Melody Maker, March 22, 1969

[Mevrouw Bee]

The Dude shipped me my old music magazine collection this week. I think I posted this years ago in the old Yahoo forum, but I hadn't seen the issue for years, and I still get a giggle over the headline on page 5. 

If anyone wants a transcription of the article, let me know....

[Malc]

Yes, please ! Sent you a PM...

[Mevrouw Bee]

Better scans to come for those who gave me an email address!

But because sharing is caring, here's the transcription for everyone. Weird punctuation and paragraphs and all...

(the front page article)

HOLLIES HURTLE BACK


‘Dylan’ LP in May

After months in the shadows, the Hollies have roared back into the Top Ten with their first single since founder member Graham Nash quit the group and moved to America’s West Coast.

The single, “Sorry Suzanne,’ with new boy Terry Sylvester, jumped to number nine in the MM’s Pop 30 this week.

And it has rejuvenated the group. For singer Allan Clarke told MM this week that for a time he thought the group would split after Nash left.
The Hollies have started a massive six-week world-wide promotional campaign on the record. They have already appeared on German TV and have been booked to appear on television in Holland, Italy, Belgium and Sweden over the next few weeks.


Campaign

In addition, they have completed a three minute colour promotional film which is to be shown on 20 American TV shows and five Canadian shows, in the next three weeks. And the film will probably be used by Australian television stations as well.

The group’s manager Robin Britten told MM: “This is a massive campaign to create a worldwide hit with ‘Suzanne’.”

The Hollies next album “Hollies Sing Dylan” is released on May 4 and features 12 Bob Dylan songs, including “Mighty Quinn,” “Blowing In The Wind” and “My Back Pages.” In addition, the group have started work on a subsequent album which will contain at least nine original numbers.

And they have three “really good songs” from which to choose a new single, including one by Tony Hazard and another by Tony Macauley who wrote “Sorry Suzanne.”

(the page 5 article)

MR CLARKE, OF NW3, FEELS MUCH BETTER NOW THAT SUITS ARE BACK

A few months ago, the Hollies almost split up.

The group that has had a hit with every record they have issued over five highly successful years nearly went out of business.

It happened when Graham Nash, one of the founding members of the group, left to pursue his own musical path and the other four Hollies were faced with the job of trying to replace him.

Lead singer Allan Clarke told me about it at his cottage-style Hampstead home on Sunday.

“The trouble was, I knew how good Graham was. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to replace him.

“We were missing his high harmony which was an integral part of the group’s sound.

“We had two and a half months of looking about for a person who could replace him, fit in the group and be tuned in to the musical aims of the Hollies.

“It was frightening.

“There was a stage when the group nearly broke up and I had to think about what I was going to do in the future.

“I had considered going solo, because after all I have a family to support.

Fortunately for the group, after many auditions and much searching along came Terry Sylvester.

Terry had been playing guitar and singing with Liverpool’s Swinging Blue Jeans and fitted perfectly into the Hollies mould of happy, melodic music.

“It was uncanny how well he fitted in,” said Allan.

“He’s a hard worker and he believes in what the group is trying to do.

“Graham left because his musical ideas and the rest of the group’s conflicted.

“We wanted someone who would want to play Hollies music, the music we have been playing since we started.

“Terry’s working wonders. He’s gradually changing and moulding himself into the group. He’s smartening himself up and he’s not got something worth while to work for.”

Allan – and the rest of the group – breathed a sigh of relief when they recorded with Terry and found he fitted in perfectly in the recording studios, too.

One of the first things they recorded together was “Sorry Suzanne,” which has marked the Hollies’ return to the Pop 30.

“I’m on top of the world about it. Well, how would you feel? I’d had three months of worry.

“I thought that we’d retained the Hollies sound. But you can never tell. It was a very good song for the Hollies, but in the end it was up to the public whether they wanted it or not.”

The rejuvenated Hollies are set to start working again. They will play the college and university circuit rather than the ballrooms because they feel that their brand of music will be most appreciated there.

“We won’t be doing the ballrooms any more,” said Allan in the lounge of his home near Hampstead High Street. “We found the last time we were in America, when we had to do a 90-minute spot, that we had to create a cabaret act.

“We did that, and we find now that the cabaret act is our strongest area rather than doing a string of hits.

“That’s why we do songs like ‘Blowing In The Wind’ and ‘A Taste Of Honey.’ We find that the student audience really appreciates the things like this we do, and it’s better for us, too.”

