The Hollies’ Allan Clarke
The Hollies singer ALLAN CLARKE talks about fame, a family health crisis that led him to leave the band for a while and his new album
Now aged 77 and a granddad, Allan Clarke never thought he’d be releasing an album again. After all, decades on from his fame as lead singer of The Hollies, he says it’s sometimes easy to forget that chapter of his life. “I’m never recognised,” he reveals. “I seem to be in the middle of old people not recognising me because they’ve forgotten what I look like and young people never knowing what I looked like in the first place!”
His path to fame started early. Born the youngest of six children, he met fellow Hollies star Graham Nash at the age of seven at primary school in Salford.
“They put us on two chairs to sing The Lord
Is My Shepherd, and we sang harmony,” Allan recalls. “Graham was my only friend then, and we did everything together.”
At 14, Allan started working full-time in a Manchester cotton mill and department store, but played as a duo with Graham whenever he could until forming The Hollies in 1962. Within months they were one of Britain’s best-loved bands.
The Hollies’ line-up changed several times, but most famously comprised Graham Nash on rhythm guitar and vocals, Tony Hicks on lead guitar, Eric Haydock on bass guitar and Bobby Elliott on drums.
As lead singer, Allan attracted lots of attention from female fans. But there was only one girl for him and that was his wife Jennifer Bowstead whose name partly inspired The Hollies’ 1968 hit, Jennifer Eccles. The Hollies had smash hits every year from 1963 until 1974, including Stay, Just One Look, I’m Alive, I Can’t Let Go, Bus Stop, On A Carousel, Carrie-Anne, He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother and The Air That I Breathe.
“I enjoyed myself for 15 years… a bit too much!’ Allan admits. ‘There are times in your life when you overload, but Jeni saved me several times.”
From 1967 Allan began writing solo songs and in 1971 left the band. He released eight solo albums, but never toured and, sadly, didn’t achieve the album success he had hoped for.
So in 1973 Allan rejoined The Hollies and continued to write and record songs for them until 1999, when life changed forever. He started suffering with vocal problems and also discovered his wife Jeni had cancer for a second time. Almost immediately, he retired from music.
“We didn’t know if Jeni would be around for much longer, because usually when you’ve got it twice it’s 50/50,” he says.
Fortunately, Jeni made a good recovery, with the support of Allan, their three children and four grandchildren and the pair looked forward to a happy retirement together.
“I was completely relaxed about the new way of life that I had with Jeni and I didn’t miss singing at all.”
But then in 2017 Allan found himself writing a poem which he put music to – and soon more songs followed. “If at 18 someone had said to me ‘You’ll be doing it when you’re 77’ I’d be thinking ‘Am I going to live that long?’” he laughs.
■ Allan’s album, Resurgence, is out now