“The band played the Reichstag in Berlin to a crowd of 250,000. He went home and told everyone… They were more excited that somebody had won a tenner at the bingo!” The grounding experiences of Barclay James Harvest
· louderBy Malcolm Dome
( Prog )
published 6 November 2024
Unrelentingly Northern in attitude, both parts the slow-burning band that split in two seemed happy with their lot – but is their story one of unfulfilled achievements?
In 1988, 22 years into their career, Barclay James Harvest split in two, becoming John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest and Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd. With original drummer Mel Pritchard having died in 2004, the three remaining original members told Prog about their highs and lows in 2010, not long before keyboardist Stuart ‘Woolly’ Wolstenholme’s death.
The Enid’s Robert John Godfrey has a firm opinion on how big Barclay James Harvest could have been. The man who helped to orchestrate the band’s first two albums – their self-titled debut (1970) and Once Again (’71) –says today: “If they hadn’t got rid of me, they’d have been bigger than Pink Floyd.”
It’s a view that mildly amuses those three remaining members of the band who were there at the time. “We never wanted to be like Pink Floyd,” says keyboard player Woolly Wolstenholme. “We’ve not done badly anyway. Just because we didn’t do what he felt we should doesn’t make us a failure. In fact, I don’t think it was the ‘loss’ of Robert that held us back.
“If anything it was losing our producer, Norman Smith, after Once Again. He had his own recording career by then, as Hurricane Smith. I do wonder what he might have gone on to do with us.”
“Robert John Godfrey’s track record since those early days says it all,” adds bassist Les Holroyd. “If he believes we could have been bigger than Pink Floyd, then obviously he would have moved on to greater things.”
Whether you feel BJH have unfulfilled potential or not, the fact is they’ve created some of the most enduring and startling English progressive music of the past four decades. Formed in 1966, they enjoyed their greatest success with the line-up of Wolstenholme, Holroyd, guitarist John Lees and drummer Mel Pritchard (the first three all sang as well). This lasted throughout the 1970s, before Wolstenholme quit in 1979, leading to a near reinvention of the band with a much more melodic rock approach.
“It’s been a very varied career,” admits Wolstenholme. “To have lasted this long is incredible. I remember when we started, Mel said we’d have a hit within six weeks and split up inside six months. Wrong on both counts. Personally, I’m glad we never had that early hit, because we’d have been a different band. As it is, you look at our albums, and there are good songs throughout. We took the slow path to any success – but that worked long term in our favour.”
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Lees, the only constant member down the years, feels that the period up to and including 1977’s Gone To Earth album was their most creative. “I think there was a unity about us during those early years. Afterwards, it was about individual songwriters. I always felt that Gone To Earth was going to be a much bigger album than it turned out to be. It did sell over a million copies, without the benefit of a hit single. But maybe because it didn’t do better we were forced a little into a more AOR direction during the 1980s.
“The thing with us is that we took our time to find our own style. I reckon it wasn’t really until Barclay James Harvest... And Other Short Stories [their third album, released in 1972] that we really came into our own.”
For No One - YouTube
Formed in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, the band – who relocated in their early days to Oldham – have always been a steadfastly northern lot; to this day Lees still lives in that part of the world. It’s been both a positive and negative for them. “Being up there in the early part of our career meant that we missed out on a lot,” admits Lees now. “We were very provincial in our attitude, and as a result bands like Pink Floyd who lived in London got far more attention. But it also meant we could be a little more removed from the limelight.”
“I like the fact we have such a low profile as individuals,” adds Wolstenholme. “It kept us grounded and ensured our egos never got out of control. I’d come off the road after a hugely successful tour, and would still have to queue up at the butcher’s for bacon. People who knew us at home weren’t at all impressed with us being so-called rock stars.
“I remember Mel telling me that after the band played in front of the Reichstag in Berlin in 1980 with a crowd of about 250,000, he went back home and told everyone what they’d just done. They were more excited that somebody had just won a tenner at the bingo!”
Over the years, Barclay James Harvest have been relatively free of intrigue. Their music has defined them, rather than personalities. And there’s little doubt about their impact: eight Top 40 UK albums, with 12 in Germany (arguably their strongest market) has given them a career that has put them right up with best progressive bands of the last 40 years.
“We were fortunate enough to be around at the beginning of so-called progressive rock – and not just ourselves but many bands from that era still enjoy success with live music,” says Holroyd. “We have just been lucky over the years, especially having good audiences throughout Europe.”
Barclay James Harvest - Hymn - YouTube
“It’s been Europe, and particularly Germany, that has ensured we’ve had such a big career,” adds Wolstenholme. “Not that we’ve ever turned our back on Britain – or ever would – but the band has consistently been able to do big tours out there, which has helped to fund a lot of what we do.”
