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Andrea Cortese 
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 Topic: John Lees vs Les Holroyd
Posted: November 16 2005 at 08:11 |
What do you think about their disagreements and their solo careers?
Do you think it'll be possible to see them riunited to form, within Wooly Wolstenholme, the great original Barclay James Harvest (the sad recent death of Mel Pritchard apart)?
 BJH Through the Eyes of John Lees (within Woolly)
 BJH Featuring Les Holroyd (within Mel)
Edited by Andrea Cortese
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Posted: November 16 2005 at 17:22 |
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There seems to be no way on this earth that BJH will ever have Lees and Holroyd together. Both apparently burned a few bridges when they acrimoniously split up in 1998. Which is a shame, never got to see them live with the Wooley one.
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Moogtron III
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Joined: April 26 2005
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Posted: November 17 2005 at 04:28 |
I read in a Dutch progmagazine that the reason for the split was that Holroyd wanted to do new stuff, and he thought that Lees was clinging too much to the past.
I think it must be possible to see them reunited. Would be great. I once saw BJH in concert (without Wolstenholme) and it was fantastic!
Unique band that gets bashed too much. They have a lot of memorable melodies, and they have their own distinct sound.
Edited by Moogtron III
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Easy Livin
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Posted: November 17 2005 at 06:16 |
Never say never! With Wooly back with Lees, the temptation must surely be there for Holroyd to rejoin as well. I would have thought a reunion tour in Germany would be very lucrative for them.
I don't think either has particularly shone since they split. That said, the band were clearly running out of ideas anyway. Even when they were both in the same band, they didn't tend to work together much, most songs were by one or the other. It was the contrast between their songs which made them appealing, hence their post split albums are rather one dimensional.
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Andrea Cortese
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Posted: November 17 2005 at 13:53 |
John and Les have ever worked together. It's a sad thing they don't now! They were always more than the sum of their parts. 
Mel's death means that the band can never be re-formed as it was, but perhaps it might make some people realise that there are more important things in life than musical differences and banal disagreements.
Edited by Andrea Cortese
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Chemical Alice
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Joined: November 13 2005
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Posted: November 17 2005 at 17:20 |
Stranger things have happened before, I do think they will be back together eventually. They way they are doing it now is a disaster for the name Barclay James Harvest. Album/Material wise the new stuff isn't good enough, at least not for a whole album, and concert wise we do not get the songs we wanna hear, unless we don't both versions! No, this rubbish gotta end now, bring us the real BJH that we (I) love so much 
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Don't crawl to me with sentiment, my laughter drowns your cries
You're a memory trapped on Polaroid, a puppet drawn on celluloid
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Tony Fisher
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Joined: April 30 2005
Location: England
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Posted: November 17 2005 at 17:46 |
Last I heard (and it was on the fan site), Woolly was in a mental hospital just down the road from me in York, recovering from illness. I hope he's recovered enough to get out and play.
I'd love to see BJH live again. They were excellent when I saw them in 1976. Probably the most ignored band on the site (except Horslips!).
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salmacis
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Posted: November 17 2005 at 18:04 |
 Easy Livin wrote:
Never say never! With Wooly back with Lees, the temptation must surely be there for Holroyd to rejoin as well. I would have thought a reunion tour in Germany would be very lucrative for them.
I don't think either has particularly shone since they split. That said, the band were clearly running out of ideas anyway. Even when they were both in the same band, they didn't tend to work together much, most songs were by one or the other. It was the contrast between their songs which made them appealing, hence their post split albums are rather one dimensional.
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Hard to top that statement from Easy Livin'. I have pretty much everything they did from their debut up til 'Ring Of Changes', and I really enjoy all of those albums, but I heard some of their more recent output and they were doing what no band should ever do unless there is some genuine purpose (ie- unplugged) imo- re-recording their old songs like 'Berlin' and 'Life Is For Living'. This pretty much added flames to the fire of people who believe the band can't hack it as two separate entities. They need to sort out their differences and make the album they must be able to (Wooly's more recent solo stuff from what I've heard shows the talent is still there intact!).
However, BJH aren't the only band to have this bizarre rift. Saxon, the legendary NWOBHM band, have two bands- the regular Saxon with Biff Byford as singer, plus Oliver Dawson-Saxon that feature two members of the original line-up.
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Easy Livin
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Joined: February 21 2004
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Posted: November 18 2005 at 03:59 |
Tony Fisher wrote:
Last I heard (and it was on the fan site), Woolly was in a mental hospital just down the road from me in York, recovering from illness. I hope he's recovered enough to get out and play.
I'd love to see BJH live again. They were excellent when I saw them in 1976. Probably the most ignored band on the site (except Horslips!).
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That was a while back now Tony. Glad to say he's made a full full recovery, and has been working with Lees for a couple of years now.
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John Lees vs Les Holroyd
