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Post by anthony on Nov 13, 2019 22:34:27 GMT
The exposure that 'Jeff Lynne's ELO' got the other week was phenomenal. Apart from the title track, the rest is utterly dull and uninspired and the sonic quality of the recording is very poor. That didn't stop it getting to #1! Sadly, I don't think Allan's album would get show producers as excited as the one by JLELO, which is a much bigger act. All very frustrating given what a superb album 'Resurgence' is, together with the interesting backstory. And that's it in a nutshell really. Just suppose The Hollies had just released a new album at the same time as Allan's. Which of the two acts would BBC Radio choose to play? They'd play The Hollies based on their name and legacy as more people know their name than they do Allan. It'd be a replay of 1972 in a way as I'll bet The Hollies got far more airplay and exposure than Allan did with his first solo album. But then again, let's pose the question - is Allan in this expecting large sales and exposure? I think not. I think he's real happy to have a new album out there available for all who want it. BMG investing in him at his age is very surprising and heartening too, but if Allan isn't going to tour then that's not gonna generate many sales and so on. Any exposure Allan gets I would imagine for him would be seen as a pleasant bonus. There are many other names from his era who have released albums over the last 30 years to complete indifference to the degree I wouldn't discover they existed until long after, so the fact Allan's return has generated the coverage and exposure it has is great! With respect to Allan Clarke, for most non Hollies fans, Allan would be just thought of as an old pop singer from the 60's. We Hollies fans know that's far from the truth, one of the great voices in music. But to younger generations Allan would be of no interest thus could not imagine he would get air play. The people I work with in their early 30's are into music where the singer has a guttural sound, shocking sounding.
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Post by cameron on Nov 13, 2019 23:42:28 GMT
I had a friend who worked on a building in Manchester and the plan was to have some artwork created for the office hallways depicting a different influential Manchester band on each floor of the office block and no one in the meeting knew who the Hollies were and seemed dumbfounded that my friend should suggest that they were the most important band for consideration!
I think it's sad how some of our favourite artists can have a "resurgence" years later and it pass people by. Donovan did 'Beat Cafe' in 2004 that sank without a trace and its hands down perhaps the most brilliant comeback album by anyone. It picks up right where 'Sunshine Superman' was heading, exploring a jazzier side of folk. His voice is exactly as you remember it, his guitar playing is exactly as you remember is, his band are as tight as anything and the songs are pure Donovan, but with a contemporary sound. But on the other hand, all someone like Paul Weller or Roger Waters have to do is sneeze on record and people will buy it and it'll race up the charts. I couldn't make it through either of their latest solo LPs as they're just monotonous. Allan Clarke has come up with an album of superbly crafted songs with very poetic and vivid lyrics, yet perhaps as expected, the album has failed to set the world on fire.
I'm really interested to know the sales figures of 'Resurgence'. I know the signed copies on Amazon sold out, but they usually have only around 500-750 signed copies of anything. And it gets released officially in America this week. I was a bit disappointed that Germany got it two weeks early, compared to his native UK, but then again, Germany have always been the Hollies' biggest supporter. From the early 1970s, a lot of their stuff got released there first.
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albatros
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albatros
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Post by albatros on Nov 14, 2019 13:44:47 GMT
Yes Cameron - The Hollies had theire greatest sucdess in the 70th here in Germany. Sandy, I`m down, Magic woman touch, The Baby, Write on, Gambler, all placed on the Germany single charts. In England at this time - NOZHING on the single charts - after THE BABY. They also had greeat success at this time at the Netherlands.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2019 14:54:49 GMT
Yes Cameron - The Hollies had theire greatest sucdess in the 70th here in Germany. Sandy, I`m down, Magic woman touch, The Baby, Write on, Gambler, all placed on the Germany single charts. In England at this time - NOZHING on the single charts - after THE BABY. In the UK after 'The Baby', 'The Day that Curly Billy Shot Down Crazy Sam McGee' got to No. 24, and then 'The Air That I Breathe' got to No. 2.
