Article from Radio Luxembourg: “Record Stars Book” No.5 – 1965
The Hollies: Overcoming Challenges in the 1960s Pop World: If you heard someone talking about a pop group and the remark was, “Nice boys—very easy going—they’ll go anywhere and do anything”, you can bet your life they would definitely have been talking about us.
That’s just about how we’ve been looked on in the business ever since we started.
Let us state here and now that anyone who still thinks that way can forget it.
A change is going to come, and it has already started, because this kind of chat about us has been going on for far too long.
We don’t think we’re being big-headed by saying our status in the pop world is all wrong. We think we deserve a much higher regard than the one attributed to us. The time has definitely come for us to start dictating what should happen in our career.
TV shows
People in the business were often saying it, trying to boost us on TV shows with comments about how underrated we were, and that kind of talk. Basically a lot of it was our own fault.
By being too easy-going we let things pass us by. We missed out on many things in our early career and instead of becoming a really strong force, as we should have done after all the hits we had, we just stayed ‘There’—names that everyone knew but didn’t compare with or respect as much as the really top artistes.
How did it happen? Well, we didn’t want to be awkward and get a reputation for being moody and difficult. We’d go anywhere, often play second on the bill when by rights we should have been top and didn’t want to be bothered by billing squabbles and all that carry on.
It was enough for us to play, make records, and simply enjoy ourselves.
So people began to assume that we wouldn’t object to anything, and that was our mistake. We were far too easy, and the respect that we should have commanded in the business just didn’t come.
Then, a few months ago, we decided to change, especially after we had made No. 1 in the charts a couple of times. We had been far too nice to everyone, much too soft and were really fed up with it.
The Hollies: Overcoming Challenges in the 1960s Pop World
Our policy became a tough one. No longer were circumstances going to hold us back. No longer would we be taken advantage of.
If people didn’t agree with our ideas and the way we wanted to do things, then they would just have to lump it.
A particularly disappointing situation was our lack of big success in America. Other groups were getting to the top, but we weren’t. Records like “I’m Alive” and “Look Through Any Window” crept into the lower part of the charts, but somehow weren’t pushed enough to really get them away.
They should have been bigger, at least one of them should have got high, but the promotion lacked go.
We did some TV shows there with little reaction, but the thing that convinced us we could make it and that there was a market for our discs in the States, was our one and only stage show at the time at a concert in Chicago.
This boosted our record “Look Through Any Window” to No. 1 in that city. With this knowledge behind us we soon remedied the delay with our first major tour of the States.
In Britain things had to change too. We were in ballrooms week after week until we were sick to death of them. On this kick you are running up and down the country until it drives you mad.
This is why we started to branch out into cabaret. We enjoyed it. During Sunday concerts last year at Blackpool other groups were doing the same old rock ’n’ bash act while we noticed that the audience mainly consisted of older people.
They wanted something more and we tried to give it to them. It worked and they loved us. In the cabaret dates we have done so far, we have realised that the numbers are probably the least important. Getting across to the audience with a mixture of professional ability and patter is what counts.
We don’t want to change that much, but we do want to progress a little from being just singers and musicians—to broaden our outlook. We try to achieve a pretty high standard in all that we do.
By that we don’t mean that we go out there to say we’re the greatest, and knock over all competition.
The Hollies: Overcoming Challenges in the 1960s Pop World
All we want is the appreciation. We know we can do things that many other groups aren’t equipped to do, and as long as we can be competent, work well, and be successful in all mediums we tackle, we’ll be content.
What are we like as people? Well, no member has ever emerged as a strong solo personality, and quite honestly, we don’t really want it. That doesn’t mean that we are frightened to do anything on our own.
If a particular member is asked to do a TV show or something, nobody else minds.
We usually agree when it comes to choosing material to record, and, as you may know, constantly write songs for ourselves, although most of them end up as “B” sides.
We find songs in many different ways. Our No. 1 hit “I Can’t Let Go” came along through Tony hearing a demo by chance in a music publisher’s office. We depend a lot on our recording manager, Ron Richards. He has an uncanny knack of pin-pointing almost the exact place any disc we make will get in the charts.
We’d be kidding ourselves to say that we wouldn’t be disappointed if a record didn’t make the top five.
The standard we have reached with our records almost demands it. We have always sold a sound more than a personality, so the material matters more than anything else.
Just One Look
The most satisfying discs we have ever made? That’s very hard to choose but we probably go for “Just One Look” and “I Can’t Let Go”, which are our big favourites.
Things we don’t like? The “in crowd” can become a bore but will always be there in some shape or another.
Groups and their friends will constantly create this set. Sick words – they’ve had it and not before time. Smartness – we’re all in favour of groups going for a good appearance.
We think we appear smart, and it’s a certainty that the scruffy look will disappear very soon.
Our pet hate is outfits who add lots of instruments to get a bigger sound on record – this is cheating.
We can’t let go of success – we like it too much, and we hope for bigger and better success abroad.
above all, we’re confident that the days of making mistakes and being easy-going are over. We want The Hollies’ future to be big, very big!
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GEAR! 