quote:

BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST
Rockdetector Biography

An enduring Soft Rock act created in Oldham by art student friends vocalist Stuart Wolstenholme and guitarist John Lees. This pair had been members of THE WICKEDS whilst bassist Les Holroyd and drummer Melvin Pritchard where in an act titled THE SORCERORS. The quartet combined to form BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST turning professional in the summer of 1967. Over many decades BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST have stood the test of time with a loyal global fan base.

The band signed to EMI's Parlophone initially but found a new home with the emergence of new EMI Progressive Rock subsidary Harvest issuing their debut eponymous album in 1970. The record was backed by full orchestration, (claimed by the ENID's Robert Godfrey to be his work but contested in court many years later). The band's early albums and tours found a ready audience on mainland Europe.

1973 found Lees also working on solo material although the resulting album 'A Major Fancy' only saw the light of day in 1977. In Britain the appeal of BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST remained somewhat limited until the breakthrough live album of 1974.

BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST switched labels to Polydor in Britain and Capitol in America. 'Octoberon' pushed the band to platinum status in Germany and BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST's stature grew with each tour and release. Throughout the 70s and 80s the band scored numerous gold and platinum albums in Germany.

Wolstenholme departed for a solo career in mid 1979 and BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST pulled in erstwhile BEES MAKE HONEY keyboard player Kevin McAlea.

1982's 'A Concert For The People' was recorded live in Berlin in front of an audience of 175'000 and as part of a simultaneous live TV broadcast.

The 1990 album 'Welcome To The Show' had the band name abbreviated down to merely BJH.

For 1999's 'Nexus' album the official band title became BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF JOHN LEES.

The 1999 live album was recorded with Lees, a guesting Wolstenhome together with Craig Fletcher, Kevin Whitehead and Jeff Leach.

Copyright: © 2001-2005 Musicdetector Websites
Last updated: 17 oktober 2003

quote:

Op maandag 12 december 2005 16:58 schreef PogueMahone het volgende:
Net nog Gone To Earth geluisterd, niet geweldig maar wel fijn af en toe. Poor Man's Moody Blues is een goed nummer, het klinkt inderdaad als de moody blues
Typische jaren zeventig muziek

quote:

Op maandag 12 december 2005 17:58 schreef fripper het volgende:
25 jaar geleden of zo had ik zo'n beetje alles van BJH in m'n verzameling cassettebandjes. Al in geen jaren meer iets van geluisterd.

Toch eens wat van op cd kopen, een van die live-albums denk ik .

quote:

Op maandag 12 december 2005 18:13 schreef fripper het volgende:
Er is ook nog een eerder live album uit 74 (klik) , die vond ik ook altijd erg mooi. Deze is blijkbaar dit jaar eindelijk op cd uitgekomen.

quote:

BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST (BJH) Glasnost
— Let me get this straight. I am not a fan of Barclay James Harvest. I usually find the music this band produces often too soft and the instrumental side of the music not too interesting. But this was the album that made me interested. When I bought this album when it was just released, the cd format was beginning to become more popular than the lp. The band makes use of the possibilities of the new cd format well by expanding it’s length to 70 minutes.

This was a free concert for the people of Berlin which at the time still was divided in two parts by the wall. The title was referring to the politics of Gorbatjov. He wanted more transparent communications with the people and the rest of the world. Although the new politics still weren’t coming through as many people of East Berlin only could watch the gig from a distance being kept away by the wall and security agents of the old regime. Anyway, some 130,000 people did enjoy the show. The progressive heyday of this band was long gone at the time but the album could be considered as their strongest effort of the eighties. The sound of the album holds more AOR than real prog but who would expect otherwise in 1988 ? After all a major record company was still releasing album’s from this band. On stage the trio was joined by a couple of backing musician who provided the band from a massive sound with lots of keyboards. The good news about this album is that it rocks ! Tracks like “alone in the night”, “hold on”, “Love on the line” or “Medicine man” do have balls which isn’t always the case for Barclay James Harvest. “Alone in the night” could stand the comparison with many other American AOR music which was quite popular in that era. “Hold on” has an enjoyable chorus but comes closer to pop. “Medicine Man” is one of the oldest tracks which are present but seems to have become a timeless gem. It’s hypnotic rhythm includes ethnic influences. Great track ! Naturally those influences are also present in “African” which has an interesting lyric about social commentary concerning apartheid, the rich leaders of the African countries and their poor people. This splendid version is definitely the highlight of this album. On Face to face, their previous studio album, this was just another track. Here it’s a standout thanks to the massive keyboards on the background, the heavy guitar chords, the harmonic vocals and the excellent sound overall. The aforementioned album is omni present in the track listing of Glasnost. “Love on the line” is a track from an album called “Eyes of the universe” one of the finest albums of the band to my humble opinion . Here the space sound of the original album is drawn to the background unfortunately. “Berlin” is another track that only comes to it’s right when it’s performed live. On “twelve” it sounds bloodless but this version does sound awesome due to the live atmosphere and the great melody. Not a coincidence the band ever did record this track as they use to be more popular in Germany than in their native country. “ Hymn” is another highlight of the bands history, a religious inspired track that is played not very differently from its original version. I suppose the inclusion of a classic like “Poor man’s moody blues” is inevitable, without this, Glasnost wouldn’t be a proper BJH live album but I can’t say I like to hear it on other occasions than weddings. Even though it’s a nice track, it’s just a little tame for me.

This is a highly enjoyable prog pop album to get to know some of the classic highlights of this band but don’t expect too much musical excitement. All the tracks have strong melodies, nice vocal lines and a decent instrumentation. The sound quality is simply perfect and the sound of some tracks is improved compared to the studio versions. Don’t forget these are still the eighties and this is noticeable on some of the tracks and in the electronic drumming which sound completely out of date. Nice album to start with.

quote:

Op maandag 12 december 2005 17:04 schreef LodewijkNapoleon het volgende:

[..]

Dat nummer is ook een persiflage op Nights in white satin, de band had het speciaal gemaakt om de draak te steken met hun imago.

quote:

Op vrijdag 16 december 2005 18:30 schreef fripper het volgende:
Gisteren inderdaad Live gekocht. Nu bezig met de eerste draaibeurt, ik kan het nog steeds waarderen

quote:

Op zaterdag 17 december 2005 04:34 schreef StefanP het volgende:
Ik ken eigenlijk alleen Hymn. Goed nummer

quote:

Op zaterdag 17 december 2005 21:27 schreef LodewijkNapoleon het volgende:

En, hoe is de Mellotron factor?

quote:

Op maandag 12 december 2005 17:04 schreef LodewijkNapoleon het volgende:

[..]

Dat nummer is ook een persiflage op Nights in white satin, de band had het speciaal gemaakt om de draak te steken met hun imago.

quote:

Op zaterdag 17 december 2005 22:38 schreef fripper het volgende:
Wel grappig dat jatwerk van BJH . De tekst van Titles is helemaal samengesteld uit de titels van nummers van The Beatles, en The Great 1974 Mining Disaster lijkt wel heeeeel erg op New York Mining Disaster 1941 van de Bee Gees.

quote:

Op maandag 19 december 2005 21:41 schreef OProg het volgende:
Altijd veel gedraaid, ook alles eigenlijk wel veel, hoewel 'Once Again' en 'Live Tapes' wel uitschieters waren. Ook komen ze nu trouwens allemaal geremasterd uit. !