The Hollies - Concert Review

Preston Guild Hall, 26^th April 2003 - by Spev Lane

Someone ought to have told The Hollies that it’s not polite to keep a lady waiting. On the day of the concert I counted how long I’d been dreaming of this event, from the day I found out there’d be a gig at the Preston Guild Hall, to the cancellation of the original gig due to Carl Wayne’s illness, to the actual date of the gig and realised that I’d waited fourteen months. That’s a long time to wait for six geezers just to come on stage, sing a few songs and wow the audience!

There was a buzz all around the auditorium before the gig old friends and new friends meeting for the first time, as some of us had known each other over the internet for a while and were planning on meeting up at the gig. We were all there for one thing, and as soon as the lights went down we knew we were all going to get it an absolutely amazing night’s entertainment.
The band firstly launched into a personal favourite, Long Cool Woman, before warming the audience up with some more old favourites like Here I Go Again.

It was amazing being in the same room as the people who had helped shape four decades worth of music. Who cared that not all of them had been in the band since 1964? If everyone was going to be so pedantic about all bands retaining the original members, then where would The Beatles have got to? Indeed, if Vic Farrell and Don Rathbone were still in The Hollies, would they have been more than a one-hit wonder, if that?t’s all academic now, all that matters is that the six men on stage that night were worthy of being members of such a prolific band, each one had earned their place there by their sheer talent.

Alan Coates performed a tear-jerkingly beautiful version of Butterfly, Ian Parker became the World Number One Accordion Player Whilst Wearing A Miner’s Lamp On His Head for the evening, Ray Stiles had to be applauded for spending the evening wrestling with a bass guitar and a stuffed Old English Sheepdog named Shep! that was quite possibly twice the size of him.

As for Carl Wayne’s voice, well, that was the second most perfect sound of the evening aside from Bobby’s lovely floor tom rolls of course.

One of the many highlights of the evening was the beautiful Soldier’s Song, which Carl sang with great emotion and showed off his terrific vocal skills. I feel we really ought to mention Bobby Elliott’s fantastic drumming at this point, because as far as I can recall, nobody on stage seemed to give Bobby a mention, even though he’d drummed beautifully for the whole evening! This was particularly evident in Soldier’s Song where he played with such sensitivity and yet such strangely tense and restrained strength it brought tears to the eyes and sent shivers up the spine.

Another fantastic display of his drumming was in the superb Blowin’ In The Wind and of course in Bobby and Tony’s duet on banjo and drums just before Stop Stop Stop. Absolutely astounding. It really had to be seen and heard to be believed.

@

Spev, Gordon Jamieson and Peej

@Another highlight that cannot be overlooked was the stunning electric sitar solo Tony delighted us all with just before they performed The Baby. As we watched him play, we forgot anyone else was in the room aside from Tony and the sitar. He lost himself in the music so much that he drew us in with him. Funnily enough, it was Tony who broke the spell by bursting out laughing at the end and telling Carl that he’d put him off!
You’d think that by the time they’d been on stage for two hours they’d be absolutely exhausted after all that exertion, but no, they’d only just begun! Tony announced that they were still ready to rock and true to his word they began a fantastic rendition of The Move’s I Can Hear The Grass Grow which had everyone in the building up on their feet and dancing away.

They continued with Mud’s Tiger Feet, and more and more people seemed to be flocking to the front of the stage to dance their socks off.

After they’d got our pulses soaring with that little lot, they calmed everything down by singing He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. This is the song that everyone, Hollies fan or not, knows all the words to and has been played on radio, TV, countless Greatest Hits albums and more besides, and the song sounded just as wonderful as the first time I’d heard it way back in 1987! Regardless of what exactly made it so special, the song was just the perfect touch to a perfect evening.

We thought that would be it, but happily they left us gasping for breath after singing the first verse of the stunningly gorgeous It’s In Everyone of Us.

Then, sadly, we all knew that it was really time for them to go, and off they went. Gone, certainly never to be forgotten and they’d undoubtedly left the vast majority counting down the hours until their next Hollies gig

By Spev Lane

Setlist

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