Hi all,

As you probably all know by now, the Hollies played the "Legends of
Pop"-festival at Baden Airport (near Baden Baden in Germany)
last Saturday. Surely Bruce will give us all a detailed and full report once
he's back from Britain next week (?) so until then
here's my review of the festival.

First of all I should say that I am a long-time Hollies fan, having seen
them live about a dozen times since 1977, but it was the
first time that I saw the Hollies with Carl Wayne. I was somewhat familiar
with Carl's work though, mostly his Move-stuff and many
of his musical recordings and a bit of his solo work, but to be honest the
new (and to-date his only) Hollies-recording "How do I
survive" was a disappointment, to put it mildly. After having heard so many
good things about the Carl-fronted line-up live, and
with the Hollies playing only about 90 minutes from where I live, plus on
top of that another one of my favorite bands (Smokie) on
the list, I didn't let the chance go by to decide for myself what to think
of the "new" Hollies.

It was the first time that I saw the festival area at the Baden Airpark and
I can say that it was an ideal place for such a show,
easy to get to by car, lots of free parking space, great view from all
places, friendly people and not forgetting we were really
lucky to have fantastic weather, sunny, warm but not too hot, a slight
breeze, so ideal conditions to enjoy a good show.

At about 5 pm the so-called "Afternoon party" started with a local band
called "Joe's Inn". They played non-stop for two hours and
their repertoire consisted only of Joe Cocker-covers, that means songs that
had been recorded by Joe Cocker at some point in his
career.
Early on it became clear though that most people were waiting for the "Big
Three", the Searchers, the Hollies and especially Smokie
and therefore weren't too interested in an unknown local band. The applause
was polite and far from enthusiastic. That's all can say
about them because most of the time I wasn't listening to the music but
instead talking to some very nice people that I met at the
festival: Bruce, Beth and Helen.
Bruce knew that I'd go to the show and had been kind enough to send me a
photo of himself so that I'd know what he looks like; he
also told me to look out for a "predominantly red, Hawaiian type shirt" and
so it wasn't too difficult for me to spot him in the
"Rock Bistro"-area. It was great meeting him (and of course Beth and Helen,
too) and I quickly found out that in addition to being a
really nice person he knows an awful lot about rock/pop music, he's like a
walking music encyclopedia. But Bruce, if you're reading
this, Dave Mason *really* was a member of Fleetwood Mac, he recorded one
album with them, "Time" in 1995, you can add that to your
encyclopedia. ;-)

At first we had wondered if the Hollies might be the headlining act of the
show (something which the posters seemed to indicate) but
that task fell to Smokie. And to be fair, that was a good decision by the
organizers because not only is Smokie far more popular in
Germany than the Hollies and their hits more familiar to the "average"
German, also about two thirds (my guess) of the audience were
there mainly because of Smokie.
Probably a good thing for the "lads" because when Smokie ended the festival
after a great 90-minute set at about half past midnight
with the classic "Living next door to Alice", practically the whole Airpark
was singing and dancing along and everyone left with a
big smile. That would have been a real tough act to follow.

But back to the beginning: The Searchers started the actual "evening show" a
few minutes past 7.30 pm with one of their early hits,
"Sweets for my Sweet". Halfway during the song the whole stage fell silent,
probably because of a problem with the power supply /
generators. Being the true professionals that they are, the Searchers waited
a few moments and then simply started the song again.
Thanks to work precision "made in Germany" the power supply broke down again
before the song was over, causing laughter in the
audience and some concerned looks on stage. Many a lesser band would have
gotten real nervous but not so the Searchers who decided
that maybe "Sweets" was the wrong song to play that evening and simply went
on with their set. No more power supply problems from
now on and the show went over well, a mix of their own hits from the 60s
plus some usually well-chosen cover versions. The
Hollies-fans in the audience were in for an extra treat because halfway
though their set the Searchers played a song which had been
a minor hit for them, "Have you ever loved somebody", of course a familiar
song to all Hollies fans cause it had been written by a
certain "L.Ransford" (Clarke/ Nash/ Hicks) for the Searchers all those years
ago.

After the Searchers had ended their set the audience could recharge the
batteries (if needed) and get something to eat or drink
during the half-hour break. By the time the Hollies finally entered the
stage and started with the familiar sounds of "Long Cool
Woman", it was slowly getting dark and the lighting on stage began to make
some sense. I had expected it to be a somewhat awkward
feeling to see for the first time a "new" guy fronting the Hollies but to my
surprise Carl, wearing his "Ozzy"-shirt, didn't seem to
be the "odd man out" at all. He was clearly the front man, yes, but also an
integral part of the band. The atmosphere on stage seemed
to be very good and relaxed.

The Hollies played for about an hour and basically delivered a shortened
version of their normal solo concerts. Knowing that they
hadn't played a show in more than a month, I didn't expect any "special
additions" for this one concert and ... well, we didn't get
any.
What we did get though was a hit-filled one hour show, the sound a little
bass-heavy at the front of the stage where I was standing
but otherwise nothing to complain about, Carl making extra points with the
German audience thanks to his announcements in perfectly
understandable German (I've seen many acts try but rarely were they as good
as Carl), Carl kissing the cameraman, Carl and Tony
being spellbound for a moment by what seemed to be an enormous insect flying
across the stage, Carl name checking a certain "Bruce"
not once, not twice, but surely half a dozen times during the show (and no,
he did *not* mean Bruce Springsteen ;-)) and not least
of all we heard a lot of great music, if I'm not mistaken 19 songs in all,
Carl's voice excelling especially on the ballad-type
songs (the opening of "Blowing in the wind" could become a classic, if only
...) and the harmonies were spot on throughout the whole
show plus of course as always the great musicianship of all members.

The concert was over all too quickly which is always a good sign. The short
version of "It's in Everyone of Us" which closed the
show was a fitting finale and finally a more "recent" song and a sign that
the Hollies didn't stop when the 60s turned into the 70s.

As should be clear by now, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and if I had been a
bit skeptical about Carl Wayne being the right man to
front the Hollies, well, those doubts are gone now. He *is* the right man
for the job and a truly excellent front man, not forgetting
he's great singer with a voice ideally suited for the emotional ballad-type
songs that imho always were the Hollies forte but also
capable of delivering faster pop-songs.
I could add some minor criticism regarding the song-selection which was imho
way too heavy on 60s songs and not exactly showing a
good knowledge on which songs were hits here in Germany and which weren't.
Personally I would have loved to hear "Soldier's Song"
and "The Baby" (both of which were sadly cut from the set, as was "Sandy" or
the new song "How do I survive", well, basically
everything post-"Air") but too many critical points would give a false
impression and lead away from the fact that it was a very
good show by a band that is (not least of all thanks to Carl) still a great
band and well worth seeing after all these years. Should
they decide to come to my "area" again, I know who surely will be there.

Best wishes from Germany
Frank