My name is Geoff Hudson, I live in North Yorkshire, England in the UK.  I am now an electrician again after a break of 3 years, seems OK so far.

My interests are Burnley Football Club (soccer), they had a bad start to the 2008/09 season, but got to to the play Offs and gained promotion to The Premier League. Burnley's nickname is The Clarets.

My other interests are computers and Web site building and of course the famous Hollies .  My Web site is attributed to The Hollies  My site is UNOFFICIAL,  it is just a hobby from a near life long fan. I also fancy myself as a bit of a singer.

The first Hollies LP, I saw was in W.H. Smiths in Darlington about 1969. I was with a school friend at the time.  I said to him "The Hollies, didn't they sing Jennifer Eccles?". He replied "Yes, they've done some good songs".  He was a Kinks and Status Quo fan. The album in question was 'Hollies Greatest Hits' the one with a picture of  them wearing their flower power gear.  So I thought, I'd earned some money on my paper round, so I bought it.  Later on we went to the barbers, for a trim and tidy up, because it was the days of long hair.  The barber looked at my album and said "The Hollies,  I don't think they've come out with a bad song yet", this chuffed me, so I thought I'd spent my money well.

I got it home, switched on my record player, set the speed to thirty three and a third r.p.m and placed the album carefully on the turntable and lowered the stylus. When the sound came out, the first track 'I Can't Let Go', that was it, it was The Hollies for me from then on. That powerful lead singing of Allan Clarke, the high nasal tones of Graham Nash, then Tony Hicks joining into to make that magic three-part harmony sound that The Hollies have made their own.  Then of course I had get all the earlier Hollies' albums.

I'd learnt by this time, that Graham Nash had left earlier to go and  join Crosby and Stills, Woodstock and all that. I thought well this must be the end of The Hollies now.  Then their next album came out, with the new guy Terry Sylvester in tow, so I bought it, 'Hollies Sing Dylan'.  I heard Dylan songs before, thinking not much of them in the singing department.  Now The Hollies versions of his songs were like a breath of fresh air, and the new guy did not upset The Hollies sound, to me it enriched it.

Then I purchased their next album in 1970, 'Hollies Sing Hollies' with Terry Sylvester now an established favourite in the group.  My favourite track  being ' My Life Is Over With You' a nice ballad with soothing lyrics and Allan Clarke singing at his best.

Allan Clarke went solo for a couple of years, leaving the lead singing for the swedish Mikael Rickfors, who was an excellent singer, but more a bluesy sound to Allan Clarke. The Hollies recorded some lovely songs in that period and gave The Eagles a run for there money. But 'Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress' became a hit, which had Clarkie's vocal on it. Things came to a head and Allan was asked to return to the fold, leaving poor Mikael to return to Sweden, who is very successful there.

I saw them live for the first time the year the 'Hollies' album was released in 1974, at Leeds University, they were excellent. They sang all the hits of course, but a song that stood out for me was a wonderful performance of the song 'Amazing Grace', in which Allan Clarke, Terry Sylvester and Tony Hicks harmonised with no musical backing.

Terry Sylvester left in 1981 and was replaced by Alan Coates (did a lovely version of 'Butterfly' on stage) who filled his place just as well. Sounded very much like Graham Nash.

With the untimely death of Carl Wayne who took over brilliantly (who can forget his singing of 'Soldier's Song') from equally brilliant lead singer Allan Clarke. Alan Coates left recently for Steve Lauri to sing all the high bits now.

The Hollies are in a new era now with a new line up, headed by new lead singer Peter Howarth (who is also an excellent singer), the future looks bright...........