BJH's Les Holroyd

[Winston TK]

Over a month or so ago, I "discovered" the awesome Barclay James Harvest. And, to think it only took me 36 years to do it!

Killer songwriting, super fine vocals from all three leads, and beautiful arrangements all around. At first, though, I didn't really find the instrumental prowess to be that noticeable. Then, I started to admire John Lees' guitar stylings and approach. After that, I came to appreciate Mel Pritchard's Bruford-esque drumming. Woolly Wolstenholme's keyboards were always cool.

But, Les Holroyd's bass playing basically left me a little cold. He was definitely good, no doubt about that. But, nothing to really get excited about.

....Until I listened to their phenomenal "Barclay James Harvest Live" CD. Taken from their 1974 Drury Lane concert, the performances from all concerned are STELLAR! And, with cool stereo separation, you can really hear exactly what every musician is doing. On many occasions, I was stunned by Les' bass playing. I never suspected he was really THAT good. I'm glad now I know. I'd have to place him pretty much in the pantheon of Progressive company as Mr. Squire, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Wetton et al.

Check it out!

[brianrost]

One of the tunes on their "Gone to Earth" LP says it all:

"Poor Man's Moody Blues"

I liked BJH a lot and bought many of their LPs back in the day. I always liked Les' bass playing but I appreciated his singing more...he was a ringer for Graham Nash. Nice band but hobbled by sounding too much like another band.

[volker]

BJH used to be very popular in Germany (my home country) in the late '70s/early '80s, and I remember Les Holroyd playing a double-neck Gibson SG bass/guitar and also a natural J-Bass with black pickguard. When I was about 9 years old, they had a song out called "Love On The Line", which I then thought was pretty cool...When hearing it again for the first time after 25 years (and actually being able to understand the lyrics), I found it rather crappy I still like "Child Of The Universe", though.