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Post by stuball on Nov 14, 2019 15:40:18 GMT
I had a friend who worked on a building in Manchester and the plan was to have some artwork created for the office hallways depicting a different influential Manchester band on each floor of the office block and no one in the meeting knew who the Hollies were and seemed dumbfounded that my friend should suggest that they were the most important band for consideration! I think it's sad how some of our favourite artists can have a "resurgence" years later and it pass people by. Donovan did 'Beat Cafe' in 2004 that sank without a trace and its hands down perhaps the most brilliant comeback album by anyone. It picks up right where 'Sunshine Superman' was heading, exploring a jazzier side of folk. His voice is exactly as you remember it, his guitar playing is exactly as you remember is, his band are as tight as anything and the songs are pure Donovan, but with a contemporary sound. But on the other hand, all someone like Paul Weller or Roger Waters have to do is sneeze on record and people will buy it and it'll race up the charts. I couldn't make it through either of their latest solo LPs as they're just monotonous. Allan Clarke has come up with an album of superbly crafted songs with very poetic and vivid lyrics, yet perhaps as expected, the album has failed to set the world on fire. Cameron, re your first paragraph: I'm not surprised that today, no one in general knows who The Hollies are, but to find out that even in their 'home town' they're a non-entity, really takes the cake! But I suppose you can't be held up for consideration if no one has ever heard of you. As far as people passing by an artist's 'resurgence', it appears if said artist is not from the 'APPROVED' list of 'First Division' stars, their later work is of no account and definitely not newsworthy. Obviously acts like The Hollies(Allan Clarke) and Donovan belong to the 'Second Division' or if you like, the 'poor side of town'. Good enough for playing an old hit or two of theirs, but of no inherent value in themselves. It has always struck me as head-shakingly ironic, that the very same people who claim to despise snobbery in society in all its forms, turn out to be the most obnoxious snobs of all when it comes to the 'Rock Pantheon' of who's who.
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Post by gee on Nov 14, 2019 17:22:43 GMT
just ask yourself this;
would it bother Tony Hicks that no one in Manchester remembers The Hollies now ?
I doubt it, nor would it really bother Allan or Bobby that much I suspect - they might like to be known but it likely wouldn't bother them that much if not and say the likes of Oasis, Joy Division even 10cc eclipse The Hollies as the most famous Manchester outfits now
even if in terms of the number of chart placed singles and albums worldwide The Hollies knock 'em all for six...!
when 'Carousel' once did a fans get together only ex-Hollies Graham Nash and Terry Sylvester sent any 'goodwill messages' - none of the then current band bothered
Allan moaned in 1988 about being recognised once again in his local supermarket after 'He Ain't Heavy' made no.1
only Graham Nash in the sixties really pushed and plugged the band to any great degree, even if re his hanging around with the 'in' crowd and getting quoted in the music press alot etc
the others were always quite happy to let Nash do all the 'PR' stuff pretty much by himself as later Clarke was happy to have Hicks run the group he had co-founded and just wanted to front but never lead The Hollies as such
hence they never did anything much beyond make records and play concerts which made them a great deal of money and was what they mostly wanted - success on THEIR terms
now Tony and Bobby are happy to lead a nostalgia act in truth cashing in on '20 Golden Greats' essentially
which explains why as a band The Hollies never had any great identity as such, nor anything controversial to make them newsworthy etc, and minus anything new on the musical front have slipped from wider public view even in Manchester
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Post by knut on Nov 14, 2019 19:31:09 GMT
This was an unexpectedly harsh comment Gee. Why is it so negative to try to let the music speak for itself and avoid PR scandals that the Beatles and Stones and Who produced all the time?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2019 19:45:21 GMT
I've spent a couple of long weekends in Liverpool over the past year, and there's little even there on anyone other than The Beatles. Sure, there are statues of Billy Fury and Cilla Black, but there's nothing on the other Mersey greats such as The Searchers and Gerry and The Pacemakers, nor The Real Thing (the biggest home-grown soul act of the 70s), nor Frankie Goes To Hollywood (the first act to equal Gerry and The Pacemakers' record of achieving No. 1s with their first three singles).
