Barclay James Harvest sprang to life in
Oldham in the mid-1960's and, along with
bands such as Pink Floyd and Yes, were
considered one of the innovators of
Progressive Rock. Over the next 40
years, BJH went on to create and break
records, being the first group to
perform an outdoor festival in Europe,
setting the mark for the number of
paying attendees during a continuous
tour cycle and performing in front of a
reputed 275,000 audience on the steps of
the Reichstag in West Berlin in 1980
with an estimated similar number
listening on the East side!
In
1998, the group underwent a
transformation that saw a new line-up to
accompany the Barclay James Harvest
featuring Les Holroyd album "Revolution
Days" recorded in 2001. Sadly, founder
member drummer Mel Pritchard passed away
in January 2004.
2006 saw the return of the band
performing with an orchestra for the
first time since the 70’s during a short
tour of Europe with the City of Prague
Philharmonic Orchestra. Following that
success, another tour of Germany with
the PPO has just been completed in
December.
In
February and March 2007, Barclay James
Harvest featuring Les Holroyd will give
their first UK performances since being
Special Guests at four shows given by
Asia in March 2005. In the first of two
interviews with the band Hardrockhouse
caught up with guitarist Mike Byron-Hehir.
Mike
Byron-Hehir
Hi
Mike and thanks for talking to us here
at Hardrockhouse. I’d like to kick off
by asking you about the 2006 orchestral
shows in mainland Europe. Was playing
with an orchestra a new experience for
you and how did you enjoy the shows?
Hi to everyone at Hardrockhouse. Yes,
playing with an orchestra in this
situation was new to me and it was an
amazing experience. They are lovely
people though and very talented
musicians. They are also very rock and
roll in their approach to working with a
band which was good from our point of
view because it meant we didn’t have to
drastically change anything about the
way we played as a band. They’ve worked
with bands before so they have a
looseness about them which is nice. They
are also severe party animals!
The recent DVD / CD release ‘Classic
Meets Rock’ documents the orchestral
show. Are you pleased with how this has
come out and was the French show a
particularly strong performance on the
tour?
Very pleased actually considering that
it was touch and go whether it would
come out at all. We were plagued with
problems on the day with delays and
such, so much equipment, camera setups
etc, that we did not get time for a
sound check at all. Our sound guys
managed to complete a line check and
that was it ….doors open!
When
we got on stage we couldn’t hear each
other …no monitors! However we just
decided to go for it come what may but
things were tense to say the least. I
remember saying to Ian after the gig
that I thought it wasn’t that bad
considering, it could be really good.
The audience was amazing though and
there was a good vibe to the show. We
watched a rough cut after the tour and
it looked great then we found that one
of the five 8 track digital machines
used to record the audio was out of
synch. Pip Williams, who produced
Barclay James Harvest in the past
oversaw the project and thought that we
should scrap it and do it again on the
next tour. However, after seeing the
rough cut of the visuals, we decided to
go into Revolution Studios in Manchester
to evaluate things for ourselves. Les
and I sat down with Justin Richards,
engineer and producer at Revo and we
listened to everything and it was just a
nightmare! The performance was great but
the digital clicks and dropouts were
everywhere. One thing in our favour was
that the drum tracks, my guitar and the
keyboards were OK. The orchestra tracks
needed cleaning up, digital clicks and
dropouts every 10 seconds or so and the
lead and backing vocals along with some
of the rhythm guitar needed looking at.
With Pro Tools were able to go through
everything though, it was just time
consuming but well worth it I think.
Justin did an amazing job.
Before you joined the band had your
paths crossed many times before and were
you aware of much of their earlier work?
Well Ian (Wilson, acoustic guitars and
occasional bass) had actually done gigs
on the same bill as BJH in the early
70’s and tells a good story about the
band he was in at the time, Greasy Bear,
loaning the Barclays their stereo PA
system for a ‘small consideration’ when
the BJH PA packed in! Steve Butler, Ian
and myself worked on ‘Welcome to the
Show’ in 1989, also recorded at
Revolution Studios. A friend of mine
took me to see them around 1974 in
Manchester “You’ve got to see this band”
he said. I remember the album covers on
the inner sleeves of my Deep Purple LPs
..the Harvest label. I remember Mel,
what great drumming and what great rock
and roll hair Les had! I worked at lot
at Strawberry Studios in Stockport in
the 80’s with Martin Lawrence who had
produced and engineered many albums for
BJH and the gold and platinum albums
were everywhere. They had a very high
profile and it was great to be asked to
work on Show, then later on Revolution
Days.
Did you approach the older material
with a desire to put your own stamp on
them as opposed to just replicating the
original guitar parts?
I did not think about the guitars at all
really. When we started rehearsing for
the first show in Colmar 2002, we were
focusing on the Revolution Days tracks.
Les and Mel had some ideas of older
stuff, things like Rock and Roll Star,
Yesterdays Heroes, that they would like
to play and he had some live recordings.
We just listened, maybe once, Les would
say what key the song was in and we were
off. Chris Jago would work stuff out
with Mel and it all came together. Les
was very easy about the songs, he did
not want us to copy anything, if it was
to be fresh …it had to be us …as a band.