The “Hollies sound” is famed in the pop business. But Allan said they never actively try to reproduce this “sound” every time they record.

“We just do a song the way we think it should be done. It’s not a processed sound. It comes from us. It’s man-made, not manufactured.

“When we did the album of Dylan thing we did this: we just took the songs and did them as we thought they should be done.

“If the sound is distinctive, it’s a result of this approach rather than a defined, worked out sound.”

“We’ve been working in suits for a year now. I’m happy because I love being smart. When the hippy thing was in, we dressed like that.

“We jumped on the bandwagon then, and I thought afterwards we were wrong. That’s not our scene. I’m happier with the suits.”

[paul71]

Jul 18, 2020 17:47:26 GMT Mevrouw Bee said:

Better scans to come for those who gave me an email address!

But because sharing is caring, here's the transcription for everyone. Weird punctuation and paragraphs and all...

(the front page article)

HOLLIES HURTLE BACK


‘Dylan’ LP in May

After months in the shadows, the Hollies have roared back into the Top Ten with their first single since founder member Graham Nash quit the group and moved to America’s West Coast.

The single, “Sorry Suzanne,’ with new boy Terry Sylvester, jumped to number nine in the MM’s Pop 30 this week.

And it has rejuvenated the group. For singer Allan Clarke told MM this week that for a time he thought the group would split after Nash left.
The Hollies have started a massive six-week world-wide promotional campaign on the record. They have already appeared on German TV and have been booked to appear on television in Holland, Italy, Belgium and Sweden over the next few weeks.


Campaign

In addition, they have completed a three minute colour promotional film which is to be shown on 20 American TV shows and five Canadian shows, in the next three weeks. And the film will probably be used by Australian television stations as well.

The group’s manager Robin Britten told MM: “This is a massive campaign to create a worldwide hit with ‘Suzanne’.”

The Hollies next album “Hollies Sing Dylan” is released on May 4 and features 12 Bob Dylan songs, including “Mighty Quinn,” “Blowing In The Wind” and “My Back Pages.” In addition, the group have started work on a subsequent album which will contain at least nine original numbers.

And they have three “really good songs” from which to choose a new single, including one by Tony Hazard and another by Tony Macauley who wrote “Sorry Suzanne.”

(the page 5 article)

MR CLARKE, OF NW3, FEELS MUCH BETTER NOW THAT SUITS ARE BACK

A few months ago, the Hollies almost split up.

The group that has had a hit with every record they have issued over five highly successful years nearly went out of business.

It happened when Graham Nash, one of the founding members of the group, left to pursue his own musical path and the other four Hollies were faced with the job of trying to replace him.

Lead singer Allan Clarke told me about it at his cottage-style Hampstead home on Sunday.

“The trouble was, I knew how good Graham was. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to replace him.

“We were missing his high harmony which was an integral part of the group’s sound.

“We had two and a half months of looking about for a person who could replace him, fit in the group and be tuned in to the musical aims of the Hollies.

“It was frightening.

“There was a stage when the group nearly broke up and I had to think about what I was going to do in the future.

“I had considered going solo, because after all I have a family to support.

Fortunately for the group, after many auditions and much searching along came Terry Sylvester.

Terry had been playing guitar and singing with Liverpool’s Swinging Blue Jeans and fitted perfectly into the Hollies mould of happy, melodic music.

“It was uncanny how well he fitted in,” said Allan.

“He’s a hard worker and he believes in what the group is trying to do.

“Graham left because his musical ideas and the rest of the group’s conflicted.

“We wanted someone who would want to play Hollies music, the music we have been playing since we started.

“Terry’s working wonders. He’s gradually changing and moulding himself into the group. He’s smartening himself up and he’s not got something worth while to work for.”

Allan – and the rest of the group – breathed a sigh of relief when they recorded with Terry and found he fitted in perfectly in the recording studios, too.

One of the first things they recorded together was “Sorry Suzanne,” which has marked the Hollies’ return to the Pop 30.

“I’m on top of the world about it. Well, how would you feel? I’d had three months of worry.

“I thought that we’d retained the Hollies sound. But you can never tell. It was a very good song for the Hollies, but in the end it was up to the public whether they wanted it or not.”

The rejuvenated Hollies are set to start working again. They will play the college and university circuit rather than the ballrooms because they feel that their brand of music will be most appreciated there.

