The road is long, with many a winding turn, that leads us to who knows where? Who knows where?
Everyone loved The Hollies. They were the ‘group’s group’. Never confrontational or rebellious, always smartly suited, always smiling. With an unbroken run of immaculate pop singles which, while they seldom had that must-buy factor of the latest Rolling Stones or Beatles record, were hallmarked by tight harmonies and unfailing chart sensibility. Throughout the sixties and well into the seventies, everyone had – own up – at least one or two Hollies singles in their collection. When Tony Hicks’ mouths ‘Hello Mum’ as theTop of the Pops cameras pan past him, even normally-disapproving parents were charmed. No one begrudged The Hollies their hits.
When ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ and ‘Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress’ became global million-sellers, The Hollies were inducted intoThe Rock ‘n‘ Roll Hall of Fame. Graham Nash – by then deep into his second career as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash& Young, was reunited with other members of the outfit, Allan Clarke, Bernard ‘Bernie’ Calvert, Eric Haydock, and Terry Sylvester – although significantly without either Bobby Elliott or Tony Hicks, all on stage together in the March 2010 ceremony.
Rock History tells how the origins of The Hollies can be traced back to post- war Manchester, and two gawky five-year-old pupils at Ordsall Board Primary School. Born within two months of each other, Allan Clarke (born 5 April 1942 in Salford, one of six children) and Graham Nash (2 February 1942) started out as school friends. Hanging out together as fourteen-year-olds, they bought their first guitars inspired by the Skiffle fad. Although born in Blackpool, Graham spent much of his childhood within 1 Skinner Street, Salford, a now- demolished back-to-backCoronation Street terraced house with outside lav. ‘I have so many great memories of growing up in Salford’ he told me. ‘And first being turned on to the magic of music in Salford. I didn’t leave Salford until I was eighteen. So I have lots of great memories of the struggles and the joys and the heartaches of doing something that was different from anything any of your family had done. Nobody in my family had been in a band before. Ever.’
When his parents gifted him with a Dansette record player as a reward for passing his eleven-plus exam, Graham’s first purchase was Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ on a big old 78rpm disc; ‘I wanted that, and from that moment wanted nothing else.’ Meanwhile, Allan failed that same exam but recalled amiably, ‘I was working six days a week and getting £1-19s-11d, then going out at weekends and getting five quid for singing four songs’. For the two friends were by then serving their musical apprenticeship together by playing local dates on the Manchester club circuit as The Two Teens. Then they were The Ricky& Dane Young duo, and briefly, they were also The Guytones – a play on the name of their Japanese guitars. Caught up in the generational energy-wave of Rock ‘n’ Roll, they were performing Lonnie Donegan, Everly Brothers and early-Cliff Richard covers, so hungry to play they’d have done it for free but enjoying the as-yet-slight financial rewards too.
Competing in a pre-X-Factor talent contest, they played the Art Deco Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday 19 November 1958, in competition with Liverpool’s Johnny& The Moondogs. ‘Johnny’ Lennon later went on to greater things! Allan and Graham became half of The
