The Hollies - Concert Review

Baden Baden, Germany, 28^th June 2003 - by Frank

Hi all,

As you probably all know by now, The Hollies played the "Legends of Pop"- festival at Baden Airport (near Baden Baden in Germany)last Saturday. Surely Bruce will give us all a detailed and full report once he's back from Britain next week (?) so until then here's my review of the festival.

First of all I should say that I am a long-time Hollies fan, having seen them live about a dozen times since 1977, but it was the first time that I saw The Hollies with Carl Wayne. I was somewhat familiar with Carl's work though, mostly his Move-stuff and many of his musical recordings and a bit of his solo work, but to be honest the new (and to-date his only) Hollies-recording "How do I survive" was a disappointment, to put it mildly. After having heard so many good things about the Carl-fronted line-up live, and with The Hollies playing only about 90 minutes from where I live, plus on top of that another one of my favorite bands (Smokie) on the list, I didn't let the chance go by to decide for myself what to think of the "new" Hollies.

It was the first time that I saw the festival area at the Baden Airpark and I can say that it was an ideal place for such a show, easy to get to by car, lots of free parking space, great view from all places, friendly people and not forgetting we were really lucky to have fantastic weather, sunny, warm but not too hot, a slight breeze, so ideal conditions to enjoy a good show.

At about 5 pm the so-called "Afternoon party" started with a local band called "Joe's Inn". They played non-stop for two hours and their repertoire consisted only of Joe Cocker-covers, that means songs that had been recorded by Joe Cocker at some point in his career.

Early on it became clear though that most people were waiting for the "Big
Three", the Searchers, Smokie and The Hollies and therefore weren't too interested in an unknown local band. The applause was polite and far from enthusiastic. That's all can say about them because most of the time I wasn't listening to the music but instead talking to some very nice people that I met at the festival: Bruce, Beth and Helen.

Bruce knew that I'd go to the show and had been kind enough to send me a photo of himself so that I'd know what he looks like; he also told me to look out for a "predominantly red, Hawaiian type shirt" and so it wasn't too difficult for me to spot him in the "Rock Bistro"-area. It was great meeting him (and of course Beth and Helen, too) and I quickly found out that in addition to being a really nice person he knows an awful lot about rock/pop music, he's like a walking music encyclopedia. But Bruce, if you're reading
this, Dave Mason *really* was a member of Fleetwood Mac, he recorded one album with them, "Time" in 1995, you can add that to your encyclopedia. ;-)

The Searchers started the actual "evening show" a few minutes past 7.30 pm with one of their early hits,"Sweets for my Sweet". Halfway during the song the whole stage fell silent, probably because of a problem with the power supply generators. Being the true professionals that they are, the Searchers waited a few moments and then simply started the song again.

Thanks to work precision "made in Germany" the power supply broke down again
before the song was over, causing laughter in the audience and some concerned looks on stage. Many a lesser band would have gotten real nervous but not so the Searchers who decided that maybe "Sweets" was the wrong song to play that evening and simply went on with their set. No more power supply problems from now on and the show went over well, a mix of their own hits from the 60s plus some usually well-chosen cover versions.

The Hollies-fans in the audience were in for an extra treat because halfway
through their set the Searchers played a song which had been a minor hit for them, "Have you ever loved somebody", of course a familiar song to all Hollies fans cause it had been written by a certain "L.Ransford" (Clarke/ Nash/ Hicks) for the Searchers all those years ago.

After the Searchers had ended their set the audience could recharge the batteries (if needed) and get something to eat or drink during the half-hour break. By the time The Hollies finally entered the stage and started with the familiar sounds of "Long Cool Woman", it was slowly getting dark and the lighting on stage began to make some sense. I had expected it to be a somewhat awkward feeling to see for the first time a "new" guy fronting the Hollies but to my surprise Carl, wearing his "Ozzy"-shirt, didn't seem to be the "odd man out" at all. He was clearly the frontman, yes, but also an integral part of the band. The atmosphere on stage seemed to be very good and relaxed.

The Hollies played for about an hour and basically delivered a shortened version of their normal solo concerts. Knowing that they hadn't played a show in more than a month, I didn't expect any "special additions" for this one concert and ... well, we didn't get any.

What we did get though was a hit-filled one hour show, the sound a little
bass-heavy at the front of the stage where I was standing but otherwise nothing to complain about, Carl making extra points with the German audience thanks to his announcements in perfectly understandable German (I've seen many acts try but rarely were they as good as Carl), Carl kissing the cameraman, Carl and Tony being spellbound for a moment by what seemed to be an enormous insect flying across the stage, Carl namechecking a certain "Bruce" not once, not twice, but surely half a dozen times during the show (and no, he did *not* mean Bruce Springsteen ;-)) and not least of all we heard a lot of great music, if I'm not mistaken 19 songs in all, Carl's voice excelling especially on the ballad-type songs (the opening of "Blowing in the wind" could become a classic, if only...) and the harmonies were spot on throughout the whole show plus of course as always the great musicianship of all members.

The concert was over all too quickly which is always a good sign. The short
version of "It's in Everyone of Us" which closed the show was a fitting finale and finally a more "recent" song and a sign that The Hollies didn't stop when the 60s turned into the 70s.

As should be clear by now, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and if I had been a bit skeptical about Carl Wayne being the right man to front the Hollies, well, those doubts are gone now. He *is* the right man for the job and a truly excellent frontman, not forgetting he's great singer with a voice ideally suited for the emotional ballad-type songs that imho always were The Hollies forte but also capable of delivering faster pop-songs.

I could add some minor criticism regarding the song-selection which was imho way too heavy on 60s songs and not exactly showing a good knowledge on which songs were hits here in Germany and which weren't.

Personally I would have loved to hear "Soldier's Song" and "The Baby" (both of which were sadly cut from the set, as was "Sandy" or the new song "How do I survive", well, basically everything post-"Air") but too many critical points would give a false impression and lead away from the fact that it was a very good show by a band that is (not least of all thanks to Carl) still a great band and well worth seeing after all these years. Should they decide to come to my "area" again, I know who surely will be there.

Best wishes from Germany
Frank
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