UK Autumn tour flyer photo

[gee]

The UK Autumn tour flyer is up on the official website - it only shows FIVE band members...leaving out high harmony vocalist/guitarist Steve Lauri 

some fans on the official Hollies forum have understandably duly questioned & queried this and were accused of 'jumping the gun' by the webmaster saying it's 'only a flyer' etc

but it IS nevertheless currently still up on the official website thus any enquiring general public - beyond the fanbase - will be led to thinking they are a FIVE piece group

surely for a band world famous for their THREE part vocal harmonies the promotional pic really OUGHT to include the key high harmony vocalist....yes ? - if anyone can't be fitted in then it's NOT a suitable photo to use for promotional purposes - is it ??

and Steve Lauri is far MORE important to their vocal sound than the keyboardist is surely ?    

I can't help but think this is all a bit substandard PR again...

would Graham Nash or Terry Sylvester have been 'left out' of Hollies promotional pics years ago...??

I see Ian Parker never made the 'We Got The Tunes' cover pic either....

while years ago the  'Carousel' editors were forever  'airbrushing out' poor Eric Haydock from vintage pics he WAS originally in...!!!

whatever, once again The Hollies seem (to me) to be being poorly depicted...

[Tony Wilkinson]

Wouldn't worry about it, I've long since failed to recognize any of the peripheral members of this once great band......

[Deleted]

Maybe Ray Stiles will sing the high harmonies? He's probably capable.

Would be nice if Alan Coates returned, though it's unlikely. Always liked his Nash-like voice.

[JamesT]

Steve Lauri seems to be doing a fair bit on his own these days (and Peter Howarth to an extent) - I wonder if there's more to this than meets the eye. And yes, Gee, substandard again!

I'm sensing a little bit of a reduction in touring these days - might make it along to The Sage show.

[Stranger]

It kinda does just look like they used a photograph where Lauri is just standing out of shot... it doesn't look that sinister to me!

[gee]

I wasn't saying that it's "sinister" at all...just 'naff'

would they have left say George Harrison out of a Beatles promotional concert photo...?

If you have 'X' amount of members in a band surely it's a good idea to include ALL of them in any promotional photo ?

would they have done  a promotional pic of say The Rickfors Hollies...and leave Sylvester or Calvert out of it ?

for a piece of 'band promotion' material to attract the wider public it's pretty third rate really (and to leave a band member out of the 'We Got The Tunes' cover shot was similarly daft too)

Sadly The Hollies have a track record for weak promotion - look at the dreadful album cover photos - 'Hollies Sing Hollies', 'A Crazy Steal', 'Hollies Live Hits' etc...seems nothing has improved much

[stuball]

I think the smart thing in promotional pics, is to place Tony and Bobby front and centre. As for their other four sidekicks, I suppose by rights they should all be present, but if they're not, the world isn't going to lose any sleep over it. With the current 'Hollies' career at such a low ebb, I can't see the omission of some current replacement of a replacement of the guy who replaced someone else, amounting to a hill of beans. It's a tempest in a teapot: good for stirring up comments on the 'other' Hollies site, but hardly newsworthy.

[gee]

Low ebb ? - Actually that just isn't the truth as the international touring HAS picked up (it WAS going downhill latterly with Allan Clarke in the late nineties...very much so), with the recent shows 'down under' getting rave reviews plus European touring still going well for them...so the 'low ebb' insult  is completely inaccurate and frankly just sounds like SOME older fans perennial gripes !
(or really their wishes for the current band to flop ?)

- the fact is the wider public STILL likes the band in it's current incarnation, and releases are continuing both of new material and vintage !

Following the successful tour of Aus/New Zealand a Scandinavian tour is set for later this year, and a spring tour of the UK for 2015 has been announced

'On A Carousel' was featured in a new episode of the hit TV show 'Mad Men' recently and LCW was featured in another current TV show too....

while there possibly may be further releases in the pipeline....we shall see

Bobby Elliott is songwriting - I understand  Bobby & Peter Howarth have penned a song together, while I've heard Tony Hicks may even be songwriting again too...hopefully some new original material (much needed) may emerge for the band to record

in addition Peter Howarth & Steve Lauri have both issued solo albums too, with their own songs included.

