BJH FEATURING LES HOLROYD: CLASSIC MEETS ROCK

Barclay James Harvest split in 1997 and subsequently the two main songwriters in the band, John Lees and Les Holroyd, each continued working with their own version of the band. Up until this recent release of Les's version, each had issued one studio album and one live recording. However, Les's band has been significantly more active, regularly touring extensively in Germany and other countries in Europe, where the band's core fan base has been situated since the late 70s. With this hard work, Les's version of BJH have themselves established significant popular support on the continent, so their confidence has grown, to the extent that they have recently taken that most daring of steps for a rock band - touring with a full orchestra. For those of us not lucky enough to have witnessed one of the concerts live, the band have now released a DVD and CD to record the tour.

This is an excellent rock DVD. The band look good (for their age!), the warmth of the large audience comes over well and the sound is excellent, the orchestra integrating effectively with the band, enhancing the music, and Les's singing voice holds up remarkably well given the punishing tour schedule the band has been undertaking. It's easy to see that this band has played often together, they play well and do full justice to the excellent songs, drawn from BJH's entire history. Mike Byron-Hehir puts in some storming guitar work, including on old classics, that will please all Barclay James Harvest fans

It is a strong set! From 1971's "Mocking Bird" to 2002's "January Morning" and "That Was Then This Is Now", Les and BJH take us on a journey via some time honoured songs like "Rock 'n' Roll Star", "Berlin", "Life is for Living", "Play to the World", "Hymn" and others. The band injects pace into the show at all the right moments and you are left wanting more at the end of the two hours.

This is such a good recording that I have now ordered the CD also as I will listen to that through the mp3 far more often than watching the DVD.

If you are a fan of the band but with a leaning towards the John Lees/Woolly Wolstenholme side of the split, I would still urge you to give this DVD, or the counterpart CD, a go: you won't be disappointed in either the quality of the songs or in Mike Byron-Hehir's guitar work - this really is a strong performance all round.

This is Les Holroyd's second DVD release in four years and a vast improvement on its lacklustre predecessor. This time around a multi-camera professional outfit was hired to record a single concert in Amnéville, France in April 2006, one of a number accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite difficulties with the band's monitors, it is an excellent performance that does justice to a fine band.

Visually, it is well presented with many different angles to maintain the interest. Personally I find they jump around too much, but that is the modern way of doing things, and at least you do get to see everybody. Don't expect pyrotechnics on a Floydian scale though - this is a film of a bunch of people doing what they do best, ie playing music. Mike, an excellent underrated guitarist, is generally quite demonstrative, but otherwise the band is not very dynamic. Aurally, the music comes across well in Dolby stereo. I have issues with some mix decisions, and like many BJH related items I find the production is a little too soft in places where it needs more guts, but generally is detailed and excellently produced.

I could do without the pair of 'orchestra only' tracks that open the show, but otherwise the setlist is an enjoyable trawl through Les's career, using the orchestra to add extra colour to established favourites and enhancing arrangements to breathe new life into others. The band play well, turning in a very solid performance throughout, really picking up the pace towards the end with Ring Of Changes / Play To The World / That Was Then, This Is Now which forms a distinct hotspot towards the end of the film. Generally, I find this band is at its best on newer songs like Back In The Game or Yesterday's Heroes while being a little less comfortable with the older material.

Certainly, I find it hard to accept Les singing Hymn, especially as he has unconvincingly appropriated John's 'yeahs' between verses. There also remains the issue of Les's singing voice which has not aged well. A couple of cringeworthy moments merely highlight the fact that his vocals have become very problematical for the less dedicated listener.

In many ways, this is the DVD that should have been made in 2002, and it certainly makes that one obsolete. There are no new songs here, but performance and presentation is so much better, with the added dimension created by the orchestra. Atmosphere is lacking, possibly due to the size of the stage, but overall it's a good one from Les, though I suspect I will listen to the CD version far more than watch this.

BACK TO THE OLD DAYS, BUT THEN FAR BETTER!!

I bought this dvd with mixed feelings. The ratings on this site were quite good but there were also some akward reviews of gigs that Les Holroyd had played in The Netherlands. So what to expect?

Well, it turned out to be a very, very nice surprise.

First a warning: those who like a spectacular concert with a wide variety of show effects, lighting or other special effects, don't read any further because you'll be disappointed. As a visual experience the dvd is a bit dull, a bit 'as can be expected' and nothing less. Les and his band are quite static but who cares? Barcla James Harvest have never been spectacular on stage other than because of the light show (which was in some tours extremely nice). And as Les turns older and has sufferend quite a few personal drawbacks the last years (first his beloved wife dies in a stupid accident, then his long time friend and BJH-drummer Mel Pritchard suddenly died), he has grown quite older. And yes, his voice isn't as good as it has been which is sometimes embarrassing. But the musicianship hasn't suffered at all, on the contrary. The dvd starts off with instrumental versions of two songs and both songs are very relaxed and nice to listen to. It is also a very sympathetic way of setting the spots on the orchestra which delivers a good, if not very good support to the band. The arrangements are probably not very surprising or innovative, they work extremely well and add multiple layers to the songs.

Yet, if you expect a soft classical-like performance (as I was....) you are totally wrong. Because the songs have not only been arranged for the orchestra but also for the band in which Michael Byron-Hehir is the most prominent player, they certainly rock. The guitar playing is more sharp edged, aggressive, sometimes almost metal-like and thus quite different from John Lees' back in the old days of BJH. And that works quite well. As a consequence most songs are significantly longer than the originals, anothergem of this dvd. Only for 'Shadows in the sky' this new version is too long since not much is happening musically during its more than 12 minutes duration. As for the set list, Les had chosen to mix some real oldies (Life is for living, Hymn (first time he does the lead vocals!), Mockingbird (id) and Berlin with songs from his only solo album to date. His pick of songs is good; I especially like Prelude/January Mornng (beautiful classical arrangement and fierce guitar work) and Berlin (almost purely classical, very atmospheric).

There is only a photo galery added as extra on the dvd which is a bit poor. And the dvde is quite difficult to lay your hands on; that's a shame!

For those who have been close with BJH: the dvd was dedicated to Mel Pritchard, maybe another reason to purchase it.

With this concert Les goes back to the old days when BJH toured with their own orchestra and earned a lot of respect for this new approach. Then it was a hostoric musical experience (listen to the album!) which almost sent them definitely bankrupt. Now, more than 30 (!)n years later his bank account will be considerably healthier so he could take the risk. And again he earns the respect from everybody who liked the classical BJH; he has done a very good job. Therefore a four star!!