SHALAMAR CELEBRATE THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF
‘FRIENDS’ ALBUM
by performing the ENTIRE album live in concert for the first time!
Live At The London Palladium Friday 2nd June 2023
Birmingham Symphony Hall Sunday 25th June 2023
Southend Cliffs Pavilion Friday 30th June 2023
‘FRIENDS’ ALBUM
by performing the ENTIRE album live in concert for the first time!
Live At The London Palladium Friday 2nd June 2023
Birmingham Symphony Hall Sunday 25th June 2023
Southend Cliffs Pavilion Friday 30th June 2023
Let’s go back to the Autumn of 1982 The Hottest concert was not for any of the New Romantic bands currently appearing in the charts but for SHALAMAR , the soul disco band put together by Solar Records head man Dick Griffey who had earlier in the year released the ‘Friends’ album in the UK – please see review below.
The ‘Friends’ album delivered 4 Top 10 hit singles – Night to Remember , There It is , Friends and I can make you feel good - but more importantly a dance craze – never seen before in the UK by group member Jeffrey Daniel - exploding after a single solo performance on Top of The Pops – The Moon walk had taken the nation by storm.
A sold out UK Tour – including 9 London shows alone!! – culminating in a final show at Wembley Arena saw the band emerge as the ‘hottest ticket’ in town!!.
Over the years the fashions and era of soul and dance music have evolved – but as Daryl Easlea puts in his review below - And, for people of a certain age, it is almost impossible not to lift your right elbow up in a herky-jerky motion when you hear Ernest ‘Pepper’ Reed’s guitar introduction of A Night to Remember. Lovely.
Since then the band has evolved and in 2003 saw the daughter of Solar Records Founder Dick Griffey join the band as the female lead vocalist. Carolyn Griffey now fronts the band alongside original members Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniel – from the classic 1982 line up.
The trio have toured the UK several times since the turn of the century and unlike some bands from the era who find themselves playing to smaller venues on each subsequent tour - are now playing venues of comparable size to their 1982 tour – backed by a solid 7 piece band they are guaranteed crowd pleasers and headliners at many Summer Festivals. Indeed it’s been known on more than one occasion for a ‘bigger’ band to insist going on stage before Shalamar – as they are a hard act to follow. As Jeffrey Daniel says ‘ A Shalamar concert is not a band playing to an audience – it’s a band and an audience having a party together, from the first song people are up off their seats having a good time’.
The Friends 40th Anniversary tour commences in June 2023 and for the very very first time the band will perform THE ENTIRE album live in concert –all 10 tracks from the album in full. As Howard Hewett lead singer said ‘ throughout the years we’ve played the 4 hit singles plus varying other tracks from the album but never the whole 10 tracks, for a lot of people ( over a million copies were sold in the uk alone) Friends was their ‘go to’ album of the early 80’s. Indeed in the days of soul boy cars such as Fiesta XR2i and Escort XR3i the sound of ‘Friends’ blasting out the in car speaker system was ever present!
Tickets for all shows are available from venue box offices and ticketmaster.co.uk
Shalamar full biog - https://shalamar.info/info/biography/
Friends Review by Daryl Easlea
Shalamar’s sixth album, Friends, had been out for several months in the UK when their label Solar (the Sound of Los Angeles Records) released A Night to Remember as a single in June 1982. To promote it, backing vocalist and dancer Jeffrey Daniel appeared alone on Top of the Pops. His performance was to prove as jaw-dropping for that generation of viewers as David Bowie, Sparks or the Sex Pistols had been to their elders.
Daniel’s afro, so voluminous on the cover of the album, had now been straightened into a severe post-new romantic wedge, and he was wearing a t-shirt with Roy Lichtenstein designs on it. There, in front of a UK tea-time audience, he introduced body-popping to a generation. He mimed that his hands were at a wall as he looked round the side of it; he collapsed down on his legs. He poured himself an imaginary drink. And then he moon walked. Before you think people didn’t get out much in 1982, this was something very special.
Thanks to Daniel, Shalamar – completed by Jody Watley and Howard Hewett – were hot. If all of his capers had happened in a vacuum they could have meant nothing, but they supported an album of supreme, shiny pop soul. Friends remains a testament of producer Leon Sylver III’s musical ability. He arranged most of the music and vocals and added its watertight bass throughout. It is a joyous work, that although very much of its time, still manages to sound extremely contemporary.
Don’t Try to Change Me and the sumptuous ballad I Don’t Wanna Be the Last to Know are the standouts. Over a clanking, recorded-loud drum machine, Watley enjoys a fine vocal showcase on the latter. But for most, the album was about its three big hits – Friends, There It Is and A Night to Remember.
