Toucan

Cliff Richard and the Shadows are to take the stage together for the first time in 20 years on a 2009 arena tour.

The group dominated the charts in the late 50s and 60s, amassing a string of hits and 19 number ones between them.

And to celebrate their 50th anniversary, the pairing is hitting the road next year for what will be their final tour.

"It's a bit of history," band member Bruce Welch told the Chronicle newspaper.

"For want of a better word, we were pioneers and certainly the first famous group. I think the original group boom came from the Shadows. Apache was 1960, and then suddenly every group had a guy with glasses on playing lead guitar."

He went on "Everybody wanted to be [guitarist] Hank [Marvin]. I think most of them still do!

"He's coming from Australia for the Royal Variety. It will be on TV in December, to show the public we are still alive. We only have seven minutes to pack so much in."

The Shadows were originally formed as a backing band for Cliff Richard and were named the Drifters until discovering there was already an American band with that moniker.

They began recording as Cliff Richard and the Shadows in 1959 and began a successful chart run until splitting in 1968.

The reunion tour dates are:September 2009

Friday 25th and Saturday 26th - London O2 arena
Wednesday 30th - Nottingham Trent FM Arena

October 2009

Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th - Birmingham NIA
Tuesday 6th - Cardiff CIA
Wednesday 7th - Liverpool Echo Arena
Friday 9th - Glasgow SECC
Monday 12th - Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Wednesday 14th - Sheffield Arena
Saturday 17th - Manchester Evening News Arena

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