The Hollies - Concert Review

Sunderland Empire, 9^th October 1997 - by Yvonne Larkins

The first northern concert of the Hollies ’97 tour, and true to form it was raining, but inside the Sunderland Empire, there was only an enjoyable evening to be had. Allan Clarke graced us with his fashion statement for the tour, his black floral trousers, while Tony wore a familiar mottled grey suit! Cheers greeted The Hollies as they made their entrance onto the stage, and the applause continued to the pulsating beat of “Stay” and “Here I Go Again”. A personal favourite of mine this tour, “I Can’t Let Go” followed, to the delight of the audience, I swear I felt the old Empire rock!

Never a serious Bruce Springsteen fan, I find little to say about “Sandy”, but for Allan Clarke’s rendition of Springsteen’s “If I Were The Priest”, all I can give is praise. It brings a new dimension to The Hollies stage act. As Allan vocally sings his admiration to one of his favourite songwriters, his appreciation for Springsteen can be felt.

When introducing “Helplessly Hoping”, Tony stated that ‘when joining my friends on the centre microphone this means that we get completely in each others way, but it’s cosy’, we loved it, hindered or not, it still sounded harmony perfect, together the timing is just that more precise. Coatsie’s turn to shine, with his beautiful version of “Butterfly”. The stage is prepared with Allan, Tony & Bobby vacating the stage and leaving it to Alan Coates. The spotlight is on him, very emotional and typically the silence continues in the theatre until the last note, then an explosion of applause.

The hand clapping “I’m Alive” followed, taking us back to the beat era of the 60s, with Allan Clarke’s voice still as full as ever, but with a Tony guitar solo that brings the song and us right back to the 90s, more please! Out of breath we applaud, more clapping to come as Allan encourages the fans to join in for the classic “On A Carousel”. To end a relaxed first half by The Hollies was “When I’m Dead And Gone”, Tony and Coatsie take the lead, giving Allan the chance to show off his harmonica prowess, and Ian Parker the opportunity to have a wander over to Ray’s platform to have a singalong with The Hollies bass player. The first half of the show finished on a high.

An anthem of the 60s, “Stop In The Name Of Love” is The Hollies opening song for the second half. The next song, a slow tempo, a familiar tune, but what is it? They had us guessing there for a moment – “Just One Look”. The crowd sang along, fooled into doing the “oh, oh”, which produced a chuckle from Tony. He was no doubt remembering the bet which was going on amongst the band members on who will be the first to accidentally jump in with a “oh, oh” and totally embarrass himself! So far it’s the crowd who are losing the bet. Allan introduced Ian Parker to the audience as looking like a porcupine! Well deserved applause was given to his mastery on keyboards in “We’re Through” – he had us boogying in our seats.

Back to the original style “Bus Stop” with accordion (nice touch). Allan veered to the edge of the stage and Tony moved to save him, but no worries, Allan had it all under control. He reminisced about fans in the 60s and how the group staged it so that the fans could pull them off the stage. Today though, it exists only as a dream in many a front row fans mind!

The now familiar Buddy Holly section followed. Firstly “Peggy Sue Got Married”, then the acoustic set of “Maybe Baby”, “Peggy Sue” and “Rave On”. Tony takes the opportunity to give the lime-light to Ray Stiles, who with his vocals has brought a rounder sound to The Hollies harmonies. The guitar classic “Look Through Any Window” followed. As introduced by Tony the ‘sexy rhythm’ of “Carrie Anne” was next. A bit more showmanship has been brought to “Stop, Stop, Stop” with Alan Coates and Tony swapping sides for Tony to play banjo and Coatsie to play mandolin.

The tone is lowered for the classic Hollies love song “The Air That I Breathe”, which was followed by “He Ain’t Heavy”. The small theatre’s acoustics sent Allan’s vocals and harmonica bouncing off the walls and producing an emotional echo effect. From Tony’s shout ‘We’re going now’ the audience pleaded for more, Clarkey shouted ‘No’, but the glint in his eyes gave it away – a few seconds of silence then into the explosive “Great Ball Of Fire” and then “Let’s Dance” – classic rock ‘n roll numbers. The audience lapped it up. The first three notes of “Long Cool Woman” say it all, another great concert was coming to an end, but one more chance to stamp our feet and clap our hands to the unmistakable Hollies rock ‘n roll beat.

It may have been raining as we left the theatre, but nothing could dampen our spirits after such an uplifting show. Thanks lads for a wonderful evening.

Yvonne Larkins

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