The Hollies :: View topic

Hi this is for you James, hey I've seen the band 5 times, not much when you hear the others talk.

Highlights:
Okay my first Hollies concert in 1975, I was on a high for weeks after, the two things I fondly remember from the show was the group singing Let It Be plus Tony's guitar solo in Too Young to be married.
highlight 2: Seeing the Hollies on my birthday in 1983.
Now rarities:
Hearing (sadly a poor quality) a concert tape of the Hollies singing Please Please Me (the Beatles song)
I always loved the way Tony would play some guitar solo then the band would burst into Stop Stop Stop.

I've always enjoy the banter between Allan and Tony, in later years Carl & Tony. In their Melbourne show 2001 Tony Hicks said he wanted to be called Anthony, this was because a famous Aussie singer John Farnham was once called Johnny, now he hates that and wants to be known as John, so Tony wanted to be called Anthony from now on. I was impressed with what they knew about Australia.

One of the big highlights is the friends I've made being a Hollies fan, I've met in person a few fans from Melbourne, one I saw last week for lunch, then Christine from Adelaide, plus fans in the UK when I was there 4 years ago.

I've seen The Hollies just 6 times and they are concerts I will never forget.

My biggest Hollies highlight was seeing them for the first time when they came to Sydney (The Hordern Pavillion) in 1976. Although I was 18 at the time my parents still wouldn't let me go out at night by myself so when I heard about the Hollies coming downunder on a Saturday Morning pop music show I asked my older sister Dianne (who was 21) if she would go with me to the concert and to my surprise she said Yes. I remember how thrilled I was at seeing the band and as the day got closer I got more excited. We were in the right in the front row which was great and when the band came on stage I just screamed my lungs out (along with most of the other teenage girls in my section. I can't remember what song they started with but they did performed many of their singles and songs from some of their albums. I had a giant sized crush on Bernie Calvert and thought he was cuter in the flesh than he was on T.V. or in photos.

Like Anthony, I have always loved the Hollies banter. I remember one incident from their 1987 concert at The State Theater in Sydney when Allan said that Tony treated his Guitar like a dummy (or pacifier as the call it in Amercia) and that he took it to bed with him. It is the was Allan said it that got laughs. at that concert I was in about the 10th row but I still had a great view of them.

At the concert in 2001 at Canterbury RSL Club, Sydney where I was in the second row, Carl walked on stage with a tight pair of black leather trousers on and everyone whistled so him so he started to show off by giving us a side and back view and everyone laughed at him.

Bye For Now

Susie

Susie, I envy you that you got to see them in 1976, and Bernie was/is my fave too!

As for the banter between songs, I remember when I saw them in '83. At one point Tony put down his guitar and picked up his banjo, and Allan started to sing "Come On, Ilene" (a big hit song from around that time by Dexy's Midnight Runners that featured a banjo). The crowd loved it!

I only saw the group twice, both times on the 1983 reunion tour with Graham (but without Bernie and Terry, alas).

I thought that they looked and sounded great. In fact, one of the two shows that I saw was actually the Cincinnati concert that has been released for posterity. The only thing missing from that concert is If The Lights Go Out, which inexplicably was left in the can.

It's funny how that worked out - I am not a huge concert-goer, yet two of the comparatively few shows I've been to have been released at bootlegs - this one and a 1981 Bruce Springsteen concert recorded in Detroit. It's easy for me to know that was the show that I was at because Mitch Ryder came out for the encore and then they closed with a screaming extended version of Twist And Shout. Wow, that was a show. I stumbled across a boot CD of this Boss concert in a Memphis record store about a deacde after the concert.

Anyway, as for the '83 Hollies show, I can tell you that the between-song banter in each of the two shows I saw (about two weeks apart) was almost word-for-word unchanged. The biggest surprises of the show, in my opinion, were that Allan sang the opening verse of On A Carousel rather than Graham, and I must say that their version of Casualty was truly outstanding (primarily for a great vocal by Allan) - as was the opener of the concert, I Can't Let Go. I also found it strange that the band performed Soldier's Song, which had never been released in the U.S. Instead, why not perform another U.S. hit, like Pay You Back With Interest, Dear Eloise, Long Dark Road, or even Sorry Suzanne?

