'It Ain't Heavy - It's My Story' Review.

[cameron]

My copy of Bobby Elliott's autobiography arrived earlier today, and I've sat and read it cover to cover already! I thought I'd give a fair and balanced review, since a few people have had his book for a few weeks already and at most all I've heard is a story about Eric Haydock's nose-picking habit! Without giving away any spoilers, here goes... 


As we know, Bobby is probably the best man in the World to write about the Hollies. Not only does he have all the details at his fingertips thanks to his meticulously kept diaries, he's got such a fantastic way with words. He is very good at setting the scene with his writing. He's perhaps at his creative writing peak with the opening two chapters of the book; describing the War-hit England around the time of his birth and the fairly grim reality of life in the North during his early childhood. The book is refreshingly written, with the odd excerpt from his diary or song lyric thrown in here and there to help add colour to the story. Sometimes his brief diary entries say all that you need to know, and other times he elaborates on them. Either way, it's an interesting and different way of writing an autobiography, which for me really broke up the monotony of reading someone's life story, which can often devolve into "and then I did this... and then I did that...", Bobby steers well clear of that with his book and it flows so easily. 

It's fascinating to hear about his development as a drummer, and the musicians among us will be happy to know that Bobby spares no details of his equipment, the Hollies' guitars and their stage gear throughout the book. He talks of his early makeshift drum kit from old tins and how it morphed into his first proper set. He's also quite critical of some of the kits he's had over the years, which may come as a surprise to some. 

Detail is something that comes across meticulously throughout the book. At times, his tale turns into something of a review column of the various Holiday Inns they stayed in over the years and the flights and train journeys they undertook - complete with the names of said modes of transport! During the portion of the book covering the 1970s, I felt like this became a little bit hard going at points. But around the mid-1970s, Bobby begins to insert his opinions of the Hollies' output and general direction during that infamous era, which all of you will find interesting for sure. 

There's the usual Hollies tale that we all know with a few interesting, and at some points quite shocking, anecdotes. It's not the bitchy "tell-all" that Terry Sylvester keeps promising - far from it - it's politely written and to the point, but Bobby does detail some of the grittier elements of the Hollies' story: There's the first full official explanation we've ever had of both manager Robin Britten's exit from the group, followed by Terry Sylvester and Bernie Calvert. Allan's erratic behaviour towards the end of the 1970s is also explained, and it's perhaps not quite what you think. 

My main take off from it is that Bobby likes playing the drums, but perhaps doesn't enjoy being a pop star. Every tour ends with him recalling getting homesick towards the end of it, and there's plenty of recollections of dashing to Europe for a TV appearance and flying home in time for last orders at his local pub. This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, as I always had Tony down as that sort, but on the contrary, Tony is cited as being the one going to the bars and private clubs, as well as hosting various musicians at his house. 

The only couple of issues that I had with the book were that pretty much all of 1967 was glossed over after his appendicitis incident, and if I'm being honest, it ends rather abruptly, with 40 years glossed over on three pages. 

Overall, the book was an entertaining read and even laugh-out-loud funny at times. Bobby has a superb writing style that is a joy to read, and you can tell that this book is all him; not the hand of a ghost writer like Graham Nash had for his autobiography. He remains honest throughout the book and says it like it is. He treads the line of this world-famous rock star in one of Britain's best-groups but also the real Robert Elliott who lived with his parents until his mid-30s and eventually married his childhood sweetheart and they lived happily ever after in a restored farmhouse near the town where they grew up. His story is humbling and honest - what a life he's led! Hollies fans will enjoy it.

Let me know your thoughts... 

[paul71]

Thanks Cameron, im nearly finished the book and I've found it to be very entertaining and informative. Yes I'd have liked more detail on the 67 sessions too.
Hes very respectful but also gets his point across about certain people. A great skill as there's a fine line between respect and legal issues.