I play pretty much what I feel on the
tunes but I don’t sit down and copy any
guitar parts so what you hear is me I
suppose. Ian and I work together on the
guitars, what fits the songs
dynamically. For soloing too I play
pretty much what I feel on the night. I
have a picture though, a shape if you
will, that I do try and stick to.
Of course you lost Mel in 2004 which
was a great blow. He was always known
for being a lively character and must
have had lots of great stories about
past tours, are there any that spring to
mind?
Mel was a great drummer, a fine man and
a good friend. Yes he was a lively
character, very funny with a sometimes
evil wit! As for stories …err …lots. Les
and I were talking about this question
the other day but I couldn’t think of
story that wouldn’t’get someone else
into trouble!! He was great leveller,
often muttering some comment to himself
but within earshot if ever he heard any
bull**** going on. Les has some killers
from early BJH days …Woolly, Mel, the
giant shoe, the Owl lady!! There was the
tour bus from hell we had a couple of
years back, recounted on our website,
where Mel modified the DVD player! He
often felt the need to ‘go to the little
boys room’ while on stage and one night,
at a very big show, during an
instrumental section decided to ‘go’ in
a bucket behind his drum kit only to
find the lights come up and the seating
behind him filled with adoring fans!! A
lovely man sadly missed.
The upcoming UK dates will be the
largest tour here for some years. How
are you feeling about the shows and
getting to play places such as Hull,
Bolton and Chesterfield, towns that
won’t have seen a BJH show for a long
time?
Well a lot of my touring experience in
the last 20 years or so has been in the
US, Canada, Japan with Corey Hart and
BJHFLH in Europe. The last big tour of
the UK I did was with Sad Café in 1983!
I have played some of the venues before
so it will be nice to go back again. We
did four shows with Asia in 2005 and
they went well so we are really looking
forward to it.
I was speaking with your support act
John Young about the UK gig circuit and
how promoters seem to prefer to put on
tribute bands. What’s your view on this
and how does it differ from mainland
Europe where you can play to much larger
audiences?
Well I think the attitude in the UK is
odd to say the least. Always has been.
There are some great venues, there are
audiences but people don’t seem to want
to take the chance a lot of the time
because of the expense, risk whatever
..maybe it’s financial, maybe it’s the
red tape, regulations, you cant do that
because of this, your not trendy etc.
There’s a great festival culture in
Europe where, besides the Coldplays and
Arctic Monkeys or whoever, bands from
the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s can still draw a
good audience. Yes I suppose a good U2
tribute band could be a more attractive
proposition to some people than say a
Wishbone Ash or Toto show but these guys
are good musicians and there is still an
audience for that. I’ve never really
understood this ‘OK that’s it now guys
…you're too old ..stop playing now’
attitude. Some bands split up, stop
whatever, others still enjoy playing and
carry on. We have done shows in some of
the oddest places with some really well
known bands from the past but they have
been really successful because of the
audiences ….young people discovering the
band for the first time and the older
fans who just want to hear the songs.
They just want to see good music and
have a good time which is what it’s
always been about.
Would you be keen to record a new
BJHFLH studio album and is this
something you see as essential to keep
the band moving forwards?
We are working towards a new album. Les
has new material and we hope to showcase
some new tunes in the summer. With the
orchestral shows of the last year we had
to put things on hold but that is the
next thing on the agenda.
Away from music what other interests
do you have, what keeps you busy?
Well music is my life so there isn’t
really an away from it. I write a lot
and I have, in recent years got into
teaching the guitar. I have been
involved with a company in the UK called
Access to Music, working with young
people, giving them realistic advice and
tuition if they want a career in music
and that’s very enjoyable. I play with a
bunch of guys called the Escape
Committee. A guitar player/singer called
Pete Frampton (Not him ….a different
one! He was in a band called Poacher in
the 70’s). Paul Burgess from 10cc is on
drums. We play blues for fun. Colin
Browne occasionally joins us. I still do
session work too. I have a studio setup
at home. Les and I recently worked with
French composer Alan Simon on his
Excalibur Trilogy. Alan is a very
talented man and he asked Les and myself
to play on one of the songs on the
album. It features many different
artists, Justin Hayward, John Wetton,
Fairport Convention, Maddy Pryor, Martin
Barre and Jon Anderson. We played at the
showcase in Paris recently and had a
great time.
And finally, is there anything else
you wanted to add that we haven’t
already covered?
No …not really …other than I’m just glad
to be here!
Mike, many thanks for your time and
good luck with the tour
In the very near future we will be
bringing you an interview with founder
member Les Holroyd. In the meantime you
can check out the upcoming tour dates
for Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les
Holroyd, together with details of the
‘Classic Meets Rock’ DVD at:-
http://www.barclayjamesharvest.co.uk/
The Band also have a MySpace where you
can listen to a number of live tracks,
and watch a couple of tracks from the
‘Classic Meets Rock’ DVD:-
http://www.myspace.com/bjhflh