With occasional exceptions, this country is very poor at celebrating it's musical heritage on a local level. How many people under 40 in Tottenham today have even heard of The Dave Clark Five?
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Post by baz on Nov 14, 2019 20:17:15 GMT
I've spent a couple of long weekends in Liverpool over the past year, and there's little even there on anyone other than The Beatles. Sure, there are statues of Billy Fury and Cilla Black, but there's nothing on the other Mersey greats such as The Searchers and Gerry and The Pacemakers, nor The Real Thing (the biggest home-grown soul act of the 70s), nor Frankie Goes To Hollywood (the first act to equal Gerry and The Pacemakers' record of achieving No. 1s with their first three singles). You're right about Liverpool. It's Beatles all the way which OK, is fine and brings in tourists from the world over but Liverpool also has a very rich heritage of music over the decades which even the R+R HOF pretends never existed. The fact that Terry Sylvester is still the 5th Scouser in the HOF is shocking as Terry is deeply proud to be inducted and has grumbled about other fine acts not being inducted. It reminds me of a remark Jon Povey of The Pretty Things made in an interview on the "SF Sorrow at Abbey Road" DVD where he had reminisced about working at Abbey Road in the golden days, alluded to the amazing history of the place but with a tinge of annoyance said "And now... it's pretty much... well, a shrine to The Beatles" in a manner of disgust as indeed the legends that recorded there are countless but their contributions to history count for nothing now. Last time I was in Liverpool was last year after an absence of 8 years and I was appalled by what Mathew Street has become. Rather tacky and Beatles-centric on an exploitational level. It was nice to see Cilla's statue proving popular as I witnessed several tourists posing for photos with that which proved the point that there is more than just The Beatles worthy of celebration and commemoration.
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Post by dirtyfaz on Nov 14, 2019 22:57:49 GMT
Knut
I have to say that Gee was sort of correct.
I think since time started music rarely stood on its own. It did need the PR either good or bad. Now way back in the heyday of NME, Melody Maker, Disc Echo etc the Hollies certainly got good coverage.
If PR wasn't an import part of the music scene there would have been a lot of exceptional music no one may never have heard.
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Post by cameron on Nov 17, 2019 21:51:03 GMT
Unlike other artists who had brash PR stunts or even PR men making backhanded deals behind the scenes to sell singles or albums, EMI lost interest in the Hollies after their 1966 "leasing back" deal, giving them a pittance of advertising compared to before, and I was told that the bill for the rest of their advertising was footed by the Hollies Ltd, which is of course the downside to such a lucrative recording deal. But this means that nearly all of the Hollies' music sold purely and simply on its own merit and nothing more.
There was no PR man running to radio stations across America and bribing DJs to play their music to get it into the charts, there was no lucrative TV deal in the UK to get them on Top of the Pops before the single was even released, there was no big PR campaign for each album... the ONLY time they really threw some weight behind the big PR machine was when Graham left and they were scared that they wouldn't survive his departure. 'Sorry Suzanne' has more promo films than any other Hollies single (at the time; of course some of the big "anthems" have been filmed again and again, but I'm referring to specific promo films and TV appearances to back a current chart climbing single), and there's dozens of clips of them performing it on TV all over the world. Likewise, 'Hollies Sing Dylan' got heavy PR and a one hour TV special on the BBC to celebrate. The result? A UK No.2/3 (depending on which chart you reference) single and a No.2 charting LP, their highest studio album chart placing since their debut! Same again in 1976 with 'Live Hits', it got a UK advert on TV, it got to No.4 in the charts and also '20 Golden Greats' in 1978 did phenomenally well, despite a rather bland 30-second advert. I also remember their last big charting compilation 'Midas Touch' had a TV advertising campaign.