[JamesT]

Good review, Cameron. Received the book yesterday afternoon and have just finished. Overall, an excellent read with a couple of errors cropping in but generally balanced, pretty matter-of-fact without being too blunt. Bobby's childhood and his home area are so vividly portrayed, it's a delight to read. I still think he's probably holding a little back to be honest. The only major issues for me are lack of depth 1967, 1970-71 and post-Nash reunion.

And I'm one who appreciates the ornithological, aviation and railway references, too. That photo of the band atop the Islander is superb. Also nice to see towns near here mentioned!

What a remarkable career, so wonderful to read in print.

[anthony]

Finished reading Bob's book, I found it a great read. He mentions Australia many times, would have liked to hear about Don't Get Sunburnt. Funny I thought he may have spoken about his wigs also. I did hear a story it wasn't his idea to get one but the record company. Anyway loved hearing about his childhood, Maureen, Eric, Allan's problems, shocked to read that they had to re record the vocals on that famous Rickfors live show.
He sure has a great writing style, He is a true gentleman,

[JamesT]

Apr 6, 2020 5:43:31 GMT anthony said:

Finished reading Bob's book, I found it a great read. He mentions Australia many times, would have liked to hear about Don't Get Sunburnt. Funny I thought he may have spoken about his wigs also. I did hear a story it wasn't his idea to get one but the record company. Anyway loved hearing about his childhood, Maureen, Eric, Allan's problems, shocked to read that they had to re record the vocals on that famous Rickfors live show.
He sure has a great writing style, He is a true gentleman,

Good point, Anthony.  I'd have thought the wigs or at least the collection of hats might have been mentioned, too.

[cameron]

A great new interview with Bobby:

[rokinrobinoflocksley]

That was fab! And now we know which Hollies played on the Two Yanks In England LP...

[eric]

Apr 6, 2020 22:00:09 GMT cameron said:

A great new interview with Bobby:

Cameron, thanks kindly for this video.  I have never seen a Hollie interviewed for this length of time so it was an absolute pleasure to watch the interview.  It was great to see Bobby talking in such a relaxed manner and providing a number of insights.  As the interview progressed, I felt as though I was sitting in the room with him.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a question in!  

[cameron]

I enjoyed the interview, but I got the impression that the interviewer was fluffing his way through it a bit. Bobby left lots of cues for a deeper question, such as which track on the 'Two Yanks...' LP he played on and I felt like he was fishing to see how much knowledge the interviewer had on the Hollies' back catalogue before giving an answer for his favourite Hollies songs, which he never ultimately answered. Bobby and Tony always seem geared up to talk about "the usual" in their interviews, and almost seem to glaze over a bit while they recount the same tales of the hits over and over again, which I can completely understand. Occasionally, they get paired up with an interviewer who knows their stuff, and that's when the magic happens. Tony did an interview about ten years ago on a regional radio show to promote 'Radio Fun' and the interviewer had grown up in the same era and he and Tony got on famously, Tony relaxed and gave one of the best interviews I've ever heard him do. Tony and Bobby also did a great interview with Mark Radcliffe to promote 'Changin Times' and he played them some deeper cuts from that era and Tony and Bobby just gave so much during that interview. It was really humorous and they offered up some really great stories.

But back to this interview, there were some good questions which helped elaborate on the book, such as the lengthy talk they had about how magical Abbey Road studios were.

Looking at the guy's channel, he's not got many subscribers but has interviewed some fantastic people so far. I wonder how he got to interview Bobby?

[stuball]

Oh, what does it take to find a competent, professional and organized interviewer, with a good grasp of The Hollies career? These amateur fumblings are always so mindnumbingly frustrating. It gives the impression of the night-before cramming of a less than mediocre student, prepping for an exam: memorize a half-dozen big hits✔️, and the time period 1963-75✔️, name-drop Graham Nash✔️, and that should about do it. There are a thousand and one pertinent questions to be asked and this kid comes up with nothing! I'd rate this interview an 'F'.

