The Hollies - Concert Review

Carlisle Sands Centre, 13^th March 2004 - by Tony Gair

We were promised 2 1/2 hours of hits by The Hollies and some surprises and we were not dissapointed. We were entertained by a top class performance.

The Sands Centre was packed and the crowd was enthusiastic.

A great feature of the concert was the projected images onto a backdrop mixing images of members of the group with fancy patterns.

Carl Wayne may sound different to Allan Clarke but his renditions of the songs was great and the sound typical Hollies.

Alan Coates was in superb voice and the performance on drums of Bobby Elliott puts him amongst the greatest british Drummers of all time.

But for me the highlight of the show was Tony Hicks on guitar and guitar sitar. He must be one of the best guitar players of all time.

Tunes were a plenty with hits such as Carrie Anne, Bus Stop, look through Any Window, On a Carousel, Fire brigade, Tiger Feet and I Can Here the Grass Grow.

It was good to see Ray Stiles fitting in and his voice fitted in with the Hollies Sound together with Ian on keyboards.

It seemed that the show ended far too quickly had it realy been 2 1/2 hours!

After several encores and the Acappella Of Its Everone Of US the boys left the stage to a standing ovation.

Hurry back to Carisle - It was a truely fantastic show and a huge thank you for entertaining us.

Tony Gair

Setlist