Knut Skyberg

Pop veterans keep it going

•Legendary Hollies back in Oslo •Ever young teenagers

Tony Hicks, guitarist and original member of the Hollies, is back in Oslo, where he first played in 1966. 44 years ago, almost unbelievable, he laughs.

by Erik Bjørnskau, Aftenposten Friday 7. May 2010. 2-page feature.

At the time,Tony Hicks looked like a teenager, and had just passed 20. Now he is 65, and new pictures show an ever young teenager that still takes great pleasure in making energetic, bright, harmonic and catchy pop music of a kind that never has gone out of fashion.

“When we started playing in Manchester I 1962-63, we counted on continuing for three years. We managed that, and even longer too,” he says with British understatement. “- None of us thought it would be like this – when you are that young, you do not think much about the future.”

Along with drummer Bobby Elliott,Hicks has been in the band from the start, a band that now counts six musicians. Named after Buddy Holly and maybe also the plant holly, the group got their breakthrough during the big pop/beat/Merseyside/British Invasion-wave in the middle of the 1960s, and the Hollies were, second to the Beatles and the Stones the biggest hit machine among the so called “groups” that characterized the youth for a whole generation. More than 20 top songs in the official British charts, 11 singles and 5 albums in the Norwegian chart (VG list), hits like Bus stop, Carrie Anne, I can’t let go, I’m alive, Gasoline Alley bred – and not least – the worldwide famous He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother, in 1969.

Elton was there.A record where the session musician playing the keyboards during the tapings, was named Reginal Dwight,by the way – later known as Elton John.

Hicks thinks it is great to return to Norway and play not only one, but two concerts, since the originally planned one show was quickly sold out. Does he remember anything from 1966? He thinks back for a long while, and the telephone gets quiet. “I am almost confident that Graham was in a shop and bought a china teapot, typical Scandinavian tableware. And then I believe recalling a Norwegian girl and being invited to her home, that her mother was a dentist … he breaks into laughter.

Over all we have had a wonderful time,” Hicks confirms, and promises to play all the hit songs during the concerts at Sentrum scene, which a 60-yearold Norwegian medical doctor and Hollies fan, Knut Skyberg, has organized on his own. His part of the surplus goes to Nepal aid projects.

Some of the most profiled members have left for other opportunities over the years, or have had to resign from music. In 1968 the guitarist and singer Graham Nash wished to do something else, somewhere else, and went to the USA where he became part of the super group Crosby, Stills, Nash, after a while also including Neil Young. The main vocalist Allan Clarke, a voice that marked the whole of the 60s in Great Britain, left for two years for the first time in 1971, then returned, but had to resign in 1999 because of voice trouble.

“I still meet Graham and Allan, we are very good friends,” Hicks tells, who – along with the blond Elliott behind the drums (68) – provides for the necessary continuity and that the Hollies’ unmistakable sound is preserved.

Most of the group’s former and present members were honoured when the Hollies in March this year were inducted in the famous American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a pantheon for the very best living and dead rock musicians.

Do the hits.“If we have had a receipt for success, even though we now mostly are off the hit lists, it must be that we have a scene show where people recognize the Hollies, that it is us,” says Hicks. “We play some new songs from a couple of albums we have made in recent years, like Then, now, always from last year, but mostly we play what people come to hear, the hits. And we have a few,” he remarks dryly.

Which songs do you most enjoy playing? “A whole bunch, just name them! He ain’t heavy was certainly very different from the one preceding it, but it’s an excellent song. So was the rocker Long cool woman in a black dress. Two favourites, absolutely.”

The group still performs frequently on the British Isles as well as abroad, even though not as often as during the 60s and 70s. “Air travel was much simpler then, much less stressful. All the luggage and security checks, all the time spent in airports, it’s really too much. Very hard work,” the guitarist sighs.

Photo legend:Tony Hicks has reached 65 but still has great fun playing and singing the good old songs from 40 years ago. (Photo showing Tony with the electric sitar, 2009, photo by Rob Haywood)

Text boxes:

The Hollies. British pop group. Formed in Manchester 1962. Best known version, from 1963-65: Allan Clarke, vocals, Graham Nash, guitar, Tony Hicks, guitar, Eric Haydock, bass, Bobby Elliott, drums. Later members: Bernie Calvert, bass, Terry Sylvester, guitar, Mikael Rickfors (Swedish), vocals, Carl Wayne (ex-Move), vocals. I addition to Hicks and Elliott today: Peter Howarth, vocals, Ray Stiles, bass, Steve Laurie, guitar, Ian Parker, keyboards.

Well known hits.Just one look, I’m alive, Here I go again, I can’t let go, Bus stop, Stop stop stop, Carrie Anne, On a carousel, Sorry Suzanne. He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother, The air that I breathe, Listen to me, Long cool woman in a black dress. Latest CD album, new songs: Then, now, always (2009). Norwegian Hanne Sørvåg (European Song Contest composer) has written one of the songs: If you see her. Latest collection album: The Midas Touch (double CD) March 2010.