The Hollies - Concert Review

Guildford Civic Hall, 27^th February 1999 - by Liz Dewar

A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF.....

Saturday 27th February dawned dull, windy and wet and the prospect of a day spent doing housework didn’t do much to make it brighter, but all was made bearable because that evening a trip to Guildford to see my favourite band was planned. It’s amazing that even after 36 years as an ardent fan of the HOLLIES they still have the ability (one they are unaware of) to lift this girls spirits along with many others.

The chores of the day over and done with, we made our way to the Civic Hall. The bewitching time of 7.30 arrived and the band kicked off with the original airing of ‘Here I Go Again’. Hit after hit followed ‘Jennifer Eccles’, ‘Just One Look’, ‘I’m Alive’ and, of course, the ever present ‘Sandy’ written by Allan Clarke’s

mate, Bruce Springsteen.!! All received with great enthusiasm by the audience.

Allan admits that in all the years they’ve been coming to Guildford, this is the first time he has walked about the City; says he should have done it before as it’s a really nice place.

Then comes ‘Stay’ which Allan says seems to get faster and faster as he gets older. It really doesn’t show Allan. A film track, written for the Peter Sellars movie ‘After The Fox’, and bearing the sane name was quite a surprise to us all and caused much humour within the band as they sang. Thanks to the wizardry of bass player Ray Stiles, we were able to hear the voice of Sellars himself on stage and although the film bombed, it’s still a good song.

The ever-versatile HOLLIES then treated us to a Country-style ‘Running Through The Night’ with Tony Hicks taking lead vocal. A lady sitting behind us was adamant that the guy singing could not be Tony Hicks. She remembered Tony in the 60’s and said the guy on stage was far too young to be him!! I assured her it really was Tony Hicks and turning to her husband she enquired why he didn’t look like that especially as he was younger than Tony.

One of my personal favourite songs follows, an Allan Clarke composition ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ - spot on harmonies as always, enough to send a shiver down anyone’s spine. Next comes ‘Not That Way At All’, the B Side of ‘Sorry Suzanne’ another composition from Mr Clarke and recorded during their Abbey Road days.

An Ian Parker arrangement of the "GRALTO" composition (GRaham Nash - ALlan Clark - TOny Hicks) ‘Butterfly’ has Alan Coates on centre mike with an haunting, excellent rendition of this album title track.

A special mention should be made of the lighting system being used on this tour, truly brilliant and enhancing.

Another new song for this tour, ‘Running Through The Night’ brought the band back on stage and was

Followed by I’m Alive. On a Carousel brings the first half to a close and the band leave the stage to change and get refreshed.

The second half commences ,with ‘I Can’t Let Go’ which gets rapturous applause. The hits keep coming, ‘Yes I Will’, ‘Sorry Suzanne’, ‘King Midas’ and ‘We’re Through’. Ian Parker, complete with miner’s lamp goes walkabout on this one often not making it back on stage for his solo and this time, Allan stepped into

the breech. The audience by this time are spellbound and to keep up the hypnosis the band perform Buddy Holly’s ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’. Thanks to the skills of bassist Ray Stiles and an arrangement by Ian Parker, we are able to hear Buddy himself singing lead vocals and being backed by THE HOLLIES.

Another new addition to the show is McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’ featuring Tony and Alan on acoustic guitars with Ray harmonising with them both.

‘Look Through Any Window’ starts acoustically before Ian and Bob join in and away we go. Distinctive guitar work here by Mr Hicks and Mr Coates.

Next comes Graham Gouldman’s ‘Bus Stop’ then ‘Carrie Anne and ‘Stop Stop Stop’ a song about a belly dancer with the amazing Mr Hicks on banjo (is there anything with a string on it this man can’t play?)

Then one note from that Hick’s guitar and applause can be heard all around the theatre, the timeless classic ‘The Air That I Breathe’. A standing ovation follows this one and, of course the next, the Bobby Scott and Bobby Russell song which the band will be most remembered for ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’.

The only way to follow these two classics is with some rock ‘n’ roll and that’s exactly what they did. As soon as Bobby hammered out the beat, we knew they were breaking into Chris Montez’s ‘Let’s Dance’, another personal favourite of mine, long may it remain in the show. By this time the whole of the front three rows were standing in front of the stage and those unfortunate enough not to be able to get to the front were standing on their seats!! To say the whole theatre was jumping is no exaggeration. The floor really was moving and continued to do so through ‘At The Hop’

All too soon, the final song ‘Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress’ and after Allan has introduced each member of the band and we have given then their due acclaim, the show comes to an all too hasty end.

On the way out of the theatre, I listen to the comments from some of the audience statements like "they are even better now than they were in the 60’s". "When can we see them again?" and "I’d forgotten they’d had so many hits and that’s just the ones we heard".

Oh yes! These guys aim to please and that’s exactly what they do. Long may they continue.

……Liz Dewar from Reading.

Back to Review Index