To the Hollies' discredit, PR has never been their thing, and it's just as bad today as it's ever been. When the great career spanning boxsets have been announced, there's been a mention of it on Facebook about a month before release and only 'Changin' Times' got a radio appearance from Tony and Bobby on BBC Radio Six. Not like reissues from the likes of the Kinks with huge social media campaigns, email newsletters, interviews, magazine articles, YouTube content, exclusive radio plays, TV interviews... and news came in last week that the recent issue of 'Arthur - or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire' has completely SOLD OUT globally! So the proof is in the pudding, great PR WORKS!
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Post by cameron on Jan 23, 2020 11:14:58 GMT
Allan has signed up with LDP to act as his promotors/PR people (maybe he was watching this thread! lol). You can read the (brief) story here with a new photo of Allan with Lisa Davies and Michael Armstrong, who run the company: www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157602265855310&set=a.10150600709750310&type=3&theaterNot sure if this means that he's finally going to go out on tour or make some TV appearances, it seems that his PR to this point has been managed 'in house'. Although they've done everything by the book, it's failed to have much of an impact, as his Facebook page still has less than 1000 followers. It's frustrating because they've done so well with their content and Hollies fans have been sharing it like crazy, but it's just not reaching the audience that it needs to. Hopefully, with a PR company involved, things might pick up and Allan's profile will rightfully be raised. I'm gutted for him so far that his social media campaign hasn't been more successful because they've done a great job of it, but I think it's not being shared to the right places or containing the right tags to get it noticed.
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Post by baz on Jan 23, 2020 13:36:30 GMT
It's frustrating because they've done so well with their content and Hollies fans have been sharing it like crazy, but it's just not reaching the audience that it needs to. Hopefully, with a PR company involved, things might pick up and Allan's profile will rightfully be raised. I'm gutted for him so far that his social media campaign hasn't been more successful because they've done a great job of it, but I think it's not being shared to the right places or containing the right tags to get it noticed. I didn't even know Allan had returned and was releasing a new album until about mid-September when I saw a curious throwaway remark somewhere else online mentioning it and it took me by surprise, started looking around and found myself back in this fine forum after an absence of many years. Unlike many, I don't watch TV or listen to the radio so pretty much rely on what I find out during my online wanderings and sad to say, I've barely seen any mention of Allan anywhere other than links that have been shared here. It doesn't surprise me in many ways as there is an ageist attitude prevalent across the media and unless you're big league like Jagger or McCartney then they don't wanna know. Lets hope this new PR deal will help start turning things around for Allan.
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Post by JamesT on Jan 23, 2020 22:29:41 GMT
I thought I recognised the names - it was Michael Armstrong who supported Peter Howarth on a solo gig I saw a few years ago!
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Post by JamesT on Feb 9, 2020 19:57:57 GMT
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Post by cameron on Feb 9, 2020 23:05:45 GMT
Here's the full article:
The Hollies’ Allan Clarke: ‘We were on £15 a week and didn’t know how long our success would last’ share Allan Clarke’s new album, Resurgence, is out now on every major platform John Wright 9 FEBRUARY 2020 • 5:00 AM
Allan Clarke, 77, is a singer who found fame in 1963 as co-founder and original lead singer of the Hollies, who had 30 top 40 songs (18 top 10 and two No 1s) in the UK Singles Chart and six top 10 albums (one No 1). He also made eight solo albums (1972-89) and retired from the Hollies in 1999. Today, he lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife of 55 years, Jennifer.
Did your childhood influence your attitude to money? Money wasn’t any problem in the early days because there wasn’t very much of it. I lived in a terraced house in Salford with my mum and dad, four sisters, brother and grandma: three up, three down, one cold tap, toilet, and tin bath in the cellar.