“We won’t be doing the ballrooms any more,” said Allan in the lounge of his home near Hampstead High Street. “We found the last time we were in America, when we had to do a 90-minute spot, that we had to create a cabaret act.

“We did that, and we find now that the cabaret act is our strongest area rather than doing a string of hits.

“That’s why we do songs like ‘Blowing In The Wind’ and ‘A Taste Of Honey.’ We find that the student audience really appreciates the things like this we do, and it’s better for us, too.”

The “Hollies sound” is famed in the pop business. But Allan said they never actively try to reproduce this “sound” every time they record.

“We just do a song the way we think it should be done. It’s not a processed sound. It comes from us. It’s man-made, not manufactured.

“When we did the album of Dylan thing we did this: we just took the songs and did them as we thought they should be done.

“If the sound is distinctive, it’s a result of this approach rather than a defined, worked out sound.”

“We’ve been working in suits for a year now. I’m happy because I love being smart. When the hippy thing was in, we dressed like that.

“We jumped on the bandwagon then, and I thought afterwards we were wrong. That’s not our scene. I’m happier with the suits.”

Thanks for doing this, its a good read.

[thejanitor]

What is the colour promo referred to in the article? I think the amount of promotional clips and mimed performances they did for "Sorry Suzanne" are the most they did for a single, which would tie in with Robin Britten's quote. I'm guessing it's this one?



(There is a better quality black and white version too.)

[Mevrouw Bee]

Jul 19, 2020 20:41:35 GMT thejanitor said:

What is the colour promo referred to in the article? I think the amount of promotional clips and mimed performances they did for "Sorry Suzanne" are the most they did for a single, which would tie in with Robin Britten's quote. I'm guessing it's this one?



(There is a better quality black and white version too.)

Cripes nobody look at that one while they're drunk. Allan looks like he's shape shifting!

[baz]

Jul 19, 2020 21:46:23 GMT Mevrouw Bee said:

Jul 19, 2020 20:41:35 GMT thejanitor said:

What is the colour promo referred to in the article? I think the amount of promotional clips and mimed performances they did for "Sorry Suzanne" are the most they did for a single, which would tie in with Robin Britten's quote. I'm guessing it's this one?

(There is a better quality black and white version too.)

Cripes nobody look at that one while they're drunk. Allan looks like he's shape shifting!

Ugh! Looks like it's been "stabilized" - seen many YouTube videos get ruined with similar results thanks to that.

It definitely looks like it would be the one Robin Britten talked about as the haircuts appear to match the TOTP performance so definitely from the same era... the hair was a bit longer by the time of "He Ain't Heavy" which also appears to be when Bobby took to wearing a wig.

Interesting piece with Allan there - thanks for transcribing it. Amusing what he had to say about suits as I don't think they sported them after 1969, opting for a more "casual" look in the 70's.

[Deleted]

They were still wearing suits for 'The Julie Felix Show' in April 1970, but they were in tasteful casual clothing by the time of their 'TOTP' performance of 'Gasoline Alley Bred' in September 1970.

[cameron]

What I don’t understand, is why they didn’t throw this kind of effort into promoting every Hollies single? I’ve said this before; every Hollies hit got to where it did in the charts entirely on its own merits. There was no radio DJ who had their back, no PR man behind the scenes, no playing around with sums of money to make the record sell, even EMI didn’t have invested interest in the group after 1966 due to their new contract arrangement. But they proved with ‘Sorry Suzanne’ that they could work the PR machine to great results. Why didn’t they keep this up?! There are NO surviving promos for ‘I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top’ and just one for ‘Gasoline Alley Bred’.

[baz]

Jul 22, 2020 12:00:26 GMT cameron said:

What I don’t understand, is why they didn’t throw this kind of effort into promoting every Hollies single? I’ve said this before; every Hollies hit got to where it did in the charts entirely on its own merits. There was no radio DJ who had their back, no PR man behind the scenes, no playing around with sums of money to make the record sell, even EMI didn’t have invested interest in the group after 1966 due to their new contract arrangement. But they proved with ‘Sorry Suzanne’ that they could work the PR machine to great results. Why didn’t they keep this up?! There are NO surviving promos for ‘I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top’ and just one for ‘Gasoline Alley Bred’.

Goodness knows! I think in this case there was a sense of panic and urgency which one can detect in what Allan said in this article. Graham was gone, new boy in the band and the band kinda feeling like they were back at square one having to prove themselves all over again. We know when the song hit, they were relieved and even more so when the next one succeeded and then I guess they thought they could sit back, happy they'd been "accepted" and could carry on.

