The Hollies :: View topic - Hollies Interview in a school magazine, Cologne 1970

Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Germany

Dear Hollies-Fans!

I just discovered an old school magazine from Germany. It's from a so-called Montessori-Gymnasium in Cologne, the mag's title is "Nuntius" (No. 32). Two girls interviewed Tony and Bernie after the Hollies' concert on Easter Monday 1970 in Cologne, Gürzenich-Hall. The interview took place at the bar of the Hotel "Mondial".
If someone's interested in the german original text, I may post it.
What I didn't know, the Hollies appeared behind the "iron curtain" in a TV-Show in East-Berlin. I wonder if a recording exists?

I tried to re-translate the interview from German to English. I apologize for my bad English...

Q: Tony, what do you think, are the main reasons for the Hollies‘ success?

A: We just aim at satisfying the people we do the records for. And..how should I say ..we’re not selfish. We don’t make records for ourselves but for those who want to buy them. And this has been a very successful way for us.

Q: How do you like your audience to behave?

A: We like them to listen, to be very quiet, when we’re performing and singing and when we talk to them. After that, when we’ve finished, and they liked it, they may show it, stand up and applaud or express their recognition in a similar way. Because we don’t like when they‘re climbing the stage and make a scene. It has happened several times, that, while we were performing, some people got nervous and tried to upset the performance. It’s better if they stay on their seats and don’t get excited until the end of the song.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: I think it’s a bit too early to say something about our plans. After this tour we probably won’t come to Germany for the next six months. We’re gonna have a lot of different things to do, to record some singles and
an album for sure. Maybe we’re not going to give so many concerts. I still don’t know yet.

Q: Will the Hollies appear on TV in the next future?

A: (Bernie) On April 15th we’ve been in Berlin where we had a concert in the philharmonic hall. Then we went to East-Berlin to film a show for the East-German Television. That’s all what we did in Germany, as far as i can recall. We also did a show for Dr. Schneider, it was called 4-3-2-1 or something like that.

Q: What do you think about the steady rising progressive music?

A: (Tony) It’s hard to say, but in my opinion those progressive groups don’t do anything really inventive.
It’s a kind of music, that’s been played for some years by some groups in a blues-a-like and somehow nervous way. I think, most of those groups just call their music „progressive“ or „Underground“, nothing else. The only new groups that I admire are Jethro Tull or Fleetwood Mac and they stand for a new style of music. They really have a different style but there exist so many groups playing the so called progressive music – I don’t think they really play it!

A: (Bernie) I think it’s OK for those who like it, to follow that way of music, but that‘s nothing for the Hollies.
Our fans would not estimate that direction – so we won’t turn that way. There actually are some groups in that field of music and some aren’t bad at all but I think this won‘t go on for a long time.

Q: Do you have stage fright when your concerts start?

A: (T+B) No!

Q: Are you superstitious?

A: (Bernie) No, not really, because I’m catholic and therefore I’m following my destiny to say it in that way. I don’t take those things for serious, e.g. to walk around a standing ladder or similar things.

Q: What hobbies do you have?

A: (Bernie) I used to have a special hobby, I was breeding tropical fish, but now I don’t have enough time to maintain this hobby. So I just keep on driving in my lovely sports car at home.

Q: Do you have wishes for the future?

A: (Bernie) Just – to keep on being successful

Hi christocello!

Thanks for translating and posting the interview! It was interesting to read, and your English seems perfect to me.

I had a look in my copy of the April 1970 newsletter from the Official Hollies Fan Club, and there I found a report from road manager Rod Shields in the middle of the German tour. He says they arrived in Hanover on Friday, March the 27th to find themselves six inches deep in snow. "It continued to snow heavily all day Saturday, but then after a time it stopped and thawed almost immediately."

Then he gives a review of the Hanover concert.

"The Hollies act has been described so many times that I only have to say that it was as usual - pop, folk and orchestral sections, all of them superb. The boys become a little unhappy towards the end of the act because the audience will not stay in their seats. 3,000 people cluster round the edge of the stage, and they sang "Blowing In The Wind" with at least 100 people trying to sit on their feet! However, as I've said before this is apparently the highest compliment a German audience can pay an artist, and it's an incredible sight to see. We are taking stronger security precautions now though, just in case someone should get hurt."

