19th June 2000
Crimson Productions, the owners of Showaddywaddy’s recorded material, advised they have no plans to release the band’s back catalogue on CD.
30th July 2000
Showaddywaddy’s debut album Showaddywaddy, sometimes known as ’the yellow album’, is being released in September by Cherry Red Records under their 7Ts label. It will contain two bonus tracks.
Also announced today was that Showaddywaddy are to release a new album. Dave Bartram: “We now have the go-ahead to compile material for a new album, which should be ready for early next year. The album will be all new material, however it looks as if it will be a compilation of material that we have always meant to record, which will be very much in the old Showaddy style obviously including a lot of reworks. We will be going into the studio in early October to record the first few tracks”
28th October 2000
Showaddywaddy’s debut album was re-released by Cherry Red Records on 9th October 2000. It is released with the original artwork, and two bonus track not on the original release, You Will Lose Your Love Tomorrow, and I’m A Traveller.
31st January 2001
News from Dave Bartram regarding a new tour format for 2001: "We will be touring later this year in a new format which is along the lines of our own musical. It will be called 'Hey Rock & Roll' and there will be 2 pilot dates in early May to help shape the thing, the tour will go under the guise of the 50 greatest rock and roll songs ever recorded and will feature guest DJ's, female singers, and jiving specialists. It will be a totally new departure for the band, but will obviously feature many of our own hits and stage numbers from the current set! There should be an album to support the show, so the Rockabilly album we discussed last year will be put on the back-burner for now.
There have been some very interesting ideas suggested for 'Hey Rock & Roll' the band are really up for it, it's not really a musical concept, but more of a rock & roll show, which I'm hoping will have a very authentic '50s feel.”
18th February 2001
The two pilot dates for the new Showaddywaddy musical will be at Cliff's Pavilion at Southend-on-Sea in May
11th March 2001
Dave Bartram will be featuring on a radio show on Saturday 28th of April, 'Rock Of Ages', a pop quiz that pits each musical decade against each other. Dave will be appearing on the 70's team and will be facing Move guitarist Trevor Burton. The show will be broadcast on BBC Radio Wales at 12.30pm.
Dave is due for another slot on TV in the next few weeks, on 'Weekend Jobfinder' which will be broadcast on Carlton Central (ITV) on Saturday 7th April and repeated on Sunday 8th April. The programme is a jobs and careers show, broadcast every day, 50 weeks of the year, across the Central region which covers around 12 counties to an audience of 6 to 8,000 each day. Dave Bartram has been included in the new 'Jobs from Heaven' series (as he lives in the broadcast area) which runs in six parts and started in March. The report is on a singer (i.e. Dave) who has been going for 27 years, and Dave is managing a 17 year old Stamford wannabe singer, Teresa 'Twee' Measures. The final part in the series ends with her the following week.
Many thanks to Radica Sewcharan and Rhian Mathias from Carlton TV for the info.
23rd May 2001
Next on the agenda for Cherry Red is a Showaddywaddy Bell Singles Collection, which they hope to release in August 2001, and which will feature all of SWW's a-sides and b-sides released on the Bell label between 1974 and 1976.
6th October 2001
The Showaddywaddy Bell Singles Collection was released this month, and the package contains information about the singles, images of foreign picture sleeves and the original single release dates.
There was a production error with the song Lucy Jane - unfortunately, Lucy Jane (Part 2) from the 1977 Red Star LP is used instead of the actual Lucy Jane from the b-side of Heartbeat. This was due to Crimson, who hold the licensing for SWW's songs, sending Cherry Red the wrong tape. However, Cherry Red are going to include the correct version of Lucy Jane as a bonus track on the CD re-release of the Trocadero LP, planned for November 2001.
14th January 2002
Showaddywaddy's third studio album, Trocadero, was re-released by Cherry Red for the first time on CD today. It includes the correct version of Lucy Jane (the b-side to Heartbeat) - as opposed to Lucy Jane (Part 2) that was included on the Bell Singles collection. Cherry Red have made an apology for this in the sleeve notes!
15th January 2002
Showaddywaddy's new album to compliment the "Hey Rock 'n' Roll" theatre show, will shortly be available to order, exclusively via www.showaddywaddy.net.
19th May 2002
Cherry Red's latest release of Showaddywaddy's back catalogue was the 1976 album Trocadero, released on 14th January 2002. This was an excellent package and many commented it was the best Cherry Red release yet.
However, there may not be any more re-releases for a while due to a licensing issue at Crimson, the company who own the rights to Showaddywaddy's recordings. Explained Mark Brennan of Cherry Red, "We did try to get 'Red Star' and the licensing people said yes as long as we took off any hit singles! "
19th May 2002
Showaddywaddy's new album is now available! Released in conjunction with the Hey Rock 'n' Roll theatre shows. It is available exclusively via this web-site for a time before going on general sale.
2nd June 2002
After originally telling Cherry Red they could only re-release Showaddywaddy's 1977 album 'Red Star' if hit singles were removed, Crimson have now given full permission for this project.
However, Cherry Red's next SWW project will be actually be an 'Arista Singles Collection Vol I' in September, followed by 'Red Star' at the end of the year. The 'Vol II' singles collection will follow next year.
17th September 2002
The Hey Rock 'n' Roll show on October 9th 2002 in Croydon will be the last for International Artistes. Showaddywaddy will be putting the concept on the back burner for a while, and looking for a new promoter towards the end of 2003.
The date for release of SWW's 'Arista Singles Collection Volume 1' is now 25th October 2002.