The 'boys' aren't getting any younger, and time is running out. Surely we long-term fans deserve one solid, in-depth interview with the group we so admire.

[johnt]

I've just finished reading Bobby's book and I loved it. I've read a few books recently where I soon got bored with them and put them down but not this one. I read it from start to finish and it left me wanting more. 

I enjoyed reading about the early days when Bobby joined Shane Fenton and the Fentones from The Dolphins. I used to live in the Mansfield area at that time. That's where Shane (real name Bernard Jewry) lived with his parents who ran a guest house. A lot of stars appearing at the local Granada Theatre used to stay there.

I had always assumed (wrongly) that Tony had introduced his sister Maureen to Bobby but Bobby had met Maureen before he knew Tony. 

And the 'Bloody Lulu' anecdote had me smiling.

There are so many wonderful memories in this book, and as I've been a fan of The Hollies since they began, I found it fascinating.

My only complaint is that it ended too soon in 1981. 

Will there be a Volume Two? Here's hoping!

[Stranger]

Having read the book, I can only say it all makes sense now! I think it fills in a lot of the puzzle as to what happened to the band in the '70s if not always explicitly.

[cameron]

It was very interesting to get a complete lowdown on the late 1970s, particularly the reasons behind Terry and Bernie leaving.

Now more people have read it, I'll discuss some other details. I didn't want to give too many spoilers away in the initial review!

I found it interesting how Bobby doesn't seem to blame their original manager for the mis-management of their finances. To me, reading the book, it seemed very obvious that the guy was an absolute crook who bled the band dry and left when there was nothing else to take. No mention is made of the legendary licensing back deal with EMI, which occurred at the same time. I wonder if this was Robin Britten's doing?

It was interesting to know that Bobby met Tony via Maureen, I always assumed it was the other way around. It seems a bit odd how they both lived with their parents until they were in their 30s and didn't get married until they would have been in their 50s. Reading the book, I feel a bit of sympathy for Maureen, she always appears to be in Bobby's shadow, and seldom involved with the group, despite having two claims to being involved via both Bobby and Tony. Bobby also alludes to tensions with Terry's first wife as well.

One thing that made me laugh was his recollection of Tony travelling to stay with Graham Nash and David Crosby when the Hollies had a few days off on an American tour in the 1970s. Yet Graham is still to this day stressing in interviews that he had no involvement with the Hollies whatsoever until he saw them on TOTP in 1981.

I like how Bobby kind of retrospectively takes Ron Richards to task over many things. Because Ron got them through the door at EMI, so to speak, there seems to be an unwritten rule that nothing bad could be said of him. But in retrospect, he wasn't a very good producer, who showed a distinct lack of interest in the music itself and would leave the group in the lurch by leaving them during the Mikael Rickfors era (which interestingly Bobby blames him for Rickfors joining in the first place) and later stating to the press that his best production work was with the short lived music career of P J Proby!

Overall, full of interesting titbits of information and I really enjoyed the book.

[Stranger]

What struck me, was the constant drinking. At no point post 1970 does someone not seem to be handing them a drink. And though all of them bar one seemed to be able to handle it, you can see how the whole lifestyle reflects the career. They knew they were going in the wrong direction from '75, they new they were playing the wrong venues, they new Robin Britten was maybe the wrong man for the job - but the work kept coming, the money kept coming, they were in nice hotels, people kept handing them glasses of champagne... Given how big they were, it goes to show how big they probably could have been with really driven management - if they really wanted that.

The pretty much "accidental" hiring of Rickfors is kinda funny. And there doesn't seem to have been a huge personal connection there.

The details on Allan in the late '70s are pretty eye-opening. It does seem the two big breaks they missed in the '70s were Allan not being in the band for LCW and Allan's reaction to the proposed US deal in the late '70s, which seems like the big last chance that got away.

I did laugh at the bit where they had to get Terry to "bounce" Maurice Gibb.