As central to 1982 as ABC’s The Lexicon of Love or Simple Minds’ New Gold Dream, Friends reached number six in the albums chart and spent well over a year in the listings. And, for people of a certain age, it is almost impossible not to lift your right elbow up in a herky-jerky motion when you hear Ernest ‘Pepper’ Reed’s guitar introduction of A Night to Remember. Lovely.
The ‘Friends’ album delivered 4 Top 10 hit singles – Night to Remember , There It is , Friends and I can make you feel good - but more importantly a dance craze – never seen before in the UK by group member Jeffrey Daniel - exploding after a single solo performance on Top of The Pops – The Moon walk had taken the nation by storm.
A sold out UK Tour – including 9 London shows alone!! – culminating in a final show at Wembley Arena saw the band emerge as the ‘hottest ticket’ in town!!.
Over the years the fashions and era of soul and dance music have evolved – but as Daryl Easlea puts in his review below - And, for people of a certain age, it is almost impossible not to lift your right elbow up in a herky-jerky motion when you hear Ernest ‘Pepper’ Reed’s guitar introduction of A Night to Remember. Lovely.
Since then the band has evolved and in 2003 saw the daughter of Solar Records Founder Dick Griffey join the band as the female lead vocalist. Carolyn Griffey now fronts the band alongside original members Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniel – from the classic 1982 line up.
The trio have toured the UK several times since the turn of the century and unlike some bands from the era who find themselves playing to smaller venues on each subsequent tour - are now playing venues of comparable size to their 1982 tour – backed by a solid 7 piece band they are guaranteed crowd pleasers and headliners at many Summer Festivals. Indeed it’s been known on more than one occasion for a ‘bigger’ band to insist going on stage before Shalamar – as they are a hard act to follow. As Jeffrey Daniel says ‘ A Shalamar concert is not a band playing to an audience – it’s a band and an audience having a party together, from the first song people are up off their seats having a good time’.
The Friends 40th Anniversary tour commences in June 2023 and for the very very first time the band will perform THE ENTIRE album live in concert –all 10 tracks from the album in full. As Howard Hewett lead singer said ‘ throughout the years we’ve played the 4 hit singles plus varying other tracks from the album but never the whole 10 tracks, for a lot of people ( over a million copies were sold in the uk alone) Friends was their ‘go to’ album of the early 80’s. Indeed in the days of soul boy cars such as Fiesta XR2i and Escort XR3i the sound of ‘Friends’ blasting out the in car speaker system was ever present!
Tickets for all shows are available from venue box offices and ticketmaster.co.uk
Shalamar full biog - https://shalamar.info/info/biography/
Friends Review by Daryl Easlea
Shalamar’s sixth album, Friends, had been out for several months in the UK when their label Solar (the Sound of Los Angeles Records) released A Night to Remember as a single in June 1982. To promote it, backing vocalist and dancer Jeffrey Daniel appeared alone on Top of the Pops. His performance was to prove as jaw-dropping for that generation of viewers as David Bowie, Sparks or the Sex Pistols had been to their elders.
Daniel’s afro, so voluminous on the cover of the album, had now been straightened into a severe post-new romantic wedge, and he was wearing a t-shirt with Roy Lichtenstein designs on it. There, in front of a UK tea-time audience, he introduced body-popping to a generation. He mimed that his hands were at a wall as he looked round the side of it; he collapsed down on his legs. He poured himself an imaginary drink. And then he moon walked. Before you think people didn’t get out much in 1982, this was something very special.
Thanks to Daniel, Shalamar – completed by Jody Watley and Howard Hewett – were hot. If all of his capers had happened in a vacuum they could have meant nothing, but they supported an album of supreme, shiny pop soul. Friends remains a testament of producer Leon Sylver III’s musical ability. He arranged most of the music and vocals and added its watertight bass throughout. It is a joyous work, that although very much of its time, still manages to sound extremely contemporary.
Don’t Try to Change Me and the sumptuous ballad I Don’t Wanna Be the Last to Know are the standouts. Over a clanking, recorded-loud drum machine, Watley enjoys a fine vocal showcase on the latter. But for most, the album was about its three big hits – Friends, There It Is and A Night to Remember.
As central to 1982 as ABC’s The Lexicon of Love or Simple Minds’ New Gold Dream, Friends reached number six in the albums chart and spent well over a year in the listings. And, for people of a certain age, it is almost impossible not to lift your right elbow up in a herky-jerky motion when you hear Ernest ‘Pepper’ Reed’s guitar introduction of A Night to Remember. Lovely.
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Shalamar | Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea
Book Tickets Shalamar Friends 40th Anniversary. Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea. Fri 30 Jun 2023
southendtheatres.org.uk
Shalamar | Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea
Book Tickets Shalamar Friends 40th Anniversary. Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea. Fri 30 Jun 2023
southendtheatres.org.uk