The Hollies - Concert Review

Dublin, Belfast and Liverpool, 20^th February 2004 - by Lesley Haywood

A Few Days Break In Ireland

As it was school half-term Rob, myself and our son, Andy had a few days in Ireland and Liverpool with The Hollies. Andy & I saw our first show on this stretch of the tour at Chesterfield, a few evenings earlier. We were both impressed by the changes and additions and were looking forward to seeing another three shows.

We left Nottingham early on Thursday morning to catch the flight from Liverpool to Dublin, having decided to travel a day before the show so we could see the sights of Dublin City. None of us had been to Eire before. After an uneventful flight we picked up our hire car from Dublin airport and drove to our hotel. After settling in we went into the city for a walk around and to have a meal. We found a lovely restaurant in Temple Bar and returned to the hotel pleasantly full to have an early night.

We got up next morning very tired as we had a sleepless night. The hotel had held an anniversary ball the night before and suffice to say that the combination of a good time and lots of drink had resulted in a great deal of noise outside our room in the corridors. The hotel staff were terrific though and moved us right to the top floor where Andy had his own room and we had a four-poster bed!!!

We explored the coastline to the north of Dublin during the day which was lovely, although very windy.

It was then time to drive to the National Concert Hall for the show. The venue was lovely – a huge foyer which was rapidly filling up. We had another lovely meal in the theatre restaurant and then went in to watch the show. Andy & I were right next to the sound desk (Rob was working taking photos). We could see that there was no backdrop for the projections and the reason for this was that the theatre had sold over 50 tickets in the choir stalls behind the band. I would imagine their view and the sound wasn’t brilliant but perhaps they felt it was better than not being there at all.

The show started and right from the beginning the audience showed their appreciation. The show was brilliant and the sound fabulous. The band haven’t changed the show much as all these venues are a continuation from last year’s tour.

However one addition I was very pleased with was I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top. I’ve always loved this song and it was performed during the acoustic section with just Alan, Tony & Ray accompanied by their guitars and Ian’s keyboards. The harmonies were fabulous – what lovely voices both Alan & Ray have, and with Tony joining them, they deserved the rapturous applause from the audience.

Look Through Any Window has reverted to the slower version that The Hollies used on some earlier tours. It sounds great and gives both Tony & Alan a chance to show to everybody what wonderful guitarists they are. Andy was very impressed – he plays the guitar himself now, so could appreciate their expertise.

All too soon it was half time and the general impression we got from listening to the audience in the foyer was that everybody was thoroughly enjoying the show.

The second half started with Long Cool Woman and seemed to pass very quickly.

The audience were great and at the end of Air That I Breathe everybody was standing and applauding. They clapped along to I Can Hear The Grass Grow and danced to Tiger Feet. A loud cheer went up when Carl introduced He Ain’t Heavy and again there was a standing ovation at the end. A great show.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and we set off to drive up to Belfast. We arrived safely at about one o’clock and found our hotel. We settled in and Rob stayed in to watch the rugby, England won, while Andy & I set off to walk to the Odyssey Arena which was a short distance away. We are all very keen fans of Ice Hockey, following the Nottingham Panthers, so we wanted to see where the Belfast Giants played their matches. Unfortunately, because they weren’t playing that night the shop wasn’t open, but at least we found the Arena. (The Panthers played Belfast there the following night when we were in Liverpool and beat them 6-4!). Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the show. A short walk took us into the foyer of another lovely theatre where we again met a number of fans who had travelled over from England as well as our friend Mervin, who lives in Belfast.

Andy & I had seats at the side overlooking the stage and were able to watch the audience as well as the band. Again it was obvious from the start that they were loving the show. The backdrop was there that night and the effect of all the projections was great. Although we weren’t sitting in the ideal place as far as sound was concerned, the concert was equally as good as the previous night. The audience gave them standing ovations again and cheered long and loud.

We were up early on Sunday morning to drive to the airport for our return flight. We landed in Liverpool at about 10.30, collected our car and drove to the centre of Liverpool. We found the venue but had beaten everybody there including the truck.

We spent a couple of hours driving out to Albert Dock to visit The Beatles Story exhibition. It was very interesting and there were a few posters from the 60’s in there advertising The Hollies.

Back at the venue the truck had arrived and it was all systems go to get everything set up for that nights performance. All the crew worked magnificently and nobody would have known they’d lost about three hours setting up time due to the ferry sailings from Belfast.

The Philharmonic Hall was a new venue for The Hollies in Liverpool. It is a lovely theatre and again was full.

Sadly, Carl announced the news of the untimely death of Les Gray, former lead singer of Mud and friend of Ray.

Again the show was brilliant. Carl had some friendly banter with a man in the audience who kept shouting out. The audience thoroughly appreciated the show and a good time was had by all.

Ray dedicated Tiger Feet to Les Gray and , with a tear in his eye, gave a great performance.

The show finished to rapturous applause once again.

Because Andy had to be back in school next morning, we left fairly promptly after speaking to a number of our friends, including Knut and his wife who were over from Norway, and arrived home in the early hours of Monday morning after a wonderful weekend.

Rob & I are now looking forward to next weekend in the West country – Andy unfortunately has to go to school so will be staying with his sister.

Lesley Haywood

Setlist

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