[dirtyfaz]

As Stranger says "What struck me, was the constant drinking".
Maybe they should have been a bit more open to drugs although I am not for a minute condoning drug taking. Might have changed some of the squeaky clean behavior.

[cameron]

The drinking thing struck me too especially how Bobby would brag that he made a habit of going to Europe for the day to film a promo and then fly home in time to catch last orders at his local pub. That just seems absolutely bizarre to me. Why spend all that effort getting to Europe to then rush back with the specific reason to get to your local pub before last orders?

I got the impression throughout the book that being a famous pop star didn't suit Bobby. He's a drummer/musician who enjoys playing on stage, but that's it. He doesn't appear to enjoy all the other things that go with that. He doesn't seem to hang out with other musicians in clubs (unlike his various tales about Tony and Allan) unless there's drinking to be done and never officially made a move to the south of England unlike the rest of the group. The book is full of tales of how he would rush home to the North of England and he also continued to live with his parents until he was in his 30s! He also constantly recalls how he feels homesick towards the end of various worldwide tours as well. I just find it all quite interesting, almost like he didn't stop to savour/enjoy his success while it lasted. It kind of reads like an employee who's got to work out of town, does a few interesting things to pass the time, but ultimately just wants to get their job done, get paid and go home. More evidence that the Hollies by and large viewed their career as a job, not art like the vast majority of musicians. Especially as their career progressed into the 1970s. That was my take off from reading the book anyway.

[stuball]

Apr 13, 2020 9:06:18 GMT cameron said:

The drinking thing struck me too especially how Bobby would brag that he made a habit of going to Europe for the day to film a promo and then fly home in time to catch last orders at his local pub. That just seems absolutely bizarre to me. Why spend all that effort getting to Europe to then rush back with the specific reason to get to your local pub before last orders?

I got the impression throughout the book that being a famous pop star didn't suit Bobby. He's a drummer/musician who enjoys playing on stage, but that's it. He doesn't appear to enjoy all the other things that go with that. He doesn't seem to hang out with other musicians in clubs (unlike his various tales about Tony and Allan) unless there's drinking to be done and never officially made a move to the south of England unlike the rest of the group. The book is full of tales of how he would rush home to the North of England and he also continued to live with his parents until he was in his 30s! He also constantly recalls how he feels homesick towards the end of various worldwide tours as well. I just find it all quite interesting, almost like he didn't stop to savour/enjoy his success while it lasted. It kind of reads like an employee who's got to work out of town, does a few interesting things to pass the time, but ultimately just wants to get their job done, get paid and go home. More evidence that the Hollies by and large viewed their career as a job, not art like the vast majority of musicians. Especially as their career progressed into the 1970s. That was my take off from reading the book anyway.

I haven't read the book but reading between the lines based on the comments so far, it seems to me some members of the group were very parochial, perhaps even small-minded in their outlook. The very antithesis of what you would assume successful popstars would be. I've always took it as read, that pop stars desperately wanted to break away from the stultifying confines of life in the dour and damp North of England. Not all, apparently. Nash and Sylvester both escaped to the USA, Clarke and Hicks to London but when you think about it, perhaps the more 'retiring' Hollies', the 'back-line Hollies' like Elliott, Calvert and Haydock, felt like fish out of water and yearned for the 'familiar': retiring to their local, with a 'pint of the best' in hand, surrounded by the old faces and accents. 

Perhaps some of this attitude caused a rift in the group: those content with a good steady wage and not straying too far from home vs those with a much more open, adventurous mindset. You can see how this backward attitude could bleed into group creative decisions as well. It might partially explain why all was not well in the Hollies camp in the late '70's.

[cameron]

Apr 13, 2020 20:08:38 GMT stuball said:

Perhaps some of this attitude caused a rift in the group: those content with a good steady wage and not straying too far from home vs those with a much more open, adventurous mindset. You can see how this backward attitude could bleed into group creative decisions as well. It might partially explain why all was not well in the Hollies camp in the late '70's.

