Cliffennium Volume 3

21. Norrie Paramor
June, 1958 George Ganjou took Cliff and the Drifters' demo to an A&R man at EMI, Norrie Paramor, along with that of an opera singer and, as an afterthought, suggested that Norrie might want to listen to it. Norrie liked the single sufficiently to call the Drifters in for an audition. He told the group that he'd make a decision over the next two weeks while he was on holiday with his family, and when he returned he told the group that he wished to sign them to the Columbia label and record a song which had been a hit in America for Bobby Helms, Schoolboy Crush.
Norrie would go on to produce Cliff and the shadow for over a decade, producing more hits for Cliff and the Drifters/Shadows than anyone since.

22.First recording session
24 July, 1958 After Norrie's decision was announced, Cliff and the Drifters quickly went to work learning the new single that had been chosen from them. One issue that needed solving was what to put on the b-side, and Ian Samwell obligingly wrote a song which would transform their careers, Move It, while riding on a double-decker bus to Cliff's house in Cheshunt.
The first recording session took place at Abbey Road, and Norrie brought in musicians Frank Clarke on double bass and Ernie Shear on electric guitar. Schoolboy Crush was the first song recorded and the intended a-side, but it was Move It which really showcased the group's talents. Session engineer Malcolm Addey even allowed the song to exceed the maximum volume that music was allowed to be recorded at in the studio, helping to add to its raw authentic feel.
Cliff's first publicity shot was also taken at the same time in studio 2 at Abbey Road.

23. Cliff signed with Capitol Records
9 August, 1958 After recording what would be their first hit single, the Drifters were quickly signed by Columbia.
Despite the fact that Cliff Richard and the Drifters had passed the audition, only Cliff was awarded a contract and the Drifters would not receive any royalties from sales, but rather a fee for taking part in the recording sessions.

24. First airplay for Cliff Richard and the Drifters
August, 1958 Before rehearsals began for the television show Oh Boy!, Cliff and the Drifters played a short season at the Butlins holiday camp in Clacton-on-Sea.
While performing, EMI sent a pre-release copy of Move It to the DJ of the Butlin's camp radio station. Tulah Tuke was the first person in the world to play a Cliff Richard song on radio, with the simple plug 'That was the new record from Cliff Richard and the Drifters. You can see them live tonight at the Rock'n'Roll Ballroom.'

25. Schoolboy Crush/Move It released
29 August, 1958 Cliff and the Drifters released the single that was to bring them national prominence within just four months of their appearance at the 2i's coffee bar in Soho. Initially the a-side was Schoolboy Crush, but soon public demand prompted EMI to flip the single and make Move It the a-side.
Not only did the song reach No.2 in the British charts and go on to sell over one million copies, it inspired a generation of British teenagers that genuine rock'n'roll could be produced in their own country. John Lennon once referred to it as 'the most influential British record ever made' and it has gone on to be listed in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame's five hundred most influential songs of all time.
The song that Ian Samwell had written on the bus to Cliff's house pondering the fate of rock'n'roll was soon to liberate a generation of budding British musicians, giving them the realization that rock'n'roll wasn't purely an American phenomenon.

26. Cliff appears on Oh Boy!
13 September, 1958 The final stage in Cliff's metamorphosis from local rock'n'roll hero to national icon would be his appearance on Jack Good's revolutionary television series Oh Boy!
After being struck by the b-side of Cliff and the Drifters new single, Jack agreed to hear the group audition for a new series of his rock'n'roll show. He was further struck by Cliff's performance, but made alterations which were to help mould him into the superstar he was to become.
Firstly, he eradicated Cliff sideburns and stopped him from playing the guitar on stage because he felt that this made him appear an Elvis impersonator rather than a fresh new talent. Jack also worked on building up a stage act for Cliff, instructing him to tilt his head up and raise his eyes to the camera, and also to suddenly grab at his arm 'as if stuck with a hypodermic syringe'. It was also here that Cliff premièred his famous pink jacket.
While Marty Wilde remained the star of the show for the first week, by the second week Move It had entered the charts at No.12 and he was causing a sensation with the Daily Sketch asking 'Is this boy too sexy for television?'

27. Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch join the Drifters
September, 1958 Upon returning home from their shows at the Butlin's holiday camp, and before auditions began for Oh Boy!, the Drifters received a letter inviting them on their first tour as a support act to American duo the Kalin Twins. The Kalin Twins currently had a No.1 hit in the charts with When, and the Drifters quickly accepted.
Unfortunately the group realised that they needed stronger musicians, thus they sent John Foster to the 2i's where he was to meet with guitarist Tony Sheridan. While there he met with another guitarist Hank Marvin who was currently touring with the Most Brothers, but agreed to tour with the Drifters if he could bring along his mate Bruce Welch on rhythm guitar.
Both these seventeen year olds had, like Cliff, started out playing skiffle, and both had also changed their names (Hank's original name was Brian Rankin, and Bruce's Bruce Cripps). They would go on to be the two dominant members of Cliff's backing band for the decade to come, and one of the most influential British bands in history.
Their first rehearsal together was in the front room of Cliff's family's house in Cheshunt.

28. Cliff and the Drifters embark on first tour with the Kalin Twins
5 October, 1958 On a tour which would launch one of the most powerful concert draws in British pop history, Cliff and the Drifters played support to Americans the Kalin Twins.
There were around eight acts in the show, and the Drifters went on just before the Kalin Twins. At the beginning of the tour the Kalin Twins were still riding high on the charts, but as Move It began to climb Cliff and the Drifters started to draw a bigger and bigger response. Eventually the Kalin Twins had to play over shouts of 'We want Cliff!' and Cliff and the Drifters had to be moved around to finish the show.
'He tore the house down, ' Hal Kalin said many years later, 'There was no way we could compete with an up-and-coming seventeen year old. It became a nightmare for us.'
The only sad note of the tour came when thieves broke into the dressing rooms and stole the guitar Cliff's father had given him for his sixteenth birthday.
Eventually the Kalin Twins were to forgive Cliff, and he brought them back to England to perform as part of the Oh Boy! set of his 1989 The Event concerts at Wembley Stadium.

29. Cliff, first album, released
April, 1959 To help capture some of the raw excitement of Cliff's live performances with the Drifters, Norrie Paramor decided that their first album should be recorded in front of a live audience in Abbey Road studio 2, where Move It had been recorded the previous year.
Three hundred members of Cliff's fan club were invited to the studio, given a buffet lunch and encouraged lend as much 'atmosphere' to the recording as they felt appropriate. The album was recorded over two nights, and on the first night the barriers to keep the fans back were set too close to the stage which resulted in too much screaming being picked up on the microphones. On the second night Cliff had a bout of laryngitis which meant, as Cliff was to say forty years later, 'my first album undoubtedly has too much screaming in some places, and too much croakiness in others.'
None the less, the album, which mainly consisted of rock'n'roll hits of the time, reached No.4 on the albums chart.

30. Hank's red Fender Stratocaster ordered
April, 1959 While playing at the Birmingham Hippodrome, it was decided that Hank needed a new guitar to replace the beat up Antoria he'd been playing up until this time.
Both Cliff and Hank liked the sound of James Burton who was playing on Ricky Nelson's records, and they knew he played a Fender guitar. They managed to acquire a Fender catalogue and decided that Burton must of been playing the Stratocaster as this was the most expensive guitar in the catalogue.
Due to an import ban, Cliff had to send away for the guitar. When it arrived Hank recalls it as 'looking like something from outer space' and it was certainly an unusual looking piece of equipment for a British band at that time. This instrument helped the Drifters to develop the sound which would define them for decades to come.