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Post by moorlock2003 on Dec 2, 2018 14:54:43 GMT
Prior to their US tour in 1983, The Hollies made an appearance on the TV show American Bandstand, miming to their hit single "Stop in the name of love" and its followup, "Casualty". When host Dick Clark interviewed them, he asked Allan Clarke, "When he left (pointing at Graham Nash) where you mad at him? Allan replied "Yeah". Then he asked Bobby, "When he left (pointing to Allan) where you mad at him? Bobby tellingly replied, "No, it was a relief!".
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Post by gee on Dec 2, 2018 19:03:58 GMT
Bobby tellingly said exactly the same when Terry Sylvester left in 1981
and tellingly Bobby felt the Rickfors era was;
'a bland period for The Hollies !'
so how telling is that...?
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Post by moorlock2003 on Dec 2, 2018 22:30:08 GMT
Which event happened first? Answer: Clarke's leaving, after his ego wasn't satisfied with being the lead singer. His decision resulted in him recording a succession of albums that tanked.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2018 9:02:49 GMT
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Post by cameron on Dec 4, 2018 22:42:20 GMT
I wouldn't read too much into it myself, it seems like a flippant joke
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2018 8:49:36 GMT
I wouldn't read too much into it myself, it seems like a flippant joke Exactly... and anyway, Bobby, Allan, the record company, and (most of) the fans undoubtedly found it a far bigger relief when Allan returned! |
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Post by cameron on Dec 5, 2018 10:59:44 GMT
Whichever way you slice it, Allan WAS the Hollies. His voice was the voice that sold millions of records. He had a completely unique voice that was instantly identifiable and the versatility of his voice was fantastic. Allan, Tony and Bobby are integral to the Hollies sound. I think the reason we tend to accept Peter Howarth is that Allan had such a long vocal decline to the point of being embarrassing. Just to have someone else come in who could actually hit the notes and perk up Bobby and Tony no end, gave the Hollies the shift in pace that they needed at the time. But I refuse to accept that any lead singer could do Allan Clarke's shoes complete justice, though Carl Wayne came close because he had a similar powerful voice.
The only reason the Rickfors era worked so well was that the remaining four Hollies kicked up several gears and started playing for their lives. The effort that - especially Tony and Bernie - put into 'Romany' was stunning. Plus Terry and Tony really stepped up to the fore to share the lead with Mikael Rickfors, rather than let him just come in and replace Allan. That's why so many fans love the Rickfors era, because it put the other Hollies' backs up and bought the absolute best out in them. I don't think they'd played that energetically since their early days in the 1960s.
When Allan left for good, that high clear harmony just wasn't there to carry them along as it had done before during the Rickfors era. Tony was probably shying away from the mic too after years of embarrassment listening to Allan straining his vocal chords every night. That punchy vibrant high harmony that the Hollies were famous for is nearly totally missing from the current incarnation, despite having four singers for the first time in the group's history. I have more of a problem with the embarrassingly weak harmonies in the current incarnation than I do with Peter Howarth's overly safe vocal delivery. Steve Laurie's vocals are falsetto rather than alto as Graham Nash, Terry Sylvester and later Alan Coates were. It's totally different. Though I expect at their ages, Tony and Bobby are probably just going to ride the current line up out until they retire now.
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Post by moorlock2003 on Dec 7, 2018 14:26:13 GMT
I seem to recall reading that Allan asked to rejoin after Long Cool Woman soared up the US charts, but Tony turned him down. I wonder why? Could it be because the band was fed up with his whining? There was an article that appeared in the US rock magazine Circus where Clarke said "This mad, insane name keeps cropping up (Hollies), and I'm getting pissed off about it".
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Post by cameron on Dec 7, 2018 16:10:41 GMT
I seem to recall reading that Allan asked to rejoin after Long Cool Woman soared up the US charts, but Tony turned him down. I wonder why? Could it be because the band was fed up with his whining? There was an article that appeared in the US rock magazine Circus where Clarke said "This mad, insane name keeps cropping up (Hollies), and I'm getting pissed off about it". Allan was pushed out because the Hollies thought if he had the same success as Graham as a solo artist, he'd leave the Hollies in the lurch. No one anticipated the reverse of that situation happening. The Hollies scored a completely unexpected and unplanned hit with 'Long Cool Woman', which was Allan's song that he wrote, he sang solo and even played the lead guitar for it! As Terry pointed out, American's wanted Allan when they were promoting it, and it just wasn't the same without him. That 1973 American tour was an absolute disaster by all accounts, and Tony has since admitted that he was wrong to not let Allan back. I think had Allan fronted the group then, the Hollies' success into the late 1970s would have been better secured and had a bigger impact than it ended up having. |
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Post by moorlock2003 on Dec 9, 2018 20:21:29 GMT
The tour was in the fall of 1972. I should know; I saw them, unlike many of the posters here. The reason Clarke was out of the band the first time was because the band felt that, if Clarke stayed and did a solo album and got a hit, he would have left, making the band look bad. And they were right in their assumption, because that is EXACTLY what he did in '77 when his solo single "Shadow in the street" started climbing up the US chart. He left, just as they had predicted 5 years earlier. It seems Clarke and Lindsay Buckingham formerly of Fleetwood Mac have a lot in common. Enormous egos and jealous of their former partner's solo success; Clarke jealous of Nash and Buckingham jealous of Stevie Nicks.