I think you've absolutely hit the nail on the head there. Even Bernie's exit from the group falls down to wanting to spend more time at home and setting up a local butcher's shop! Eric Haydock too set up a shop in Manchester that sold musical instruments. I'm surprised that Bobby hasn't bought a local pub! 

Having said that, Allan Clarke lived in Disley for many years, which is a really posh part of Manchester that borders with the gorgeous scenic Peak District. Although a long way from his Salford home town, it's only the other side of Manchester and still very much in the North of England. Even Graham recalls constantly heading home to Manchester in the 1980s when his mother was ill/dying to see his family. Terry recently alluded to the same thing during that recent interview, saying that he always stays in Liverpool when he goes to visit home a few times per year. The only one who appears to have truly escaped the crutches of the North of England is Tony. But if you lived next door to George Harrison, I think you can rest on your laurels safe in the knowledge that you've truly 'made it'! haha. 

[Stranger]

Apr 13, 2020 20:08:38 GMT stuball said:

I see your point but I think it is worth remembering, they really did "break away". In that some of them came from really humble beginnings and managed to have this really comfortable life where they were flying around the world and people kept handing them champagne. Given that some, maybe all of them, had little or no chance of going to college and becoming a doctor or a lawyer or whatever, they did really well and maybe were content with where they got.

I kind of admire Bobby's lifestyle, like he really knows who he is. He's on TV in the US one day, then he's back having a pint with the lads he's known all his life. He's got the best of both worlds! Talented as he is, I don't think he sees himself as a rockstar. His reaction to being offered the gig in Wings is like, "can you imagine me in Wings?". Very telling!

[stuball]

Apr 15, 2020 10:41:11 GMT Stranger said:

Apr 13, 2020 20:08:38 GMT stuball said:

I see your point but I think it is worth remembering, they really did "break away". In that some of them came from really humble beginnings and managed to have this really comfortable life where they were flying around the world and people kept handing them champagne. Given that some, maybe all of them, had little or no chance of going to college and becoming a doctor or a lawyer or whatever, they did really well and maybe were content with where they got.

I kind of admire Bobby's lifestyle, like he really knows who he is. He's on TV in the US one day, then he's back having a pint with the lads he's known all his life. He's got the best of both worlds! Talented as he is, I don't think he sees himself as a rockstar. His reaction to being offered the gig in Wings is like, "can you imagine me in Wings?". Very telling!

I take your point re 'breaking away' but to me their 'breaking away' was based solely upon financial gains, and the comfort and goods that wealth allowed them to accumulate. In most cases, the group still embraced the Northern working class outlook and lifestyle, but with a nicer car and a better home.

Re the 'going to college': I'll defer to my Brit colleagues here, but as a child of English parents, and still having many cousins in Britain to this day, I remember hearing of something called the '11-plus', a test which all kids took at the age of eleven. It involved answering a set of questions, not testing your memory skills but rather your ability to think and reason on the spot. There was no studying, no memorizing for it. And your result or grade determined whether you followed the advanced path to university, or left school at 15, and hopefully knew someone who could get you in at the mill or dress shop. One of the Brit  'fish wraps' printed an old 11-plus test a few years back, and let the reader take the exam. I gave it a shot and boy, even as a reasonably well-educated mature man, it was a real 'brain-buster!

I believe among the future 'Hollies', only Graham was clever enough to pass the thing, while the other guys were consigned to 'get some work or trade', or face 'on the dole' futures as teens. In that light, I suppose it's no surprise that Graham came across as the leader, the spokesman, the guy with the ideas, and ultimately, why he grew restless with the group's 'close-mindedness'. 

This is not to say I think Graham was 'better' than the other Hollies. In many ways he was a pain in the ass, and I believe they were better off without him, in sound and in group cohesion. And for several years after Nash left, the group seemed to be 'rowing the boat together', until Clarke got itchy feet. But I do feel that sadly, they always missed that spark, which a 'thinker' like Nash provided.

