The Hollies :: View topic

Anybody have any info on this? If it was recorded for a proposed live album, it's got to exist somewhere. I wonder what the set list was.

I was there at the Singapore 1971 show but remember very little about it (laughed again!). They did Amazing Grace acapella, and there was a guy down at the front of the stage with a small box of tricks with a few sliders on it. I thought he was just balancing the sound but he may have been recording. I was just knocked out by the incredible sound of the group - couldn't tell any difference from their records.

Terry

I think there is comment elsewhere on this board re: Singapore. Something about it being taped only for band use, not an official recording for release.

I couldn't find the post you mentio, James and according to Record Collector it was recording it was for release. So lets hope.

It would be very interesting to hear the band pre- keyboards (once they started using them around live hits they never stopped) yet post- sixties. I imagine they must sound pretty good vocally then.

Also somebody said that they really rocked on Woodstock from hearing the Aussie TV show.

Micheal

I've always been intrigued by the Singapore tape alongside the 1968 Lewisham Odeon tape since that 1988 Record Collector article.

As wonderful the 6 CD boxset was, I can't help but think that the live disc was a truly wasted opportunity. True, we got the unreleased set from Sweden but everything else was all too familiar. Why couldn't some other tracks from the 1968 Lewisham Odeon tape be used? Why no sign of Singapore?

There is certainly plenty of scope and tapes scattered around to compile an "alternative" history of The Hollies through live performances taken from TV, radio and fan tapes. This would feature many of the hits (material from NME Pollwinners, Beat Beat Beat etc) but also give space to many of the trascks they never did elsewhere - I believe some Mikael Rickfors material exists in FM quality, plus it would enable us to hear some Carl Wayne material since we were cheated out of a proper album.

Its worth remembering that in the 1960s NME readers regularly voted The Hollies as "best live band" and all us fans know that they've always been a quality live act. There are far too many live albums by acts like the Stones or The Who way past their peaks and its criminal there isn't a decent live anthology devoted to The Hollies. That would be something to enjoy, but I doubt it will ever happen which is such a shame and makes the boxset all the more frustrating since it could have been much more wothwhile.

I almost got hold of the Singapore recording a few years ago. The owner (interestingly, the drummer of 60's one-hit wonders, The Marauders) of a record shop I used to frequent was going to get hold of it for me but sadly he had a memory like a sieve and never got round to it. So there must be a bootleg of it around somewhere...

Apparently Sony has it, but will they ever put it out? Since it is pre-"Long Cool Woman", they may not ever bother. Such a shame that so many bands have live albums out commercially from their peak hit periods but The Hollies STILL do not. Another tragedy is that Sony/Epic didn't bother to record a live album in '72. Imagine if they had put out a live album with Rickfors instead of that useless "Greatest Hits" album in '73. I thought at the time, what an unnecessary LP, especially since it was released while Rickfors was still a member. One of the biggest blunders Epic made was not doing more to push the band at that crucial time. Sure, they toured them, but there wasn't even a tour booklet. (Parlophone in Australia did one, though. I have it.)