The Hollies - Concert Review

Oxford Apollo, 20^th November 1999 - by Simon Tordoff

The Hollies turned in another excellent performance at The Apollo in Oxford on a cold and damp Saturday night. This was my first visit to the Apollo, and it isn't the easiest of places to find. I made a few circuits of the Oxford streets before finally finding the theatre, perhaps not helped by a number of road closures and diversions. Indeed, Tony Hicks suggested this could well be the reason why a number of latecomers took their seats part way into the show. That said, I found the venue to be warm and inviting and certainly suited to the occasion. From my second row seat in the centre stalls, the sound quality was as good as I have heard at any venue.

Having seen The Hollies perform on numerous occasions throughout this Autumn Tour, I have to say that I was a little disappointed that the show remained essentially the same as their Spring Tour show, save for the addition of Tony Hicks' wonderful "Too Young To Be Married" which the band introduced part way through their Autumn dates. Renditions of this song in recent years have been done acoustically with just the 'front row' of Alan, Allan and Tony, but their latest arrangement now sees the 'back row' joining in, which certainly adds more depth and feeling to this great song, and provides, for me, one of the highlights of the show.

Whilst including virtually all of their 1960's hits, The Hollies also provided a generous sprinkling of other less well known songs. Using the same method adopted to great effect in "Peggy Sue Got Married" where The Hollies provide their backing to Buddy Holly's vocal, one such offering is the little known single from the mid-sixties "After The Fox" with narration from Peter Sellers.

Along the same lines as the excellent "When I'm Dead And Gone", with it's distinctive country feel and foot-tapping beat is the 1966 flip side "Running Through The Night".

The second half featured a lovely version of Paul McCartney's classic "Blackbird" with vocals provided by Tony, Alan and Ray, along with orchestration from Ian. Also of note is Graham Nash's "Butterfly", which Alan Coates has now made his own, but remaining among my personal favourites is the infectious version of "We're Through" which never fails to raise a cheer, no doubt helped by Allan Clarke's 'thoroughly convincing' keyboard skills, whilst lan Parker wanders around the auditorium with squeeze-box and head-mounted spotlight...

But it's the big hits which the audience obviously come to see, and there is no shortage of well known standards packed into the second half. The Apollo crowd seemed to take a while to 'warm up', as it were, but the closing flurry of hits, building up to the big ballads of "The Air That I Breathe" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", together with the rocking finale brought everyone to their feet.

Yet another great show.

Simon Tordoff

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