Les Holroyd’s Barclay James Harvest
Wolverhampton The Robin 2
3rd March, 2007

View: stage left, front

There was a good turn out to see what the other version of BJH is up to, visiting town just a few months after the Lees-Wolstenholme line up had left a very favourable impression. Les and his five-piece played a set of mainly slow and mid-tempo numbers drawn from an expansive back catalogue, with a concentration on the later Polydor years. Although lovingly crafted and delivered with quality and care, the set rarely came alive, partly due to the fact that Holroyd isn’t a frontman with a strong stage persona. This may not have mattered if there’d a been greater variety of material, but with the exception of the obligatory Mocking Bird, there was nothing from the Harvest years when BJH were, arguably, at their creative peak. It left an unfulfilled feeling:it seems two halves don’t always make a whole.

Reviewed by Nick Hall
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