Update 2, progress.
I followed
Example 1 to the letter and it didn't work. In hindsight the problem was that there was too much impedance on the path to the LED's.
Reason being is that when I removed the resistors using code package 1.3 as array it worked. (Never tried Code sample 1.1 and 1.2 only dimly lit or not at all when the resistors were in. Code Sample 1.2 did work without resistors with a little unexpectedness but that would have been solved with the capacitor the author suggests using in the article..) Also note that the shift register 595 pushes current to a led which is only a percentage of full power. Hence adding a resistor on this makes it almost impossible to power them.
I was then able to move it all back to one breadboard as per my original attempt without the resistors and that also worked.
