It was exactly 45 years ago tonight

[moorlock2003]

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 1972. This was when I looked at a darkened stage and heard an offstage announcement. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Epic recording artists, The Hollies", the classiest introduction of a band I've ever experienced. It was The Hollies at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, a concert that changed me from a fan to a fanatic. (I still rank it as my No. 1 concert, and I've seen LOTS over the years).  

[Gralto]

A great memory for you Moorlock - good stuff. This was the setlist for the Philadelphia show on that tour, from 13 October 1972.

Look What We've Got
Carrie Anne
You Know The Score
Pull Down The Blind
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Words Don't Come Easy
Romany
Touch
Amazing Grace
Bus Stop
On A Carousel
Long Dark Road
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)

Any changes that you can recall to the show you attended nearly 6 weeks later?

[cameron]

I think they started with "Carrie Anne". On the three surviving recordings, they always start with "Carrie Anne". "Look What We've Got" came second on the set.

[dirtyfaz]

I'm with you Moorlock.

I always thought that Mikael added an enormous amount musically the the group. Adding that other musician certain gave them a harder edge with the 2 electric + Terry's electric acoustic guitar. Besides that Mikael could also play keyboards. That allowed Bernie to stay on bass and Tony on guitar. I also happen to like his soulful voice. Instrumentally I believe this was the strongest sounding version of The Hollies. Vocally it was very good but not quiet the same as with Allan.

Ian has been in the band now for 20 odd years now and his keyboards certain cover for many instruments and even strings etc. I am a 2 guitar one bass one drummer kind of person and never been overly fond of keyboard bands. Hence my belief the Rickfors period of the band was their most powerful instrumentally. It is also a reason for not being overly fond of their later 70s albums onwards.

The Rickfors period certainly divides opinions on his time in the band. I believe if you didn't see them live then you missed out.

I do often wonder what the band might have been if they had kept Mikael in the band when Allan came back. Powerful band with an additional singer. I also realise Allan's ego would not have allowed the band to continue with Mikael.

[gee]

tho' in retrospect  them sharing the lead vocals around both on record and in live shows between Allan, Mike, and Terry (Tony too if & when he wanted to sing a song) - becoming more like say a UK/Sweden version of The Eagles with several lead vocalists - just might have in the long run saved Allan Clarke's voice (?)

they could have moved into a more mainstream Rock Acoustic and Electric idiom like CSNY and The Eagles too, again ironic considering Allan's best solo albums saw him like an American Rocker (with some acoustic numbers too) while The Rickfors Hollies clearly were Acoustic folk / Electric rock based and it was the more mainstream pop music that while they could do it was probably their least works compared to the folky and rockier numbers

- so a Clarke/Rickfors co-fronted Hollies clearly could have been quite possible musically if Allan's ego had permitted it plus maybe more crucially if Clarke and Hicks had got on better !

Tony had a glorious chance to allow Allan back PROVIDED he in turn accept Mike as his co-frontman when Allan offered to do that early seventies USA tour, but I suspect they didn't want to expand the group up to a six piece then (rather like say The Eagles adding an additional guitarist Joe Walsh, Beach Boys adding Bruce Johnson etc) very probably as they did not want to split the cash six ways !!

Bringing Clarke back in would have boosted them vocally and on the songwriting front, and importantly taken pressure off Mike allowing him time to fully master English speech and relax more into the band while also removing any comparisons angle between the two lead singers, Clarke doing some of his solo songs plus the older Hollies songs (the sixties material could have been scaled back and over time phased out) while Rickfors sang the Hollies songs from his two albums with them plus 'The Baby'

of course NO WAY would Allan have agreed at any other time but back then when he offered to rejoin for that USA tour Tony had the chance to force Allan to agree to co-fronting the band with Mike - had that happened The Hollies could still have done 'Curly Billy' and 'Air That I Breathe' ...who knows what they might have gone on to achieve ?

and Allan Clarke's voice might still be o.k. now...

[cameron]

I'm a big fan of the Rickfors era Hollies too, but mainly because once again, they had something to prove. They'd settled into a routine by the early 1970s, they'd just write songs and then arrange them to suit the direction that they were heading in. Although "Romany" contains very few self-composed songs, the material was obviously chosen for its AOR sound. Apparently they also pushed back the release three times while they perfected it, and it really shows. Suddenly they'd gone from 'one take specialists' with Ron Richards very much pushing for that, to an independently produced band guided by Alan Parsons as an engineer/arranger and the difference in their sound is staggering. I just WISH they'd have carried on that ethic later on, rather than saying 'hey, lets do a ballad LP - go and find me 12 slow songs. Yep, those will do' as they did later on. They got lazy.