[baz]

It'll be a while before I get Bobby's book but judging from the comments above what is clear to me about Bobby and some other members is they feel a strong sense of "Northern Pride"! I'm a Northerner myself and I can't quite explain the how and why but I do feel extremely proud to be a Northerner. There has long been an invisible divide between the North and South of England and I was born a Notherner, have always lived up North and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. A lot of other people I know feel the same way, so it seems to me that Bobby falls into that category. Terry being a Scouser, in spite of living now in Miami, his heart will always be in Liverpool. Unlike many, I understood why he dressed the way he did at the R+RHOF ceremony - he's proud to be a Scouser and a great many names that came out of Liverpool share that pride. Yes, it may seem odd how Bobby would dash back home for last orders in his local pub, but home is where the heart is I guess, so the trappings of pop stardom was never gonna suit or fit him at all well and all credit to him for handling it in his own inimitable way.

[cameron]

I'm a Northerner too and I get that sense of pride, it's almost a smugness that no one else in the country seems to have in quite the same way. And I'm from Yorkshire, so one better than Bobby! haha (jokes...).

To the non-Brits on the forum; the North/South divide grew out of a financial divide when it came to running the country over 150 years ago or more. The majority of the factories, mills and coal mines were in the North of England, so naturally people were by and large raised to expect nothing more from life than to leave school at 14/15 with a basic education and start work doing the same job that their mother/father did. The backbone of the country depended on it. The government focused the distribution of wealth accordingly. Even today, the South of England has wanted for nothing when it comes to funding for public transport, whereas in the North, we even still have the infamous Northern Rail railway line that they've just announced is finally getting a new fleet of trains, and the ramshackle 1970s/1980s stock that's still trundling along gets retired. To someone like me who's from the North but now lives in the Midlands (technically "the south" to any discerning Northerner) and travels all over the country weekly with work, that North/South divide is very much still a real thing. Petrol is always cheaper in the North and food is more expensive down south. House prices are much higher in the south, as is housing rent.

The North/South divide transcends social trends too. The south of England feels so busy and congested as people speed about their daily business. People seldom stop to look up and talk to one another. In the north, people are extremely talkative and not shy to strike up a conversation with random people wherever you are in public. It's really weird, though it's not to say that this is a rigid statement. Decades of social conditioning has slowly been undone since the 1950s/1960s, but the after effects of the conscious North/South divide are still very much felt today. Though the mines are now closed, as are the mills, and education is standardised across the country and the school leaver age is fixed at 16.

So I understand Bobby's plight to not move south. In many respects, 60 years ago, you could draw a line across the middle of England and it could almost be two different countries. The Beatles often spoke of the North/South divide, and actually, their friend and label mate Cilla Black told some great stories about it over the years. She said how her father had to sign her recording contract because she was under 21, and all the record producers were coming up form the South of England. He didn't trust their accents (Liverpudlians and some other Northerners called Southerners "spivs", which was actually very disrespectful, but they genuinely felt threatened by them!), so in the end he signed her up with Brian Epstein purely because he was also a Northerner - that and they'd bought an upright piano from Brian Epstein's parents department store ten years prior, and it was still going strong! It's a hard concept to explain to non-Brits, I don't think Bobby really touches upon it in his book in the context of the whole of Great Britain, but his tales of 'Northern life' certainly point to that being his reason for never moving south with the rest of the Hollies.

[baz]

Great post Cameron! Gives some context to the North-South divide and indeed on the various times I went South or down to London, the differences were striking. I stayed in London in 2000 with a pal who was in a bedsit in Camden Town and that was costing him £130 a week whilst I was paying £40 a week for a bedsit in Liverpool. I shudder to think what the London prices are nowadays. Food and groceries are a bit more expensive and the overall cost of living... it's certainly cheaper up North! What you had to say about the rail situation is spot on. Then remember back in 2013 when Britain was beseiged by the floods? My area where I was living was heavily hit... caused utter devastation. None of the papers or the BBC bothered to report it but the moment London came under threat, it was the biggest news of all. That said it all for me - us up North suffered badly but weren't considered worthy of mentioning but if it's London or in the South, only then is it newsworthy. Things like that gets very grating and ensures the divide remains. I know if I ever got to meet or encounter Bobby, I'd get along well with him partly because of the shared Northerner thing!