The group still successfully headline their OWN touring show - never falling down into the 'Silver Sixties' nostagia package...which says ALOT for the current incarnation who have been going for a decade now !

some folk do it seems  want the current version to flop it appears - hence we have had some TEN YEARS  now of repeated online 'same old' bleats and negativity

- po faced  'belittlements' endlessly  repeated over and over from the 'same old same old' small bunch - sounding like a 'stuck record'  !

- but like it or not it's NOT a viewpoint shared by everybody in the wider public  by any means....

while equally messrs Rickfors, Sylvester, Wayne, etc, could all be derogitavely just termed as  being 'mere replacements' IF one chose to put such an unkind  belittling term on them like that of course...

[Tony Wilkinson]

There are as many original Hollies in the current line up as there are surviving members of The Beatles........but Paul and Ringo do not purport to be The Beatles, and that is my problem, Had Tony and Bobby formed a new group and performed their new stuff along with a few Hollies numbers under a new band name then I would have wished them all the luck in the world, but they AIN'T The Hollies................................ 

[Deleted]

I must admit I don't feel as strongly against this as I used to do (if people want to see the current band and they have a great time doing so then who am I to complain?). Having said that, they're playing in Canterbury just 15 miles away on their next tour, but I have no inclination to see them.

[anthony]

Strange all the knockers, I still enjoy seeing the Hollies, why would Bobby and Tony want to start a group under a new name, Tony is on all the recordings, Bobby joined soon after the start.

In Australia this year all the shows were sold out or very close to it. The UK shows have been the same. From what I believe Allan's voice had really gone towards the end, the shows must

have been shocking, I heard he mimed to some songs. I find the shows now a fun night of music, a few newer songs are mixed in with the classics.

I believe if they are as bad as some believe people would stop going, they would be playing have filled venues.

Maybe they should have stopped when Eric left, or Graham. I'm pleased I can go and see the Hollies these days.

[Deleted]

Rubbish!  Whoever told you that was lying.  I saw them on Allan's very last tour in the autumn of 1999, and although they'd lowered the keys of many songs he sang more than ok throughout... and he certainly did NOT mime!  The show certainly wasn't shocking, and in addition to being musically fine included far more adventurous setlists than they've done since then. Here's the show that I went to:

www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-hollies/1999/winter-gardens-margate-england-7bc5ae28.html

[johnt]

I'm afraid there was something not quite right at that time. I've been following The Hollies since the sixties and been to many, many concerts since then and at one concert I went to in the late 1990s, I distinctly remember hearing Graham Nash's high harmonies on Carrie Anne so there must have been some 'trickery' somewhere.

Let me say here that Allan Clarke was the best vocalist ever in my opinion and it was so sad that his voice went in the way it did. Should the Hollies have packed up then?

I, for one, am pleased they carried on - firstly with Carl Wayne until his untimely death and then for the last 10 years with Peter Howarth.

As long as Tony and Bobby are with the band, they are still The Hollies to me and I will continue going to see them, along with thousands of other happy fans.

 

[Deleted]

Definitely not. I made an audio recording (sadly lost) of their 1999 Margate gig which I replayed many times. What you heard was Alan Coates.

[Stranger]

I thought it was well established that at the end of Allan's tenure that not everything he was doing on stage was "live".

[Deleted]

May 19, 2014 9:26:45 GMT Stranger said:

I thought it was well established that at the end of Allan's tenure that not everything he was doing on stage was "live".

Certainly looked and sounded live to me, though other singers (Alan and / or Ray) sometimes sang in unison with him.

[knut]

This was just the back of the flyer. See front here: 2014 UK flyer front 

In fact, the flyer front for the Oslo 2010 show featured just 4 members, but all on the rear side.

