John Lees  Barclay James Harvest

  “Octoberon”, “Gone to Earth” and “XII”.

Barclay James Harvest was formed in Oldham when John Lees and Woolly Wolstenholme teamed up with Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard. In the summer of 1967 the band turned professional and adopted the name. Under the patronage of a local businessman who became their first manager, they moved into an 18th Century farmhouse in the Saddleworth area to write and rehearse. A one-off single deal with EMI’s Parlophone label resulted in the release of the single “Early Morning” in April 1968, leading in turn to a full contract and the band becoming one of the first signings to the legendary Harvest label. From the very beginning, BJH had experimented with musical ideas, going beyond the traditional guitar, bass and drums format to utilise a Mellotron to simulate the sound of an orchestra. By the time their debut album, Barclay James Harvest, was recorded the band had their own 48 piece orchestra and undertook a short orchestral tour to promote the album. 1971 saw them perfecting their fusion of rock and classical music with the release of the seminal albums Once Again and Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories and ambitious live performances with their own orchestra. Following the release of the album Baby James Harvest, the band parted with Harvest.

Forced to undertake a grueling concert schedule to recoup the huge cost of touring with an orchestra, BJH built up a steadily growing fan base which led to a contract with Polydor records and the beginning of greater commercial success. 1974’s studio set, Everyone Is Everybody Else, was followed later that year by Barclay James Harvest Live, a double album which became their first UK chart album. Time Honoured Ghosts in 1975 and Octoberon in 1976 saw the band build on their achievements and sell out the now-traditional autumn tours of the UK, whilst exploring new territories abroad with tours of Europe and the USA. 1977’s Gone to Earth heralded the beginning of major success in Germany, where the album eventually reached platinum selling status. In 1978 the second live set, Live Tapes, paved the way for a new studio album, XII, and an extended tour of Britain and Europe. As rehearsals began for a new album, Woolly Wolstenholme announced his departure to pursue a solo career. He subsequently released an album, Mæstoso in 1980, and toured with his Mæstoso band before retiring from the music business to live and work on his own organic farm.

The remaining trio resolved to go it alone, augmenting their sound with session musicians where necessary. Eyes Of The Universe, which appeared in November 1979, presented a less complex, more commercial side of BJH, and resulted in spectacular sales in Europe, particularly in Germany where it rapidly went platinum.

The first four months of the year were taken up with an extensive European tour, and on August 30th 1980 the band performed a free concert on the steps of the Reichstag, in the heart of the divided city of Berlin to 175,000 people. 1981’s Turn of the Tide album led to yet more touring and 1982’s Berlin - A Concert For The People (recorded at their historic Reichstag concert) went straight to No. 1 in Germany and reached number15 in the UK.

In the mid-1980’s the albums Ring Of Changes and Victims Of Circumstance again clocked up telephone number sales and brought a new generation of fans to their 1984 European tour, particularly in France, but many older followers felt that this more commercial direction meant BJH had lost some of their individuality and subtlety. As a result, a long lay-off followed, while the band considered their future direction.

In early 1987 the album Face To Face marked a return to the traditional BJH sound, and this was confirmed on another massive tour of Britain and Europe, including several major festivals. One of these took place in East Berlin’s Treptower Park on July 14th, 1987 in front of an estimated 170,000 fans, the first time that a western rock band had performed an open-air concert in what was then East Germany; a live recording was released as the album and video Glasnost in 1988.
Welcome to the Show, released in March 1990, was perhaps one of their strongest albums of the post-Woolly Wolstenholme era and was warmly received throughout Europe. 1992 saw the band embark on a 25th Anniversary Tour, which coincided with the UK release of The Best of Barclay James Harvest, a slightly different version of which had already gone gold in Germany. 1993’s Caught In The Light, was the band’s last for Polydor UK. In May 1997 the album River Of Dreams, was released in Germany and Switzerland only, and was followed up by a tour of those countries.
Increasing disharmony in the ranks of the band led to an announcement in March 1998 that the band would be taking a sabbatical, in effect marking the end of the original Barclay James Harvest, and that the members of the band would be pursuing solo projects. John Lees immediately teamed up with Woolly Wolstenholme for the first time in twenty years to record the album Nexus, released by Eagle Records in February 1999 under the name Barclay James Harvest through the Eyes of John Lees. A tour of Germany and Switzerland followed and was recorded for the Revival - Live 1999 album which appeared in March 2000, after which there were more concerts in Germany and Greece, plus the first concerts in England by any of the band members since 1992.

2006 saw the band return with a higly successful UK tour and two capacity shows in Greece. . The show on November 5th at Londons Shepherds Bush Empire was recorded for CD and DVD and released as “ Legacy”.

The band were honoured with a “lifelong achievement award” in March 2007 at the Radio Regenbogen awards ceremony in Germany.
With Lees and Wolstenholme currently working on a new studio album, 2009 is a welcome return to prominence of the Barclay James Harvest name .