Barclay James Harvest - Time Honoured Tales

[JKL2000]

I have a DVD of BJH's 1980 Berlin concert that I bought for cheap somewhere, but I'd never actually watched it because I once bought a 1980s BJH single that sucked (Cheap the Bullet). But I just took a closer look and saw it also had on it something called Time Honoured Tales - a set of five crude music videos made to promote Time Honoured Ghosts in 1975. I just watched them, and it beautiful, fun vintage prog. Unfortunately I don't see any of it on YouTube or I'd post some. It's really studio "live" performances (mimed or just covered over with some other audio source I'm pretty sure) intercut with bits of interesting video. Sometimes odd, but always very 1970s so a lot of fun to see. I was watching with my five-year-old son, and when they first showed the 1975 Les Holroyd he laughed and said "He looks like a girl." I said "Well, a lot of boys had long hair then, so that makes him look a little like a girl," and he said "And everything else." He meant his eyes, and he did look very emotional and a bit weepy.

The band is very inert - I don't think they knew what a music video was yet. They actually look pretty stoned, but of course in the Berlin concert they're pretty inert too, so I guess that's just how they were. It ain't dance music.

Anyway, I recommend finding a copy of this 2010 DVD (it has 5.1 sound, BTW. Even the 1980 stuff has aged well, and has nice dated "patina" to it, which I enjoy. Of course, that's over thirty years ago now...

On a somewhat different note, when I was first reading about BJH before ever hearing them (I think in the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Prog) they were described as having become sort of a Christian prog band at some point. I wonder if this is really correct. Yes, Hymn has some "religious" lyrics, but I think the lyrics just happen to deal with Christian religiosity. Overall, none of their albums seem Christian to me. I'm thinking it was just one aspect of the band, or of one of the members.

Finally, does anyone know why there was the split between John Lees and Les Holroyd? I think I read some explanation in liner notes for one of the CDs, but I forget and it wasn't gone into in any detail. Maybe Vicki from Esoteric can shed some light?

[Esoteric]

Of course I know in detail, but you know the saying don't wash dirty linen in public. To be honest their musical tastes are quite different and they are very different people. John likes playing the 70's proggier material still though.

[JJ88]

They were not a Christian band- there are only really two 'religious' songs in their discography. 'Hymn' I've always loved the big sound and arrangement. 'He Said Love' from the late 80s is, however, too much for me...it's just a straight bible re-telling, to my ears. It's down to personal taste whether you like that.

As for the split, 'musical differences' seems to cover it...'personal differences' does as well. This seems to have been the case since the late 70s, when Woolly Wolstenholme left the band and the difference between John/Les became clearer on every album. Both sides have remained admirably tight-lipped about it and seem to co-exist without too many problems. It's not like the Wishbone Ash situation. But the differences seem to be deep-rooted and irreconcilable.

[Esoteric]

Oh and the religious bit, we are all a bit baffled always about that, Hymn was about drugs as far as I'm aware. John I think is spiritual but certainly not overtly religious .

[JKL2000]

I'd love to read a book about the band's career. I wonder why they were so big in Germany.

[Harbottle]

An odd band, I have all their albums and have seen both variants live, but there's always tracks I skip (Usually the two mentioned above, and some of the more 'moral' preachy stuff that John Lees does and the ballads.). Sometimes their songs do sound a bit too similar to something else, and the seventies albums with John and Les heading down a more straightforward rock direction, with the odd nods towards Eagles style country rock, and then Woolly's symphonic songs just don't work.

I'm not even sure what to make of stuff like 'Turn of the Tide', where it sounds like Les and John aren't even playing on each other's tracks... And there are cold synths. It feels almost like a perfect 1980s cold war album.

Oddly enough they both had produced 'solo' albums that I skip tracks on - Revolution Day from Les's BJH has some super stuff on it, but too many ballads, and John's latest record has some stunning old style prog numbers but a few clunky rock numbers.

They had a pretty good run for a band that's never really had much critical acclaim. I guess a bit like Uriah Heep.

[JKL2000]

Now that I see there's an almost 500 page history of the band, I'm having second thoughts, LOL. Hardcover only!

[ChrisXymphonia]

I'd love to read a book about the band's career. I wonder why they were so big in Germany.

There are two books on BJH: one is a straight biography, the other is this one (I have but still need to read it)
http://www.thefiftieschild.co.uk/

[wilcox660]

Oh and the religious bit, we are all a bit baffled always about that, Hymn was about drugs as far as I'm aware. John I think is spiritual but certainly not overtly religious .

Odd. John himself has said Hymn is a religious song. He Said Love & Sweet Jesus (A Holroyd number). Wolstenholme's Beyond The Grave is about the afterlife. Add to those Lees' Child Of Man as well.