Anyway, later in 1983 the Cincinnati concert was played on FM radio on a program called "The Source." Fortunately, it was on a station that I regularly listened to so I knew about it in advance, and recorded it to cassette. Later, of course, came the bootleg and then the edited official release Archive Alive which deleted Graham's CSN songs. Now, we can get the complete show (sans If The Lights Go Out) on a CD release called Reunion. So I own four versions of this concert, counting my cassette recorded off the radio.

Since it's clear that this will be the only time I ever see the group, I consider it very fortuante for me that David Crosby spent that year in jail so Graham was available to rejoin, even temporarily, the band. Otherwise, they'd have never gotten a summer tour of the States.

Rythym Guitar Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 486

So a "live" version of "If the lights go Out" with Graham can be added to our ever increasing list of known live rarities too !

Hey, SpartyScott, so you saw the lads in Cincinnati? I saw them in Cleveland!

Oh, so that's why Graham was available -- often wondered about that!

Rythym Guitar Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 486

The reason "Soldier's Song" was done was because it was Allan Clarke's "spotlight" feature...I would have loved a Hollies "live" version of Graham's "Marrakesh Express"...plus perhaps "Sanctuary" and maybe Allan's solo USA hit "Shadow on the Street" (imagine Clarke / Hicks / Nash doing those songs...! )

Hi James,

I saw you asked for set lists as well as highlights and rarities. I do have the set lists for the four concerts I attended 1967 to 1970, though perhaps not in the exact right order. The Hollies concerts were the highlights of each year for me, and when I got home from a concert, I always wrote down everything I could possibly remember in my diary. I don't know if these lists are of any interest, but anyway, here goes:

23 August -67, Folk Park, Vänersborg

The Games We Play
Stop Right There
Carrie Ann
On A Carousel
Very Last Day
Bus stop
Stewball
A Taste Of Honey

28 July - 68, Folk Park, Vänersborg

Stop Stop Stop
The Times They Are A'changin'
On A Carousel
Very Last Day
Dang me
Do The Best You Can
Butterfly
A Taste Of Honey
Look Through Any Window
Jennifer Eccles

26 May - 69, Liseberg, Gothenburg

Stop Stop Stop
Look Through Any Window
Stewball
When The Ship Comes Sailing In
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Sorry Suzanne
Dang Me
Settle Down (Peter Paul & Mary)

20 August - 70, Liseberg, Gothenburg

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

I'v also kept a clipping of a very positive review of the first concert, from a local paper (spelling their name Hollis), saying that the Hollies is without doubt the best pop group to have visited the Swedish folk parks that summer, and that Stewball was the song that really got the audience going. The review ends with the statement that the Hollies is a band of world class. I think we all agree to that.

Agneta

Rythym Guitar Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 486

Interesting you list "Butterfly"...When Alan Coates did it they said they never did sing it live...but I saw Graham Nash sing it with a "taped" backing back in the Sixties...and so did you too !

The song "Settle Down" was also sung on that May 1969 BBC concert show, titled "Maybe I'll Settle Down"...

This is brilliant folks - really interesting stuff. Keep them comin'! Cool

Hi Geoff!

Yes I did. The others left the stage, and I remember Graham standing alone with his guitar, while the beautiful music came floating through the air. I really love Butterfly.

Settle Down I can't really remember. I've just got my notes, saying it was the last song, and that Allan pointed at Tony, saying: This is Mary! So maybe it was called "Maybe I'll Settle Down".

Also, thanks for the facts about the Monkees. You've got interesting facts and details about so much, and it's always nice to read what you write.

Agneta

I agree with Agneta, it is so enjoyable to read every thing you guys post, and it provides new knowledge about the band all the time.

I have a special interest in the old rockers that the Hollies tended to play at the end of the show from the 80's (or maybe even during the 70's?). To give you an idea of what I mean I will mention the following:

Great balls of fire
Highschool hop
Johnny B Goode
Move it
Apache

Then came the later material, like
Pinball wizard
When I'm dead and gone
A whiter shade of pale
Light my fire
Riders on the storm

This question is for those of you who saw the Rickfors lineup in concert. What were some of the songs they would do from the Clarke years, and who did the vocals on these?