The Hollies - Concert Review

Kidderminster Glades Arena, 13^th November 1999 - by Jeff & Barbara Bott

From the dramatic music and lights at the beginning to the last note of Long Cool Woman, last nights show at KIDDERMINSTER played to a packed house was one of the best this tour, with the band seeming to enjoy it almost as much as the audience.

Their fantastic music was interspersed with plenty of laughing and joking, some of it at the expense of Ian Parker concerning the result of the England - Scotland soccer game and yes Tony as you rightly said, we did end up with stiff necks after looking up at the stage for over two hours but the pleasure we got far outweighed the pain.

The show was packed with hit after hit, far too many to mention and some not so well known such as "Running Through The Night", "Not That Way At All" and "After The Fox". Each one sounding as good if not better than the original recordings.

Allan Clarke even managed (with the help of modern technology) to 'dig up' Buddy Holly and Peter Sellers to help them out on a couple of songs and their cover versions of "When I'm Dead And Gone" and "Blackbird", the latter of which features just Ray, Alan and Tony, are in my opinion better than the originals and the rock and roll finale which featured "At The Hop", "Let's Dance" and "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" had the audience on their feet dancing and showed what a great rock band THE HOLLIES are.

Walking back to the car after the show and listening to the other fans, both old and newly converted talking about the great contribution of 'new boys' Ray and Ian, the terrific skills of Alan and Tony, the brilliant drumming of Bobby and the incredible voice of Clarkey I heard one guy say to his partner "I don't care what you say, they must have been miming cause nobody is that good". Well I can assure him and anyone else that THE HOLLIES are THAT GOOD and if they're ever in your area don't miss them.

Jeff & Barbara Bott, Nottingham

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