just Called To Say I Love You
This compilation is ascribed to Chris Venter, who put together the 1998 South African CD “The Ballads” for PolyGram Special Products: for that, a lunch break would have sufficed for pinning together portions of “Moonlight Shadows” and “Simply ... Shadows”. On this occasion he presumably spent a whole evening with The Shadows, dipping into no less than eight Albums spanning the years 1980 to 1990.
There is not a lot to say about the choice of tracks, nearly all of them “(chart) cover versions”, which some fans at least will already have in their collections several times over. The two pages of liner notes are notable chiefly for the colour scheme, if it can be called that: they are like one of those Websites from hell, where the typeface is made all but illegible in the interests of art. There is one novelty though. Mr Venter himself, it seems, is something of a prophet. He forecasts a gloomy picture for any mega-hits collection issued subsequently by our favourite ensemble, who had “26 releases in the album charts (1961–4994)”.
MC