There's a great autobiography by Robb Huxley. He was a member of the final line up of The Tornados - Joe Meek simply renamed a band called The Saxons as The Tornados in 1966 and they had to play some of the old material. Robb recalled how touring the North of England was like visiting a foreign country, the further one went North, the darker and greyer it became in tone and to him and the rest of the band, the people were viewed more eccentrically... they found it bizarre and amusing when they'd be addressed under the term "love" as in "like your clothes, love" something they'd never encountered before. Robb also swore blind that the beer was much stronger too... maybe that's another reason why Bobby preferred his local and staying where he is!

[Deleted]

We're getting slightly off-topic, but in defence of the south, it should be pointed out that London is a very different place to much of the surrounding areas. I live in a quiet coastal Kent town, where almost everyone says hello to each other, even total strangers. As for the rest of the country, I'm fairly well travelled, but I rate the friendliest area as rural Derbyshire... and the most unfriendly? Manchester! Been there twice (in 1992 and 2004), both times spending the night there, and I found it even worse than London.

[stuball]

I was born and raised in Canada, but my parents and many aunts and uncles hailed from the Sunderland and South Shields area of County Durham. When I first visited the region, despite the fact we all supposedly spoke English, there really was a language barrier. The 'H'ways' had to be sorted from the 'Hadaways' and the 'Gedaways!', and the 'Wie's it gannin' at the match?' and 'Divent dee nought like that, mun!'' had me flummoxed. My head was spinning in Yorkshire too, it was the shortened words: 'Leave keys int car!' And the 'bloody rubbishes! ' In Derbyshire, it was a greeting of 'Eh up, duck?' If you were sick, you were 'Offa hooks'. The further south I ventured, the easier the English was to understand. Well, until I asked a Cornishman for directions: very helpful he was, although I drove away not understanding a single word he said!

The northerners always told me the beer and the pubs in the south were rubbish, and the people were cold. 'If you collapsed in the street, Londoners would just walk over you!' I was told. There was a sliver of truth to the coldness, perhaps. But generally, I found them easier to understand. There also seemed to be a political divide between North and South, with the North being largely Labour, while the South voted Tory. And the North seemed to think they always got the short end of the stick. What I found quite shocking however, is how quickly people would dismiss others simply based on how they talked: people who 'spoke proper' were considered snobs by the working class, while those who talked 'rough', were treated as lepers by the 'well-to-do'. Certainly a real eye-opener to an outsider!

I think as a boy in Canada when the British Invasion exploded, the groups pretty much seemed to be from either Liverpool or London, and Canadians and Americans quickly became familiar with those dialects. But as an outsider travelling in Britain, the accent seemed to change every few miles.

And I don't know if anyone else picked up on this, but when entering a roundabout (a shocking experience in itself) in say, Southern England, the signpost would always name the towns ahead, whether you were heading south, east or west. But if you were going north, no towns were mentioned. Simply a somewhat bleak and definitely off putting 'THE NORTH'. Made me think, 'is there something they aren't telling me?'

Bringing this all back home to Bobby and The Hollies, I can well understand how certain members of the group would feel 'out of place' while travelling to different areas, and perhaps consider themselves 'outsiders'.Perhaps even unwelcome in some establishments, the moment they opened their mouths. I'm sure they longed for the familiar: their local pub, the old faces etc. As the old saying goes: there's no place like home. Others, Nash included, ran to embrace the new and the different. I suppose it's all how you look at it, and whether you consider the new and unfamiliar an exciting adventure...or a potential threat.