[anthony]

May 18, 2014 23:19:28 GMT peterc said:

Rubbish!  Whoever told you that was lying.  I saw them on Allan's very last tour in the autumn of 1999, and although they'd lowered the keys of many songs he sang more than ok throughout... and he certainly did NOT mime!  The show certainly wasn't shocking, and in addition to being musically fine included far more adventurous setlists than they've done since then. Here's the show that I went to:

www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-hollies/1999/winter-gardens-margate-england-7bc5ae28.html

You are correct as you were there, I can only go by what I have been told. All I can say if

things were going fine then why did Allan leave the hollies, even he said he couldn't do the songs justice anymore, I heard him say that on a recent radio interview.  Believe me I wished Allan was still fronting the hollies, the song list look great, I would imagine they sang along to peter sellers on after the fox and the same with Peggy sue, to me that say something. 

[anthony]

Thanks Knut, nice to get back on topic.

[JamesT]

Peter - I saw them at the start of that month and didn't detect any miming from Allan or trickery beyond that provided by way of synth sounds from Ian Parker. There was something of an 'atmosphere' detectable, though. Incidentally, the setlist is wrong in two respects - Don't Let Me Down was the 1974 Allan Clarke original (featuring AC on acoustic with Tony and Alan) and from memory, Not That Way at all wasn't acoustic. I remember being astounded to hear these two superb songs just dropped in to the set! I've been trying to add all the gigs I've attended to Setlist FM (www.setlist.fm/concerts/JamesT if you're interested - still some to add), but it's quite a 'clunky' system. The days of the setlists being radically different and really inventive seems to have passed. I was a tad disappointed by the rather uninspired setlist for the 50th anniversary...something really special could have been done - but wasn't. I remember the wonderful stage backdrops around the time of Carl Wayne (there's a great photograph by Rob Haywood of the guys singing in front of a photograph of planet Earth which was for 'It's In Everyone Of Us' - really beautiful). Ultimately, they do what they want and they still get the punters.

I've now seen the current lineup about a dozen times and have really enjoyed the period after things 'bedded in' - I was pretty horrified at the first Howarth-era gig I saw in Ayr, and others were too. The musicianship is still top drawer and it's a fine evening of entertainment, well worth the cash. You will all remember how vociferous I was in the early days of the current band (!), but my opinion has mellowed a bit. I really like 'Then Now Always' as an album - despite supposedly being pissed off by my comments and those of others, it's amazing how the band addressed nearly every single shortfall with that follow up to 'Staining Powder'. Even my opinion of this album has mellowed a bit...what let's it down is the production first and foremost, but then again, in some cases you really can't polish a turd.

Quite a short Autumn tour this year - hope to make it along to Gateshead or maybe Harrogate.

May 18, 2014 23:19:28 GMT peterc said:

Rubbish!  Whoever told you that was lying.  I saw them on Allan's very last tour in the autumn of 1999, and although they'd lowered the keys of many songs he sang more than ok throughout... and he certainly did NOT mime!  The show certainly wasn't shocking, and in addition to being musically fine included far more adventurous setlists than they've done since then. Here's the show that I went to:

www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-hollies/1999/winter-gardens-margate-england-7bc5ae28.html

[Deleted]

May 19, 2014 16:25:13 GMT JamesT said:

 Incidentally, the setlist is wrong in two respects - Don't Let Me Down was the 1974 Allan Clarke original (featuring AC on acoustic with Tony and Alan) and from memory, Not That Way at all wasn't acoustic. I remember being astounded to hear these two superb songs just dropped in to the set! 

I seem to also recall them doing a fine version of 'When I'm Dead and Gone' in Margate in 1999.  So a very interesting setlist indeed.

[JamesT]

May 19, 2014 21:40:29 GMT peterc said:

May 19, 2014 16:25:13 GMT JamesT said:

 Incidentally, the setlist is wrong in two respects - Don't Let Me Down was the 1974 Allan Clarke original (featuring AC on acoustic with Tony and Alan) and from memory, Not That Way at all wasn't acoustic. I remember being astounded to hear these two superb songs just dropped in to the set! 

I seem to also recall them doing a fine version of 'When I'm Dead and Gone' in Margate in 1999.  So a very interesting setlist indeed.

That was a great addition to the set when I saw them the previous year.  There was also a great version of 'Horses Through A Rainstorm' - it was around about this time it was first released on the 'At Abbey Road' series.