The same thing happened in 1966, they had their first major personnel change since hitting the big time and Clarke/Hicks/Nash were out to prove to the world that they could thrive and write great songs. So they worked really hard and produced their most artistically prolific era from 1966-1968. Okay, there was an era of uncertainty in 1969 when Graham left, but they soon got back on the carousel, so to speak. But when Allan left, they kicked up a gear and worked their proverbial's off to create a flawless album!

I've said this before and I'll say it again, the Hollies' history has a knack of repeating itself. Graham left to pursue a more 'artistic' career, giving CSN their hits "Marrakesh Express", "Teach Your Children" and "Our House" which weren't really much further beyond the Hollies' infamous pop segment of the dartboard. The Hollies responded by topping the charts the world over with the hugely introspective and articulately mature "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and the stunning adult themed "Confessions Of The Mind" album.
Allan left in 1972 over clashes with (mainly Tony) over the direction of the band. Allan (rightly so in this case) saw their future in an Americanised AOR sound, whereas Tony wanted to stick with the pop formula. Allan duly left to a largely directionless solo career and the Hollies went the whole hog for the AOR sound that Allan wanted anyway! I'd put "Romany" up against ANY LP of that era. It's flawless from start to finish. And Allan was VERY sore about that. He refused to even mention Mikael Rickfors' name and certainly refused to do any of the Rickfors era material on stage. Their re-makes of "Out On The Road" and "Transatlantic Westbound Jet" on "Hollies (1974)" were definitely lacklustre compared to the Rickfors versions. It wouldn't be until Carl Wayne joined them in 2003 that they'd reprise "The Baby" on stage, which has remained a Hollies concert staple ever since.

I think realistically, Rickfors sticking around with Clarke back in the fold was absolutely never going to happen. Rickfors was fed up anyway and the rest of the group weren't so confident in their new front man who spent most of the time dodging the stage light! Although their sound in the Rickfors era on stage was at its best undoubtably, their stage act was not. It was their last raw sound before that god-awful synth came with them and followed them ever since, giving their material the 'cheese factor'. They had one last hurrah for the Clarke reunion tour in 1974 when they took a real orchestra with them. That to me was their best stage sound: the raw live band with a 30 piece live orchestra.
During the Rickfors era, critics commented on how much they swapped about on stage, making awkward pauses between songs (with no real frontman to make small talk with the audience, which saw Terry step up to the mic mostly) and causing confusion amongst the audience. The initial shows in 1972 were under-rehearsed, particularly on the American tour, which was a disaster from start to finish. They were supported by the Raspberries who musically blew them out of the water as they were a much tighter group at that point. Their curious 'exit' from the tour half way through was never fully explained... consequently, audiences were small and Tony even quipped on one occasion 'did you all come in the same taxi?'!

As much as I loved the direction that the Rickfors Hollies went in, they did need Allan Clarke to come back. He was THE voice of the band and still is for me.

[stuball]

I think the great tragedy of the Rickfors Hollies was the fact they never managed to score a big international hit during their 18 month run. And thus they could never get out from under the shadow of the hit-heavy and success-laden, former Clarke-led formation. Plus the obvious, that sound-wise they couldn't in concert, reproduce that distinct Hollies vocal sound that featured on all the old hits.

A great shame really, for the Rickfors lineup brought so much potential to the plate, both live and on record. I still find both 'Romany' and 'Out On The Road' extremely adventurous and exciting LPs, while the following Hollies albums, while no doubt well-made and entertaining, come across a bit on the safe and formulaic side. And of course, by about 1978, dull and lethargic would sum up the bulk of their output. Somehow, if they had somehow managed to hang on to Mikael Rickfors, I don't think that would have happened.

Sad to think that the hiring-on of Mikael Rickfors is often portrayed as a wrong turn up a dead-end, and that the group then did the right thing, dumped Rickfors and brought Clarke back. Allan's return did bring the group one last big hit, (Air that I Breathe') but his return did bring its own set of problems that would play out down the road. So the return to the status quo, if not a dead end of its own, was far from a perfect solution.