The Hollies - Concert Review

Derby Assembly Rooms, 15^th October 1997 - by Simon Tordoff

As far as audiences go, the crowd at the Assembly Rooms in Derby seemed to be a rather reserved lot. Perhaps a combination of the drizzly weather and Derby's nightmarish one-way traffic system didn't help. The Assembly Rooms is a great venue, but not the easiest of places to find. Polite hand-clapping was the order of the day here, and it wasn't until the rousing version of "I'm Alive", part way through the first half of the show that the audience appeared to warm up and the occasional cheer could be heard.

This is one of many songs which are included in the repertoire on this tour, and is one of the highlights for me, as is The Hollies' brilliant version of Mc Guinness Flint's "When I'm Dead And Gone". In a departure from the basic running order of recent tours, this song actually closes the first half of the show and sees Tony Hicks on electric mandolin and Alan Coates on banjo, both sharing the lead vocal, whilst Allan Clarke belts out the song on the harmonica. "When I'm Dead And Gone" has a distinct "feel-good factor", the style of which is along the same lines as -'Running Through The Night" which was done on the last tour. Unfortunately, the Derby crowd didn't appear to share my enthusiasm judging by their tame reaction, Maybe this particular audience were wanting the Hollies to perform more of their own well known standards, but personally, I enjoy seeing them doing other material.

During one of their "unplugged". acoustic spots, Allan Clarke performed a superb and haunting version of a Bruce Springsteen song entitled "If I Were The Priest". He stood alone in the spotlight playing acoustic guitar with just the occasional subtle harmonies from Tony and Alan, and for me this was a spell-binding performance. The same can be said for the equally touching "Helplessly Hoping" with Allan, Tony and Alan performing their trade-mark delicate, three-part harmonies on the centre microphone.

Other "new" songs featured in the show included "Stop In The Name Of Love" and an excellent rendition of Graham Nash's "Butterfly" performed by Alan Coates with orchestration by Ian Parker, "Draggin' My Heels", taken from their mid-seventies "Russian Roulette" album, is also featured. I must admit that this was never one of my favourite albums, nor is this one of my favourite tracks, but having heard them perform the song live a couple of times, it does tend to grow on you, However, this song is one of a number that highlight the undeniable brilliance of Ian Parker on keyboards

The closing flurry of Hollies standards from "Carrie Anne", through "He Ain't heavy" to the rocking finale of "Long Cool Woman" really motivated the capacity crowd who applauded each member of the band who gave the customary 100%, as ever.

Simon Tordoff

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