Could a similar sense of panic be behind why they did the promo film for "Magic Woman Touch"? It does seem strange they only resorted to making official promo films on seemingly random occasions as opposed to most if not all records. They were popular, in demand on TV, couldn't possibly do all the TV shows and that was the function of a promo film so they could be available for all TV shows that wanted to feature them without having the expense of travel etc. They lost out and so did we as we have no contemporary footage of a few songs, "I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top" being a glaring example and it's mostly only by freak random chance what pre-1976 clips we have survived.

[cameron]

I wonder how many official promos there are in total? I can only think of 'Sorry Suzanne', 'Long Cool Woman' (filmed in 1974) and 'Magic Woman Touch' from the early days. Everything else seems to be from a TV show.

Also there appears to be numerous versions of 'Sorry Suzanne' from the Tom Jones Show, with various edits. Anyone know the story behind these?

[baz]

Jul 22, 2020 12:47:40 GMT cameron said:

I wonder how many official promos there are in total? I can only think of 'Sorry Suzanne', 'Long Cool Woman' (filmed in 1974) and 'Magic Woman Touch' from the early days. Everything else seems to be from a TV show.

Also there appears to be numerous versions of 'Sorry Suzanne' from the Tom Jones Show, with various edits. Anyone know the story behind these?

There is that oddball film for "Carrie Anne" which I have no idea about but otherwise, I can't think of any other pre-1976 promos either.

The Tom Jones Show edits are down to the fact that the entire first series, each episode was shot twice - in black and white PAL for the UK then in colour NTSC for the US. Been various debates and speculation in other forums why they actually did this instead of simply filming in colour then processing it into b+w for the UK as it meant double the expense and time involved but that's precisely what happened! So each version of each episode had slightly different angles/cuts so there are two performances of each song. Somebody on YouTube once lined up the b+w and colour versions of a Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger performance of "Indian Rope Man" and split the audio side by side for stereo and it proved each version was unique as Julie's phrasing differed each time and whilst angles/cuts were mostly replicated, they cut away or zooms were done differently.

[sandy]

Jul 22, 2020 12:39:17 GMT baz said:

Jul 22, 2020 12:00:26 GMT cameron said:

What I don’t understand, is why they didn’t throw this kind of effort into promoting every Hollies single? I’ve said this before; every Hollies hit got to where it did in the charts entirely on its own merits. There was no radio DJ who had their back, no PR man behind the scenes, no playing around with sums of money to make the record sell, even EMI didn’t have invested interest in the group after 1966 due to their new contract arrangement. But they proved with ‘Sorry Suzanne’ that they could work the PR machine to great results. Why didn’t they keep this up?! There are NO surviving promos for ‘I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top’ and just one for ‘Gasoline Alley Bred’.

Goodness knows! I think in this case there was a sense of panic and urgency which one can detect in what Allan said in this article. Graham was gone, new boy in the band and the band kinda feeling like they were back at square one having to prove themselves all over again. We know when the song hit, they were relieved and even more so when the next one succeeded and then I guess they thought they could sit back, happy they'd been "accepted" and could carry on.

Could a similar sense of panic be behind why they did the promo film for "Magic Woman Touch"? It does seem strange they only resorted to making official promo films on seemingly random occasions as opposed to most if not all records. They were popular, in demand on TV, couldn't possibly do all the TV shows and that was the function of a promo film so they could be available for all TV shows that wanted to feature them without having the expense of travel etc. They lost out and so did we as we have no contemporary footage of a few songs, "I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top" being a glaring example and it's mostly only by freak random chance what pre-1976 clips we have survived.

It could be that these promos at opportune times of change would have been made to use as mainly short clips to go with newsy pop programs?Or even news programs to promote new line ups.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2020 13:13:09 GMT baz said:

Jul 22, 2020 12:47:40 GMT cameron said:

I wonder how many official promos there are in total? I can only think of 'Sorry Suzanne', 'Long Cool Woman' (filmed in 1974) and 'Magic Woman Touch' from the early days. Everything else seems to be from a TV show.

Also there appears to be numerous versions of 'Sorry Suzanne' from the Tom Jones Show, with various edits. Anyone know the story behind these?

There is that oddball film for "Carrie Anne" which I have no idea about but otherwise, I can't think of any other pre-1976 promos either.

