The Shadows light up stage with last performance

Britain’s most successful instrumental group, The Shadows, performed their last show tonight.

The concert marked the end of a sell-out 37-date UK tour by Cliff Richard’s former backing group.

The Shadows notched up 12 Number Ones both with Richard and on their own.

They had dozens of Top 10 hits over more than five decades and were Britain’s most imitated and influential act before the Beatles.

Tonight, Richard was joining the band in concert to perform with them in numbers like The Young Ones and Summer Holiday to say farewell to the group’s legions of fans.

It is the first time that guitar legend Hank Marvin, 62, drummer Brian Bennett, 64, guitarist Bruce Welch, 62, and Richard have all been on stage together since 1989.

Richard said: “I’m very happy to be here. I started with these guys years ago and this is going to be the last show. I wouldn’t miss it for a million.

“We don’t get together that often but when we do it is always fun and the audience is terrific.

“When we started rock ’n’ roll was in its infancy. We kind of kicked off rock ’n’ roll in Europe. This is a historic end to that whole chapter.”

He added: “We’re still all alive and we’re very grateful for that.”

Tonight Marvin, who inspired the likes of Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and Brian May, said: “The last number is going to be very hard for us. It’s going to be very emotional. There will be tears in our eyes.”

Asked if they would ever produce music together again he said: “You can never say never. It took us 14 years to get this far – The Shadows final tour – but who knows.

The Shadows began their chart life as The Drifters backing Richard and working on 35 hits with the Peter Pan of pop.

Tonight the band said they had experienced ups and downs like any other group but that they were very good friends.