Hollies still riding music’s carousel
Tony Hicks has been with The Hollies for more than 50 years. Michael Donaldson talks to him about why the band won’t Stop Stop Stop.
When Tony Hicks first signed on for The Hollies, in February 1963, the hope was a couple of quick hits and brief flirtation with fame.
Fifty-four years later, with a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a string of hit singles and an undiminished love of upbeat pop songs the one-band man is – next to Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones – the most enduring lead guitarist in music.
The Hollies, who are touring New Zealand this month, have had line-up changes thanks to defections (Graham Nash), retirements (Allan Clarke) and, sadly, death (Carl Wayne), but through it all Hicks has been a constant as a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter.
The Hollies, started by schoolmates Nash and Clarke, made their debut after earlier incarnations in December 1962. They were soon offered an audition at Parlophone, the home of The Beatles, and when guitarist Vic Steele decided he didn’t want to be a professional musician, the band head-hunted Hicks from a Manchester skiffle outfit The Dolphins.
The group, with their exquisite harmonies and soaring vocal style, soon secured a recording contract and had two quick hits with covers of songs by The Coasters.
‘‘It’s a funny thing,’’ Hicks says reflecting on more than a halfcentury of The Hollies, ‘‘there was a familiar pattern to hit-makers back then; they did one song and followed it up with another one that sounded a bit the same, and that was it.
‘‘After we had a couple of hits, we thought ‘we really like this, let’s see if we can stretch it out for two, three or four years’ – and four years was being ambitious. Now here we are 54 years later – we’re still here and enjoying it as much as ever and getting bigger audiences than we ever did.’’
It’s unfair to say The Hollies are resting on their laurels – apart from a beer commercial-driven revival of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother in the late-80s, they haven’t had a hit song since 1981 – and have survived on remastered releases, live albums and touring.
But Hicks insists the touring is done for love, not money.
‘‘When we first started making records, royalties were virtually nothing, a pittance, but when you renew your contract after three or five years, the record companies start to say ‘you can have what you want’ because in the back of their mind you won’t be here much longer.
‘‘So, after 50 years we’re now on very generous royalties. We’re doing it for now for the love of it, not to put more money in the bank, as nice it is.
‘‘And the songs keep selling. We’ve sold on vinyl, tape, CD… it just keeps going on and on. It’s amazing there’s still a market there; we’ve been very fortunate,’’ he says, before drifting into a brief commentary on the nature of modern stardom.
‘‘We’ve been much more fortunate than modern hit-makers … it’s a peculiar medium,’’ he says of the iTunes/Spotify/Pandora streaming model.
‘‘And then you get someone winning a talent contest. They’ve come from nowhere and all of a sudden they’re doing Wembley Stadium. It’s hideous. We learned our craft doing pubs, clubs and ballrooms and by the time we had success we had a rough idea of what we had to do.
‘‘I guess it’s a matter of building up slowly so you don’t fall down quickly.’’
And there’s definitely no sign of The Hollies falling down – or even slowly fading away.
‘‘There’s no reason to call it a day,’’ Hicks says of the touring life. ‘‘The only reason we still do it is because we still enjoy it. All the band members live in different parts of the UK and don’t see each other regularly. We’re one of those bands who get on with each other and when we see each other to go on tour it’s a pleasure to catch up again – so the boredom aspect never comes into The Hollies.
‘‘We’ve always said as long as we enjoy it and people keep coming along, we’ll keep doing it.
‘‘It’s all about nostalgia and reminiscing – the audience who have come with us through the years come to hear the songs that take them back through the years and that’s a wonderful thing.’’
While The Hollies have been going for as long as The Rolling Stones, that laid-back journey through youth is a big difference, Hicks notes.
‘‘When we were having our first hit records it was the same time as The Stones – and we did many shows with The Stones. They’ve gone on to do bigger productions in stadiums, but we feel our audience don’t want to be standing in a field for three or four hours – we put them in to nice theatres and it’s a pleasure to be there.
‘‘People never seem to get tired of hearing the songs and we never get tired of doing them.’’
The songs – even for those outside the baby boomer generation who grew up on them – are familiar by virtue of a longevity and a fresh-asrain feel: Here I Go Again, Sorry Suzanne, Carrie-Anne, Jennifer Eccles, Bus Stop, On A Carousel, Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, which strangely went to No.1 in America but flopped in Britain.
‘‘It was a real rock and roll sound,’’ Hicks says of that song. ‘‘It was No.1 in America but didn’t chart in England – it’s interesting how different countries pick up on different things.
‘‘The irony about that song is that our producer over here [England] didn’t pick up on the potential of it. If he had, he would have said ‘good song, but you’re The Hollies, you have to get harmonies on it’ and that would have completely ruined the song. It’s just a very straight, basic, song and thank god that’s how it was left.’’
The twist that makes a song succeed in one place but flop in another, has a Kiwi element to it, with The Hollies scoring three big hits here: The Air That I Breathe, Too Young To Be Married and Stop Stop Stop.
Of those, Too Young To Be Married was a massive hit in New Zealand, but was merely an album track in the UK and didn’t have a life of its own as a single.
Hicks has no idea why the song, which he wrote, resonated so strongly with 1970 New Zealand.
‘‘It’s got quite a lot of moods, an interesting lyric, a guitar solo in middle to give it atmosphere, there’s an orchestra on it … In fact, it sounds far better when we do it live because, to be honest, the orchestra was a bit heavy duty so it’s a lot cleaner when we do it live.
‘‘Maybe it’s a mutual love of each other – I’m really looking forward to going to the other side of the world.
‘‘I’ve been doing it since the mid-60s and I can’t imagine anyone coming to New Zealand and being disappointed and often when I was younger I was tempted to stay in your wonderful country. I love many things about it.’’
The Hollies’ latest tour visits Palmerston North (tonight), Wellington (February 24), Havelock North (February 25) and Mt Maunganui (February 26). For more information, see hollies.co.uk