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Post by cameron on Dec 10, 2018 10:56:33 GMT
And they were right in their assumption, because that is EXACTLY what he did in '77 when his solo single "Shadow in the street" started climbing up the US chart. He left, just as they had predicted 5 years earlier. That's not true at all. He left before he even recorded the whole "I Wasn't Born Yesterday" album. Polydor sat on 'A Crazy Steal' for nearly seven months before it was actually released. Allan was frustrated that not only were the albums now dreadfully slow, but the wheels of the music business were turning equally slow as no one seemed to have any respect for the Hollies anymore, who were now roughly three years past their sell-by date as they'd not had a charting single in that time, and 'Live Hits' was an unprecedented success. Tony's determination to re-capture the magic of "He Ain't Heavy" and "The Air That I Breathe" saw Allan be forced to sing one slow ballad after another. This frustration, complete with his highly compromised position within his group, actually saw him not only leave the Hollies, but re-locate his family to Los Angeles for a time while IWBY was recorded. By the time ACS hit the shops in 1978, some copies carried the promo sticker "The last Hollies album with lead singer Allan Clarke"! It's a shame, both "I Wasn't Born Yesterday" and "(I Will Be Your) Shadow In The Street" would have been great songs for the Hollies. I've always said that around this time, Allan's solo efforts begin to exceed the Hollies' efforts. And Allan had the songs and did offer some of them to the group. Tony was rather fixated on playing the 'game' of the Music Industry, so if he felt like the song wasn't in the Hollies mould, it was a no-go. He was playing too cautiously after being proved right when Graham left in 1968 - people wanted typical Hollie-pop. They'd managed two successful eras of moving with the times from 1969 - 1970 and 1971-1972, but Tony mis-judged the whole ballad thing big time. Their three biggest successes of the 1970s - "Long Cool Woman", "The Air That I Breathe" and "Hollies Live Hits" were all flukes, not planned. The worldwide smash TATIB wasn't even released first as the lead single from the album, only when it began to attract radio play. In fact, it's not even mentioned on the cover of the LP in the UK. "Live Hits" was totally dismissed by Epic in America, despite becoming one of the most imported LPs of the year from Canada and it reached No.4 in the UK, their third highest charting non-compilation LP of their career. This was Allan's frustration, Tony was calling the shots but two out of the three biggest successes of the 1970s for them had been completely down to Allan. |
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Post by Stranger on Dec 10, 2018 13:59:09 GMT
Interesting post Cameron. I wonder what if the Hollies had given up on trying to sound like the Hollies for a couple of albums and gone with Allans solo sound and songs. Would have been a bit more modern while The Hollies name would have garnered some more radio play.
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Post by allanangel on Dec 10, 2018 17:05:57 GMT
If the Hollies had followed Allan's direction, the story would have been totally different.
If Tony had said yes to Allan's offer to tour with LCW, it would have put the Hollies into the stratosphere. They would have achieved superstar status and be a household name today.
It wasn't Allan who led them in the wrong direction! As Cameron said, the music Allan was writing and singing surpassed what the Hollies were doing. They should have let him lead HIS OWN GROUP! They didn't really learn from 72/73, did they? Yes, they learned that they needed Allan to be the lead singer, but they didn't get the lesson that his music was what people wanted to hear.
Imagine what would have happened if the Hollies had given him free rein and THEY had recorded Legendary Heroes. That album is an absolute masterpiece! Unfortunately, because of Tony's decisions, all we can do is imagine.
Moorlock, you are so fixated on blaming Allan for everything you feel went wrong with the Hollies. I don't understand your hate. IMO, Ron Richards signed the Hollies BECAUSE of Allan. Do you not see how immensely talented he is? Do you not see how he is in a league of his own? Without Allan, there is/was no Hollies! I think that Allan was the one that Ron really wanted and he got a bonus at having Allan and Graham harmonize so beautifully.
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Post by cameron on Dec 10, 2018 20:02:41 GMT
It's worth noting that Tony was the one who propelled the Hollies into superstardom in 1965/6 as he was responsible for finding a lot of the demos of songs that they'd go on to have hits with. Later on, "He Ain't Heavy" would be an extremely lucky fluke for him. But Tony moved in that direction with his contributions to "Confessions Of The Mind" in 1970. I think it's a crying shame that the LP didn't chart better, as there wasn't a bad song on it, and the majority of it was down to Tony.
What's really interesting is what happened next - with a great deal of resistance, Allan led the group into the prog sound of "Distant Light", inspired by an emerging American rock scene, which would later be coined Adult Orientated Rock, or AOR. Tony wasn't exactly on board, even giving up lead guitar for the first time ever for "Long Cool Woman", as Allan wrote it and could play it, so Tony didn't bother to learn it.
