John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest Salford Lowry Theatre Manchester April 12th 2009 (Easter Sunday)
I guess, although I might not have fully realised it at the time, I was pretty into Barclay James Harvest in the 70s. They were one of the bands who I would go along and see with my mates, and we always enjoyed the show. We sort of took them for granted; they toured a lot, you could always go along and see them; you could rely on them to play well (and they would always finish with Mockingbird). Somewhere along the way I lost touch with them, and I’d almost forgotten them altogether until a couple of years ago when John Lees’ version of the band came to Newcastle. I went along that night not knowing what to expect and was surprised how good they were, and how many of the old songs came back to me after 30 years. Since then, I’ve kept in touch with BJH by visiting their website now and then.
So when I saw that they were planning to perform a special concert for fans on Easter Sunday in Salford I decided I’d go along. Laura had heard me playing Mockingbird and After the Day and was intrigued enough to fancy joining me, so we bought two tickets. That was last November; we’ve been looking forward to the show since then.
We set off early after an Easter lunch with the family, and arrived at the Lowry centre at 6pm, with plenty of time to spare. There was time for a pizza in the Quays before we made our way into the Lowry for the show. The Lowry is a lovely venue overlooking the river just next to the Quays shopping centre.
Fans of the band had travelled from all over the UK for the concert; everyone was looking forward to this; so it was going to be pretty special. A special one-off programme for the concert was included in the ticket price and as a nice touch they had printed the names of everyone in the audience inside. Laura was a little disappointed that the smallest t-shirts available were medium; which would still be like a dress on her; so she decided to pass this time.
First up was support act Claire Hamill, another name from the 70s who seems to have re-emerged recently. She did a few numbers which went down quite well. Then there was a short internal before the main act.
BJH started with For No One and were on great form. The sound was clear and John Lees’ guitar work was as good as ever. Keyboard player Wooley was in a chatty mood, cracking jokes with the crowd and with the bass guitarist in particular. The set was largely well know favourites from the early albums, each one greeted by a great roar from the crowd. The band clearly enjoyed the gig and played with a lot more passion that the last time I saw them. John forgot the opening lines of Mockingbird, but was forgiven by the audience. The show finished at around 10.45pm and we headed off home; got back around 1.15am. Laura’s verdict was that they were OK, but perhaps a little dated nowadays. Me, I thought it was great, and yes it maybe is dated and like going back to the 70s, but I guess thats what I went for anyway!
Set list:
For No One
The Great 1974 Mining Disaster
Poor Wages
Iron Maiden
Child of The Universe
Loving is Easy (X-Rated)
Light at the End of the World
Poor Man’s Moody Blues
Galadriel
Harbour
Suicide?
Medicine Man
In Search of England
H’ors d’oeuvres (someone spell that for me??)
Mocking Bird
The Poet
After the Day
Encores:
She Said
Hymn
website: http://www.bjharvest.co.uk/
programme
ticket
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