November 26 marked the 50-year anniversary of the untimely death of John Rostill, former Shenley resident and bassist for The Shadows.
John was born on June 16, 1942, making him only 22 years old when he wrote the 1964 hit The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt for The Shadows, which peaked at number five in the UK charts that year.
Remembered for their number-one hits Apache, Kon-Tiki, Wonderful Land, Foot Tapper and Dance On!, The Shadows dominated British pop in the pre-Beatles era. Originally the backing band for Sir Cliff Richard OBE, The Shadows quickly rose to stardom in their own right.
After The Shadows broke up at the end of the 1960s, John toured with Sir Tom Jones OBE.
It was widely reported that John was electrocuted whilst playing a faulty electric guitar at his private studio in Shenley. However, the Liverpool Echo reported on December 12, 1973, that a coroner found John’s cause of death to be suicide.
John left behind his wife, Margaret, and a one-year-old son, Paul. The iconic bassist is buried in Leavesden.
Photo Credit: Shuttershock via Rex Features
Thank you for this nice article about John.
A couple of small things. He lived (and died) in Radlett, although his wife and son later moved to Shenley and lived there for many years.
John was cremated at Garston cemetery, and his ashes buried in Mitcham cemetery, south London.
Also, his wife, Margaret sadly passed away in December 2021.
John was much loved by those that knew him and of course a very talented musician. It has always saddened me that much false information has been written about John but I am pleased to say that most of this has now been corrected.
Sadly he didn’t live to see the success of his songs and very little has been written about John after he left The Shadows and joined Tom Jones’s rhythm section in America. He can be heard playing bass on two of Tom’s very popular albums “Live in Las Vegas” and “Live at Caesar’s Palace”.
After John died, Elvis Presley recorded two of John’s compositions on his Moody Blue album, previously massive hits for Olivia Newton John – “Let Me Be There” and “If You Love Me Let Me Know”. I often wonder what he would think about this now but in his quiet way I am sure he would say he was very proud.
Thank you for your music and rest in peace lovely man
Paul
I have been looking after Johns Grave for many years and have always been very discrete about its exact location, mainly because celebrity graves tend to get vandalised. This also worried me as I was sent an article from a local resident that had found it and published photographs of the grave. Since Covid, the florist that I have paid to look after it has now retired and I am in the process of trying to find someone locally to help but in view of the above I wonder if you would kindly consider removing the exact location from your post please to avoid any possible damage. I hope you will understand.
Kind regards
S. Thompson
At the age of 11 I lived on The Warren in Radlett Herts about 2 minutes walk from the what all neighbors’ called the famous Shadows house. Before his death it was common knowledge that there were marital problems. We locals houses knew it was a suicide by setting up his guitar to deliver a full 240v shock
We also had the drummer from Blue Mink up the road. Barry Morgan. I became friends with his son Perry. Barry was very cool.
Our house was called ‘Cushy’ – the house next door name of ‘Skybreak’ was taken over Stanley Kubrick to shoot the main rape scene for his now cult movie ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The production ran way overtime and it was the time of UK power cuts.
Now you know
I’ve not heard that before about Celebrity’s graves being vandalised? I haven’t been to all that many but they were okay. Marlene Dietrich in Berlin, Will Hay In Greater Loundon and the Brothers Grimm also in Berlin. I might have seen more but can’t remember. I’ve also seen quite a few grave photos online. I would’ve thought they’d be looked after by fans more than vandalised. Unfortunately there aren’t too many now who would remember John.