What if Bobby had joined Wings?

[thejanitor]

The story about Bobby turning down an offer from Paul and Linda in the early 70s to drum for them (showing his utmost dedication to The Hollies 😊) has been mentioned here a few times, but what does everyone think might have happened had he agreed? Would it have meant the end of The Hollies or them finding a replacement? Knowing Wings went through a number of line-up changes themselves, would they have kept Bobby long-term? Would he subsequently be even better known today? Would love to hear your thoughts. ☺

[calvertbesseralseric]

I've also thought about this a bit - my suspicion is that it would've led to the end of the band, or at least a long-term hiatus. I have to confess I don't know the exact timescale of Paul's offer, but I take it that it transpired either around the time of Wild Life's recording in 1971 or the departure of Denny Seiwell in early 1973. With Allan eager to leave the band, or having already departed, Tony beginning to branch out into production work, and the only other early member in Bobby all willing to go their separate ways, I imagine the band would split at this time - in addition, their slight commercial fade in the early 70s with singles like Hey Willy would encourage this.

My suspicion is also that Bobby would have stuck around a good deal longer than any of Paul's other 70s drummers. He seemed to be more than willing to take a background role despite his musical virtuosity, which was obviously a point of contention between the perfectionist McCartney and Seiwell, who wanted a more participatory band environment, and he never struck me as being half as bellicose as Geoff Britton by all accounts was, nearly getting into fights with Linda! In addition, Bobby even today has more fire and power to his drumming than Joe English, who always struck me as quite an insipid player and frankly inferior to Paul on the drums. For all these reasons and more, I think he would have stuck around - he presumably knew Paul fairly well and got on with him, and was at just the right level of musical ability and personal anonymity, like Denny Laine, to have a successful time in Wings. The one issue I could see is a lifestyle clash between the rather hippyish McCartneys and Bobby's comparative traditionalism, but he played along reasonably well with the ridiculous outfits and psychedelic stylings of 1967-68!

In many ways, I think this would've been preferable to the slow demise of the Clarke-led Hollies through the 70s, 80s and 90s - Allan would've been free to commit to his solo work, presumably giving us many more albums on the level of I Wasn't Born Yesterday and Legendary Heroes, and Tony would've, in my opinion, gone on to become either a great sideman for any rock band at the time looking for a guitarist at the time or an all-time great session musician. That, to me, sounds like a far more satisfying end to the Hollies story than the slow decline in commitment and success we witnessed instead.

[baz]

Apr 12, 2021 11:29:28 GMT calvertbesseralseric said:

In many ways, I think this would've been preferable to the slow demise of the Clarke-led Hollies through the 70s, 80s and 90s - Allan would've been free to commit to his solo work, presumably giving us many more albums on the level of I Wasn't Born Yesterday and Legendary Heroes, and Tony would've, in my opinion, gone on to become either a great sideman for any rock band at the time looking for a guitarist at the time or an all-time great session musician. That, to me, sounds like a far more satisfying end to the Hollies story than the slow decline in commitment and success we witnessed instead.

Hmmm. An interesting thought which in principle I agree with. Only problem is we wouldn't have had the Hollies' 74 album which is one of their very best. That's where it all ends for me as after that... to think had the Hollies gone out on top with their biggest hit single and a classic album... again, wasn't to be.

As for Bobby in Wings... I think you highlighted the biggest probable problem - Paul and Linda's rather "relaxed" lifestyle. I don't think Bobby would have put up with much of their stoned ethics for very long. I think his experiences in 1967 was what caused some of the issues in 1968 as he, Tony and to a lesser extent Bernie decided enough was enough of putting up with Graham and Allan's stoned excursions and steered the band back towards a more uniform and disciplined direction. So, Bobby would have been fighting a losing battle with the McCartney's!

[sandy]

Interesting to mull over! I do suspect,though,that as you said, the lifestyle clash would have been monumental, and not sure Bob, loving his small jazz clubs and pubs to play in, would have settled easily into stadium settings.