My dad was a labourer who came back from the war and went straight out looking for work. We were a big happy family and never wanted for anything. By 21, I’d worked for seven years doing different jobs.
What was your first job? I left school at 14 and started an apprenticeship in Manchester with Kenyons, famous for making road lamps. I was paid £1, 19s and 11d a week (£37 today), and my bus ride was two-pence each way. It didn’t last long because music meant more to me and Graham [Nash, of the Hollies, and Crosby, Stills & Nash]. When we were about 17, we got fired for going to a holiday camp for a talent contest final when we weren’t supposed to.
When did you see a future in music? Graham and I wanted to be part of rock’n’roll when it came on the scene. We bought guitars and went through numerous groups until 1963, when we were five guys calling ourselves the Hollies for our first gig. Everything was owed to the Beatles, who opened the door for everybody else and we walked through it.
Are you a saver or a spender? I’m not a spender. In the early days, you didn’t get much to spend anyway. When we turned professional, we were on £15 a week, but never knew how long it would last. We had a producer who guided us to what we thought were the right people to look after us, then an agency we weren’t too happy with; then we found another manager.
I married early and bought a really nice house for £6,000 in Disley in Cheshire’s broker belt. Obviously, we were selling records and had enough money to buy it. My wife didn’t want to live all day on her own and decided we should live in London. So we sold that house and bought one in Hampstead Village.
I use credit cards for my company, although, like carrying money around in your pocket, credit cards are going to be a thing of the past and it’ll be a tap of the phone. Things are speeding up. The debit card is for my daily life. I don’t have an Isa.
Have you invested in property? No. The only property I’ve invested in was through my shrewd wife, Jenny, who always decided when it was time for us to move. We were in the London house for three years then decided we needed a bigger house, so we sold it and carried the mortgage on to another house nearby.
We were there for three years and when our second child came along, we moved closer to the Heath. Each house we sold we made more money on, so we could afford to go into a bigger and nicer house each time.
The main reason for leaving the Hollies 20 years ago was my wife got cancer for the second time. So we decided, as we had friends who lived in South Carolina, to buy a ranch house there and sit out our days six months of the year in the sunshine then come back to London, where we had a lock-up house. Fortunately, my wife got through it.
Do you invest in the stock market? I have investments in the FTSE 100. Well actually, I don’t – my wife does. That’s our pension that we both took out 40 years ago on the advice of my accountant. I’ve always been a working man. The money my dad spent was the money he earned. So from him I got it subconsciously that you can’t spend everything today and hope you still have that sort of money afterwards. I’ve never had flashy cars. I take life very slowly and know everything’s going to be OK.
Does money make you happy? Well I suppose yes, if you’ve never been in the position of being unhappy about money. But you see people in the world that haven’t got any money and there are no jobs going and they’re not smiling, are they? You see them in England as well. I feel sorry for people who can’t afford to have a roof over their heads or buy food for their kids. The Government should do something about it. I feel very strongly about that.
Have you done any lucrative TV adverts? There was one when He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, our No 3 UK hit single in 1969, came out for the second time in 1988. We didn’t write that song, but we did perform it. When the advert for Miller Lite beer came out, I wanted the royalties to be paid to Children in Need, but it didn’t work out that way.
They paid the writers for the synchronisation rights, although I’m sure we got something for it and from all the people buying that record again that got us in the charts to No 1 and brought us back into the limelight. I also wrote the song Long Cool Woman, which has been in about 20 films and was No 2 in America in 1972. That’s made life very easy for me.
What are the best and worst things you’ve bought? Worst: in the mid-Seventies I bought a Panther Lima sports car for £3,000 (about £24,000) – very selfish of me. My wife didn’t know I’d bought it. I only had it three months because it kept breaking down. I put it as part-exchange for a Volvo 4x4. Best are the homes we’ve lived in.
Have you ever been ripped off?
Yes. Two or three times. I can’t mention any because the people doing it have families and it wasn’t their fault.