We have to remember that "Distant Light" totally bombed on initial release, with no lead single. That was Tony's 'I told you so' to Allan. Frustrated, Allan looks at recording his left over material as a solo artist, knowing that he'll be completely on the back foot against Tony from then on. He was then issued his famous ultimatum to leave...
Allan left in mid-1971 and it wasn't until December 1971 that it began to climb the charts in America, peaking in February 1972 at #2. The Hollies' highest charting single in America of their entire career. Suddenly, "Distant Light" starts to sell, reaching #21 on the US charts in March/April 1972, the highest charting album of the Hollies' entire career in America. Armed with this information, Allan asked to re-join to do an American tour, but Tony refused, wanting to push on with "Romany" and Mikael Rickfors as their front man.
Here's the irony: Tony then followed Allan's desire to move down the AOR route for "Romany", just as the Hollies followed Graham's desire to be more 'mature' after he left. Talk of history repeating itself? I actually think, had Allan stayed but "Romany" turned out exactly the same but with his vocals, it would have overtaken "Distant Light" in America. But "Romany" would have turned out even better with Allan. I think the reason that "Romany" stands up so well is because the Hollies invested a lot of time into recording it, abandoning their usual 'one take approach'. But they only felt the need to do this because they were a lot more shaken by Allan leaving than they were when Graham left.
What happened in the end was nobody won. The 1972 release of "Long Cool Woman" in the UK stalled at #32 on the charts, released at the same time as The Hollies' new single "The Baby", which just scraped past it to reach #26, which sadly became the Hollies' lowest charting single in the UK of their whole career up to that point. Even their pretty weak debut "(Ain't That) Just Like Me" managed #25! "Romany" failed to chart in the UK, just breaking the top 100 in America. Allan's solo debut "My Real Name Is 'Arold" also failed to chart, with RCA records dropping him after just one LP. They all licked their wounds and got back together in 1973, but the damage was irreparable by then, and as Allan said, it was the start of the total disintegration of the Hollies. The only victory was Allan's bank balance after the surprise success of LCW, which he stated finally made him a millionaire!
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Post by stuball on Dec 11, 2018 17:07:47 GMT
Some interesting perspectives here, but some of the dates are a bit askew.
Allan Clarke left The Hollies for a second time in 1978, not 1977.
Long Cool Woman was released by Epic in the US in June of 1972, where it got instantly heavy airplay. It flew up the charts during July and August, peaking at #2 in early September. Epic sat on Distant Light, when after a rushed printing, in July large displays of the LP appeared not just in the record stores, but in the major department stores as well. Never before or since have I ever witnessed a Hollies album pushed so hard. And of course it reached #21 on the Billboard charts
In Britain, Long Cool Woman peaked at #32 in September 1972, many months after 'The Baby' had faded away, and incidentally just a few weeks before 'Magic Woman Touch' would appear and instantly bomb, despite heavy airplay. At the time Brit DJs were pushing LCW as 'The Hollies current 'Massive American Hit!!'. That It did as well as it did in Britain, was largely due to Brit incredulity that Americans would actually make a million-seller out of this unusual slice of Hollies harmony-less rock.
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Post by cameron on Dec 11, 2018 18:59:51 GMT
Some interesting perspectives here, but some of the dates are a bit askew. Long Cool Woman was released by Epic in the US in June of 1972, where it got instantly heavy airplay. It flew up the charts during July and August, peaking at #2 in early September. You're right, I forgot Americans have a stupid WRONG way of writing dates and read it as 9th February, not 2nd September! Lol. It falls into place why the Hollies' toured there in October-November 1972 now. |
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Post by Stranger on Dec 11, 2018 20:49:18 GMT
What's really interesting is what happened next - with a great deal of resistance, Allan led the group into the prog sound of "Distant Light", inspired by an emerging American rock scene, which would later be coined Adult Orientated Rock, or AOR. Tony wasn't exactly on board, even giving up lead guitar for the first time ever for "Long Cool Woman", as Allan wrote it and could play it, so Tony didn't bother to learn it. Is that a little bit unfair on Tony? There is a contemporary interview where he talks about writing the Distant Light songs with Allan's voice in mind and they do fit the style pretty well e.g. What A Life I've Led. I think it is fair to say that My Real Name Is 'Arold is probably the record in the Hollies universe closest to being a sequel to Distant Light. |
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Post by stuball on Dec 12, 2018 0:13:41 GMT
Some interesting perspectives here, but some of the dates are a bit askew. Long Cool Woman was released by Epic in the US in June of 1972, where it got instantly heavy airplay. It flew up the charts during July and August, peaking at #2 in early September. You're right, I forgot Americans have a stupid WRONG way of writing dates and read it as 9th February, not 2nd September! Lol. Oh dear, Cameron! I suspect you'll have our Yank members coming at you hammer and tongs now. A 1776 moment all over again! Not sure what day and month that brouhaha began, but if I did, I'd have to think twice about using the numeric form! |
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