Despite their seemingly laid-back approach to music and life, there have been two controversies which have dogged them. One is in regard to Robert John Godfrey. The second subject is still touchy to this day: the split which left Lees and Wolstenholme working together, while Holroyd and Pritchard went off to do their own thing (Pritchard died in 2004). Since then, the clamour for a reunion has been firmly, but politely ignored by all three.
“I look at it like a marriage,” says Wolstenholme. “You might end up wed to a girl when you’re young, but then you grow apart, and eventually have no option but to move on with your lives. The people you get into a band with in the first place aren’t necessarily the same years later.”
The split came in 1998, when it was clear that musical differences were too great to overcome. At that, Wolstenholme wasn’t involved – he’d left the music business to become a farmer – but was persuaded to team up with Lees in a band called Barclay James Harvest Through The Eyes Of John Lees, while the others named their touring band Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd.
“I have to be honest and say I would never have come back had Les stayed,” admits Wolstenholme. “By that time, I felt that he was going in such a different musical direction to myself and John that there was no way I could work with him.”
Mocking Bird - YouTube
Since then, there’s been no sign of a reconciliation. Both Lees and Wolstenholme hint that the problem lies with Holroyd. “Let’s put it this way,” reveals Lees, “if someone offered us the opportunity to reunite with Les, then the decision would be taken out of mine and Woolly’s hands.”
“People often ask me if there’s a chance we’ll work with Les again,” adds Wolstenholme. “I don’t think John and I will ever get to think about it in any real sense, because the third person in all of this will just reject it out of hand. Besides, why do you want to see it happen? Only for nostalgic reasons. And that’s something which doesn’t bother me at all. It’s the sort of idealistic thing fans look at from the outside and get all misty-eyed about. But you have to be inside the band to understand why it’ll never happen.
“Okay, you can never say never, because that’s daft and life does throw up a few surprises. If you’d have told me in 1990 that I’d be back working as a musician before the end of the decade, I’d have called you a few impolite names! But surely you’d only feel the reunion was complete if Mel were there, and he died a few years ago.”
That view is compounded by Holroyd’s forthright, unequivocal and freely expressed feelings on the matter. “There is absolutely no way that I would work with John or Woolly again,” he states. “Times have changed and everyone has moved in their own direction.”
One thing both Holroyd and Wolstenholme agree on is that the past should be left where it is, and not revisited. “I’m not one for nostalgia,” says Wolstenholme. “I regret the fact that we did the Nexus album in 1999, reworking some of our old songs We allowed ourselves to be talked into that one by the record label. But ultimately that was a waste of our time.
“An artist should always move on and be creating new songs. Otherwise you become a dusty old relic, and you get left on the shelf, forever moaning about your lot in life. That’s why all this talk of reunions and celebrating the anniversary of this album or that album doesn’t interest me at all.”
“Some people may like to stay in the past and I’m sure it’s fine for them,” adds Holroyd. “But I prefer to think of the things we are doing now, rather than dwell on what’s gone.”
Lees, though, does see some value to recognizing the group’s past, and even celebrating it. “I love the fact that next year we have the 40th anniversary of Once Again coming up. Those sort of things give you an idea of what you’ve achieved down the years – and we’ve done so much. I’m really looking forward to the special edition being released. Will we do anything like play the whole album on tour? I can’t see that happening, although I’m not totally against it.”
He also feels there’s something positive to be said for having two official versions of the band right now. “It means that fans can actually hear a bigger collection of past songs than would be the case if there was only one. Woolly and I have the songs we love to play, and Les has his own set list. So, as far as I’m concerned, whatever era of the band you like, it’s covered by at least one of the original members.”
Thankfully, there’s no sign of the three stagnating. John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest (as they’re now called) have a UK tour in December and are plotting new recordings. “We’re now thinking about new songs,” says Lees, “although it hasn’t yet gone as far as us booking studio time. But I’m sure it will happen. However, we are at a stage in our career when we don’t have to stay on the treadmill, touring and recording all time. I’m currently also working at a college on the technology of music, something I really enjoy.”
Barclay James Harvest - Poor Man's Moody Blues - YouTube
As for Holroyd: “At the moment I have several things that I’m working on, writing new material to record at some point in the near future. Also I have another project – a rock opera about Anne de Bretagne [a 14th/15th century French queen], which features many famous French artists, as well as John Helliwell [Supertramp], Martin Barre [Jethro Tull] and members of Fairport Convention. Then I’ll tour Germany with the rock opera Excalibur.”
For Lees, Wolstenholme and Holroyd it’s all about pushing onwards. The illustrious history remains, but there’s plenty to come. “I’m loving my life and my music right now,” says Wolstenholme. “For me this is a very productive time for Barclay James Harvest. Or at least this version with John.”
“Over many years there have been some good periods, especially playing live music,” says Holroyd. “But for me at this point in time Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd is one of the most enjoyable periods.”
Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.
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