Then he writes about the concert in Dortmund.

"Every show we've done so far has been great, but perhaps one of the most memorable was in Dortmund. It was co-promoted by 'Bravo' Germany's top teenage magazine. They present some awards called 'Bravo-otto' to the best artists in Germany over the past year, and the Hollies came third. They were presented with a little bronze statuette of an Indian Brave, standing on a wooden base with a bronze plaque stating who it was awarded to and why. Lots of photos were taken of the presentation, so you may see some of them in the English trade papers before long.
The boys also received another award - a chocolate easter bunny each from the hotel owner!"

In the May 1970 newsletter there's a review of the Berlin concert from a German paper, apparently translated by a German fan.

"They certainly are great chaps, these English Hollies, full blooded musicians and fantastic showmen. For 7 years now they have been faithful to the cultivated beat. Where everyone screams and shouts they stay quiet and harmonic. And the public likes it! The fans at the Philharmonic applauded enthusiastically to the Hollies hit compositions. For a short hour only they played, assisted by a 12 -piece orchestra. They even took time for breaks which they filled with professional chatting, full of gages.
This was no beat concert in the usual sense, but a perfectly elaborated Hollies Show".

Two very interesting pieces. Thanks for sharing. I often wonder about where the Hollies were touring around 70/71. If could see the Hollies at any point in time, this is when I'd like to see them. Maybe some of our German freunds could trawl through the TV archives and try to find one of these shows!

Hi Michael,

I was in Singapore in 70/71 & saw the Hollies at the National Theatre there, I believe in 1971.

Terry

Hi Micheal and Terry!

Gathering from what I read in the fan club newsletters, the Hollies were quite busy touring the world in 1970 and 1971.

1970 they toured Australia in January. A tour of Canada in February was cancelled, but in spring they toured Germany and then America, and in August Sweden (I saw them in Gothenburg.) and Finland.

In the first months of 1971 they toured New Zealand and Australia and gave concerts in Indonesia, Singapore (like you said, Terry), Kuala Lumpur and Hong kong, and in March or April they toured Germany again.

Interesting both Agneta and Terry!

'70/'71 must have been the most extensive touring years for The Hollies.

Can you remember what they played?

Hi Michael,

I have a terrible memory, but I can never forget Amazing Grace acapella.

Terry

Thanks Micheal!

This is what they played in Gothenburg, August the 20th 1970, according to my diary.

Carry Ann
Stop Stop Stop
Just One Look
Isn't It Nice
Gloria Swansong
Too Young To Be Married
Gasoline Alley Bread
Lady Please
I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top
He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother
Let It Be
Too Much Monkey-business

Rythym Guitar Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 293

"Isn't It Nice" and "Lady Please" are two more surprises and great songs from "Confessions Of The Mind". Would have liked to be there just to hear those songs together with "Gloria Swansong" (my favourite from "Hollies Sing Hollies") live.
Today it still would be great to hear them play album tracks other than from "Staying Power". Two or three rare oldie album tracks for the fans would be great.
Thanks for the info about the set list. Very Happy

Some interesting song choices, it would have been great to hear some of those album tracks live. Lady Please is a favourite of mine. A BBC TV performance of that exists, supposedly.

Wow, Agneta, you were lucky to be at that Hollies show in Gothenburg 1970! The Hollies did not play Norway between 1966 and 1977. You Swedish must have treated the boys extrenely well! And of course you have those lovely folk parks they enjoyed so much playing in.

Yes, I was lucky enough to see the Hollies in 1967, -68, -69 and-70, but then it took 36 years before I saw them again!

The Hollies were very popular in Sweden, and yes I think they enjoyed performing in the folk parks.

I enjoyed hearing the songs from Confessions Of The Mind, but the funny thing is, they refered to the album as Moving Finger, and I never understood why, until I read that that's what it was called in America.

What a great list of songs, would have loved to hear Lady Please live.