29th September 2002
The final Hey Rock 'n' Roll date will now be Sunday November 10th at Billingham Forum. Hey Rock 'n' Roll began life at Cliff's Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea on the 4th and 5th of May 2001. It is expected that these concept shows should resume again in 2004.
18th November 2002
Showaddywaddy's 1977 album Red Star was officially re-released on CD by Cherry Red Records today. It features eight bonus tracks not on the original vinyl release. Another excellent package by Cherry Red.
15th December 2002
There have been rumours that 2003 will be Showaddywaddy's farewell year and that the tour with Sweet and The Rubettes in the Spring will be their last.
"Do not worry!", says Dave Bartram, ".....I did say when negotiating with the promoters that this would probably our last tour of this type, based on the alarming slump in audience sizes at 90% of theatre tours (Hey Rock 'n' Roll shows).........However please emphasise to readers of the site that there is absolutely no chance of the band splitting up. We will continue to play venues up and down the country for a few years yet."
In other news, Cherry Red will be re-releasing the 1980 album Bright Lights and Arista Singles Collection Vol.2 during the early part of 2003.
1st June 2003
Showaddywaddy's 30th Anniversary Tour closes today. Spanning 40 dates, the tour has been a great success with most shows being sold out. Due to the tour's success, the promoters hope to announce more dates for 2004.
In other news, Showaddywaddy will be appearing on BBC1's "Inside Out" programme at 7.30pm Monday 2nd June 2003. Unfortunately each BBC region has its own Inside Out show - Showaddywaddy will be on in the East Midlands only. The band have had a film crew with them for the past few months and the results are shown on the programme. Paul from Showaddywaddy.net was also interviewed.
2nd September 2003
Showaddywaddy's version of Blue Moon was used as part of the soundtrack in an episode of BBC's Cutting It early in 2003.
23rd November 2003
Thanks to all Showaddywaddy fans who voted on the Top Of The Pops 2 web-site weekly vote. SWW came top with the most votes, over 400, and their last ever TOTP performance was repeated on BBC on 5th November 2003. The original date of transmission of "Who Put The Bomp" was 2nd September 1982.
15th February 2004
Showaddywaddy will be taking part in a new theatre tour in October/November 2004.
The show will feature Showaddywaddy headlining a 'Solid Gold Rock & Roll' bill featuring actual artists from the late 50's/early 60's thus far to include Freddie Cannon, Eden Kane and John Leyton. The idea being a throwback to the legendary package tours of the 60's.
One thing that the band would like to do for this tour is have Showaddywaddy fans choose the top 5 SWW songs that they would like to be included in the set. These can be old album tracks or songs previously played "live", or even singles that are no longer included.
In other news, Cherry Red's re-release of the 1981 album 'Good Times' is on hold. Unfortunately their 7T's section have other projects that are taking priority at the moment.
13th October 2004
There is to be a new "Very Best Of" Digitally remastered TV advertised album released on DMTV on November 15th. The album is entitled "Hey Rock & Roll - The Very Best of Showaddywaddy".
It will include a new song, "Woo Hoo". The band recorded the TV ad on Tuesday 14th September and the first showing will be during Heartbeat (ITV) on Sunday 14th November.
In the past few weeks, SWW fans have been voting for songs they would like the band to do on the tour. The voting was closed early October and the final list of top 5 songs voted for were:
- Joint Top: 'Johnny Remember Me', 'Hey Rock And Roll'.
- Second: 'Lost'.
- Joint Third: 'Win Your Heart', 'Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller'.
- Fourth: 'Under The Moon Of Love'.
- Fifth: 'Chain Gang', 'Footsteps', 'Heavenly', 'Swansong'
The band usually do 'Hey Rock And Roll' and 'Under The Moon Of Love' so expect to see those. 'Johnny Remember Me' has been ruled out as it was originally a hit for John Leyton who is also on the tour. However, Dave Bartram advises that Showaddywaddy may resurrect this in their regular shows toward the end of the year, along with 'Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller'.
Feb 2005
The latest CD was in the top-100 album charts for ten weeks over Christmas and the new year, spending six weeks in the top-75, peaking at 56. It was released on 15th November 2004 and includes a great new SWW track, "Woo Hoo", originally recorded by The Rock-A-Teens in 1959, and more recently by The 5678's and used in the Carling adverts during summer 2004. It has so far sold in excess of 80,000 copies.
2nd July 2005
Time Out magazine recently featured their 'Greatest 100 London Gigs Ever' in the May/June edition of the magazine. Showaddywaddy featured at number 56 for the gig at Kilburn National on 7th September 1987, in which they were in a double header with German band Einstuzender Neubaten! Dave Bartram recalls, "We blew them off stage that night! It's unbelievable really as Live Aid is at number 50".
18th December 2005
Showaddywaddy were featured in a Channel 4 programme at 10:00pm on Saturday 10th December entitled 'Bring Back The Christmas No. 1'. The band performed on a brand new Christmas record called "I'm Goin' Home" which has been written and produced by Rob Davis (ex Mud guitarist) who has had a lot of success recently with Kylie Minogue, Rachel Stevens & many more. Unfortunately, due to time constraints at EMI, the single will now not be released on on Monday 12th December as originally planned. However, it is available to download from the Channel 4 web-site Downloads section. The recording artist is shown as just 'David Essex', something which SWW and other featuring personnel are not happy about!
Other artists featured on the record are members of Slade, Jona Lewie & David Essex. David Essex peforms the main vocals with Dave Bartram harmonising and doing answerbacks. The rest of Showaddywaddy provide backing vocals.