Have you had any odd experiences with money? I was in a fashionable restaurant in London in 1973 and didn’t have much money. I was celebrating a hit I’d written with this person and he said, “Shall we have a bottle of wine?” I said, “Yeah, you choose it”, which he did and I said, “This is on me.” When I got the bill, I saw that it was £200 [about £2,300 today].
Was it cheap to make Resurgence on the GarageBand software? If it’s a hit, it hasn’t cost me anything; and a lot of people are doing that. If you can play the guitar, all you need is a computer and to go on to whatever programme you use.
With the Hollies at Abbey Road it was four-track, then over the years 32-track and there was a fee. Now it’s very expensive because everyone wants the room the Beatles recorded in.
But with everything happening so fast with recording techniques and computerisation, I got my son to show me what GarageBand was because he’d been using it for years. I wanted to record a song and take a demo to somebody and see if they wanted to cover it. Now, after two years, I can mix 30 tracks.
Has streaming increased your royalties significantly? I don’t think so. With things like Spotify or Deezer, I still don’t understand how they divide it. Most of my royalties come the traditional way from the Performing Rights Society.
How has your comeback been, 20 years after retiring? Back then, I was finding it difficult hitting the high notes and hadn’t sung the Hollies’ songs apart from Bus Stop with Graham when we were put into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. I had not sung seriously until a year and a half ago, when I started trying to write songs. Maybe it was too long a break.
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Post by cameron on Feb 16, 2020 1:54:20 GMT
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Post by JamesT on Feb 18, 2020 18:29:44 GMT
Allan is on Steve Wright's show tomorrow afternoon discussing his solo album 'Don't Let Me Down' [sic]. Hopefully he'll get a word in edgeways in between Wright's persistent bouts of verbal diarrhea. Still, good publicity... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fg7t
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Post by JamesT on Feb 19, 2020 16:38:27 GMT
Writing a book AND writing songs for a project with Graham Nash - just wonderful!
A short but sweet interview.
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Post by cameron on Feb 19, 2020 23:22:01 GMT
And “Resurgence” is now number one on the Amazon Movers and Shakers chart! I said ages ago that he should have been on the Steve Wright show when the album first came out! I’m so glad it’s paid off for him! Yet to listen to the interview as I’ve been swamped with work all day, but this is all very exciting news
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Post by Tony Wilkinson on Feb 20, 2020 9:38:54 GMT
Love Grahams solo work and I love Allans and I know The Hollies sound is all about the harmonies but I'm really not sure that I want them back together now as I expect Graham could drown out Allans new unique sound... So, it's a no from me, go it alone Allan I say....
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Post by baz on Feb 20, 2020 10:31:09 GMT
I have been hoping for some Allan and Graham project for a long time. It's interesting to think that back in 1967 when The Hollies were going through their psychedelia phase that they had already known each other for 20 years whilst John and Paul from The Beatles had known one another for 10 years. It's now 73 years since they first met and they finally get round to doing something as a duo. Bring it on. Be very interesting to hear what they'll come up with songs wise and how their harmonies will sound. It may well not come to much but I think many of us will be keen to hear what happens.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2020 10:50:18 GMT
If it happens, I really hope they make a simple duet album with sparse instrumentation. It would be all too tempting for Graham to persuade Tony and Bobby along for a full 'reunion', something which would be a massive mistake imo.
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Post by thejanitor on Feb 21, 2020 0:03:24 GMT
I find myself liking the idea of just Allan and Graham performing as a duo more too, and very excited to hear the outcome of this next project. Right now, I picture them doing some kind of laidback acoustically based Americana album with quite the few nods to Phil and Don. ☺
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Post by cameron on Mar 29, 2020 14:32:56 GMT
Apparently Allan will be on air at 18:20 tonight (29th March) on BBC Radio Suffolk, which you can access on BBC Sounds/iPlayer. I don't have a direct link to the show, but the host of the show posted the announcement on his Twitter feed.
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