Post by Gralto on Jan 17, 2016 15:19:15 GMT
First up happy new year to all and sundry who continue to read and contribute to this Hollies discussion forum. What with the recent passing of Bowie, Lemmy, Stevie Wright down here in Oz (Easybeats lead singer) and then throw in the 35th anniversary of Lennon's assassination and it's been a pretty sobering time this past month in general for lovers of music past.
Lemmy's (aka Ian Kilmister) passing reminded me of an article I had read where he mentioned being on the same bill as The Hollies. This extract is derived from an interview with John Robb, evidently done around 2000. The full interview can still be found online but the relevant Hollies recollection is excerpted here – a word of warning, there is some strong language used here:
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IK: Manchester was great, like Liverpool there was a lot of bands. I knew the Hollies - who was that other band, Christ! Er, the Herman mob - Herman and The Hermits. We used to hang around in that guitar shop on Oxford Road, Barratts.
We played with Manfred Man with the Motown Sect but not the other bands. The Rockin’ Vicars always topped the bill, except one night when we played the Free Trade Hall with the fucking Hollies. It’s a long story but our drummer succeeded in being a complete cunt and destroyed the stage under himself and fell into the hole (laughs). It was a lesson you would have thought he would have profited from but I’m afraid not.
The Hollies played first; we were supporting. Ciggy (Ciggy Shaw, drummer) insisted we went on last and the Hollies didn’t give a fuck. They just played anyway. [However, when we went on later] the legs of the bass drum went after two drum beats and whole stage went up and he [Ciggy] fell in (laughs).
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[At present, I'm yet to determine precisely when the above Hollies/Rockin's Vicars gig supposedly took place]
I was also interested to read in Andy Beebles’ interview with John Lennon two days before he died (6 Dec 1980) the following passage. I have to say I was impressed that Lennon was still thinking about The Hollies even after an exile from the UK for a decade. There aren’t many quotes by Lennon about them so I was very surprised to see them name checked here. This from ‘The Lennon Tapes’ book (BBC Publications, 1981, page 53:
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JL: So the Plastic Ono Band is a conceptual band that never was, there never had been any members of it and the advert said “You Are The Plastic Ono Band”. So I just want to clear that, it wasn’t reforming a new band like a Wings or a Hollies, or whatever, where you have a name and you belong to it.
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In more upbeat news, spoke to original Hollies drummer Don Rathbone recently. Though diagnosed with MS many decades previous, it’s nice to know that the oldest of all the original Hollies members continues to be very active and otherwise remains in good health.
The current Hollies meanwhile, show no signs of calling it a day either. A quick scan of their booked gigs for 2016 already reveals 26 gigs across the year with more being added. This includes visits to Sweden, Germany and Norway along with the usual jaunts around the UK.
2016 will also be the year that I finally put out my little eBook of various articles on the band. It’s still a little way off but it has been progressing. Slowly! It’s presently at about 50,000 words and is being constantly refined. I hope to have a more detailed update in the next month including when it will be hopefully released. I’m still sourcing photos, some of which I may need to licence from photo libraries like Getty Images. This will cost me a bit and may lead me to launching a small kickstarter campaign to fund their acquisition. I’ll weigh all this up and post more details if this is required.
Hope everyone was able to spend some time with family and friends during the festive season.
Best wishes
Simon
Lemmy's (aka Ian Kilmister) passing reminded me of an article I had read where he mentioned being on the same bill as The Hollies. This extract is derived from an interview with John Robb, evidently done around 2000. The full interview can still be found online but the relevant Hollies recollection is excerpted here – a word of warning, there is some strong language used here:
___________________________________
IK: Manchester was great, like Liverpool there was a lot of bands. I knew the Hollies - who was that other band, Christ! Er, the Herman mob - Herman and The Hermits. We used to hang around in that guitar shop on Oxford Road, Barratts.
We played with Manfred Man with the Motown Sect but not the other bands. The Rockin’ Vicars always topped the bill, except one night when we played the Free Trade Hall with the fucking Hollies. It’s a long story but our drummer succeeded in being a complete cunt and destroyed the stage under himself and fell into the hole (laughs). It was a lesson you would have thought he would have profited from but I’m afraid not.
The Hollies played first; we were supporting. Ciggy (Ciggy Shaw, drummer) insisted we went on last and the Hollies didn’t give a fuck. They just played anyway. [However, when we went on later] the legs of the bass drum went after two drum beats and whole stage went up and he [Ciggy] fell in (laughs).
____________________________________
[At present, I'm yet to determine precisely when the above Hollies/Rockin's Vicars gig supposedly took place]
I was also interested to read in Andy Beebles’ interview with John Lennon two days before he died (6 Dec 1980) the following passage. I have to say I was impressed that Lennon was still thinking about The Hollies even after an exile from the UK for a decade. There aren’t many quotes by Lennon about them so I was very surprised to see them name checked here. This from ‘The Lennon Tapes’ book (BBC Publications, 1981, page 53:
_____________________________________
JL: So the Plastic Ono Band is a conceptual band that never was, there never had been any members of it and the advert said “You Are The Plastic Ono Band”. So I just want to clear that, it wasn’t reforming a new band like a Wings or a Hollies, or whatever, where you have a name and you belong to it.
_______________________________________
In more upbeat news, spoke to original Hollies drummer Don Rathbone recently. Though diagnosed with MS many decades previous, it’s nice to know that the oldest of all the original Hollies members continues to be very active and otherwise remains in good health.
The current Hollies meanwhile, show no signs of calling it a day either. A quick scan of their booked gigs for 2016 already reveals 26 gigs across the year with more being added. This includes visits to Sweden, Germany and Norway along with the usual jaunts around the UK.
2016 will also be the year that I finally put out my little eBook of various articles on the band. It’s still a little way off but it has been progressing. Slowly! It’s presently at about 50,000 words and is being constantly refined. I hope to have a more detailed update in the next month including when it will be hopefully released. I’m still sourcing photos, some of which I may need to licence from photo libraries like Getty Images. This will cost me a bit and may lead me to launching a small kickstarter campaign to fund their acquisition. I’ll weigh all this up and post more details if this is required.
Hope everyone was able to spend some time with family and friends during the festive season.
Best wishes
Simon