The Tom Jones Show edits are down to the fact that the entire first series, each episode was shot twice - in black and white PAL for the UK then in colour NTSC for the US. Been various debates and speculation in other forums why they actually did this instead of simply filming in colour then processing it into b+w for the UK as it meant double the expense and time involved but that's precisely what happened! So each version of each episode had slightly different angles/cuts so there are two performances of each song. Somebody on YouTube once lined up the b+w and colour versions of a Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger performance of "Indian Rope Man" and split the audio side by side for stereo and it proved each version was unique as Julie's phrasing differed each time and whilst angles/cuts were mostly replicated, they cut away or zooms were done differently.

All very true (and indeed, I have differing colour/B&W versions of Dusty Springfield performing 'Son of A Preacher Man' on the show)... except BOTH performances of 'Sorry Suzanne' are in colour! Maybe, as others have suggested, one is simply a rehearsal/outtake?

[cameron]

I thought both clips of 'Sorry Suzanne' were in colour. You can tell that the B+W version has been converted as the contrast is pretty poor.

I forgot about the 'Carrie Anne' promo, done to promote it at a time when Bobby was recovering from his appendicitis and the Hollies were on hiatus. I think he was signed off while the swelling went down before they could operate, he said in his book, so he shouldn't have been out drumming. You can sort of see him doubled over his kit a bit in the promo and not really playing the drums.

Fascinating insight about the Tom Jones show being shot twice. I wonder why they didn't just have the B+W cameras rolling longside the colour ones? I'm still dying to see the clip of the Hollies on Colour Me Pop, which survives only in B+W.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2020 16:20:01 GMT cameron said:

 I wonder why they didn't just have the B+W cameras rolling longside the colour ones? 

They did initially try this, but UK viewers complained about the inferior angles, with Tom (etc) playing up to the "USA" cameras!

[Deleted]

A video was also made to promote 'The Baby':

[thejanitor]

The Very Last Day, I Can't Let Go, Stop, Stop, Stop, Dear Eloise, Charlie And Fred, Postcard, Jennifer Eccles, I'm Down, Stop In The Name Of Love and Baby Come Back are a mixture of tracks that come to mind that I think have promo/music videos.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2020 17:44:38 GMT thejanitor said:

The Very Last Day, I Can't Let Go, Stop, Stop, Stop, Dear Eloise, Charlie And Fred, Postcard, Jennifer Eccles, I'm Down, Stop In The Name Of Love and Baby Come Back are a mixture of tracks that come to mind that I think have promo/music videos.

Although you're right about the last three, those '60s performances were made for specific TV shows such as Sweden's 'Popside' and The Netherlands' 'Twien'. So, these are NOT promo/music videos, any more than the band's appearances on 'Shindig!', 'Beat Club' and 'Top of The Pops' were. 

Here's another promo video no-one's mentioned (one of their best imo):

[Deleted]

Of course, their very first promotional video (made for video jukeboxes) was this one:

[sandy]

Jul 22, 2020 18:37:13 GMT peterc said:

Of course, their very first promotional video (made for video jukeboxes) was this one:

Wow?! Being a bit dense, I didn't know they had video jukeboxes 😊Wow, MTV of their time then? 😊

[Deleted]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone

[thejanitor]

I'd never seen that "Find Me A Family" video before. Sweet, although it makes Allan looks like a detective in some kind of a crime thriller at the beginning! 😂

[Mevrouw Bee]

Jul 22, 2020 20:53:03 GMT thejanitor said:

I'd never seen that "Find Me A Family" video before. Sweet, although it makes Allan looks like a detective in some kind of a crime thriller at the beginning! 😂

Omg...I saw a photo of him on a Facebook page a few weeks ago in that coat and I had to tweet it. In my defence, I'm Canadian and we don't know that show!

If there's a hell for naughty Hollies fans, I'm gonna be going there...

 

[baz]

Jul 22, 2020 22:51:09 GMT Mevrouw Bee said:

If there's a hell for naughty Hollies fans, I'm gonna be going there...

I'm already in that hell! Older members on the earlier incarnation of this forum will remember I often posted send ups of album covers and photos and did some photo stories like what really went on behind the scenes at the HOF ceremony or a BBC news report which had them constantly interviewing the wrong Allan Clarke only to finally find him saying he was happy to be reclusive as he had gotten tired of middle aged Tony Hicks fans pestering him in the supermarket for Tony's number... all sorts of daft pieces which were great fun to do and provided some close to the knuckle laughs!