Rhonda Lee Reali talks to a guy who was there at the start of the British pop boom, and whose drumming for Manchester beat group The Hollies powered some of the jauntiest hits to have emerged from the 1960s golden age. And, with dates in both north and south Wales during June, they’re still touring like troopers…
So, this is The Hollies’ 60th-anniversary tour…
It’s quite a big tour. Obviously, these two years have been in lockdown and away from it all for the first time in what, how many years since we started? Certainly, since The Hollies started making records in 1963. We’ve worked every single year since then, up to the time we all hit the buffers for two years.
The main thing is having fun. Our show is ‘an evening with’. We do an hour, we have an intermission and then we do another hour, so you get all the hits and more, as we say.
How do you keep things fresh?
“Since The Hollies started making records in 1963, we worked every single year – until we all hit the buffers for two years.”
Bobby Elliott, The Hollies
We’ve got the basic framework that we know is a winning framework. We’ve got a good following of guys and gals who are our fans, that come most every night in the first two rows. We’ll see them at the stage door – they’ll have their comments, and we always take [the comments] in. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong!
The main thing is for the band to enjoy itself. Even backstage, the atmosphere is usually good. With the crew, it’s like a family thing. When we go into that theatre in the afternoon, that’s our home for the day. Everybody’s automatically getting on with the jobs, preparing. Hopefully, that transmits from the stage into the auditorium and thankfully, when you’re taking that bow at the end, stood along the front. I drift off for my shower and then maybe meet the guys in a pub for a nice cold pint of bitter afterwards. That’s my reward.
I understand you’re self-taught, and that jazz was your first love. So why did you make the move from jazz to rock? Was it because rock was something new?
Rock was always there – rock was blues. Going onto the early American records that everybody was influenced by, like Little Richard and Eddie Cochrane. When I was at school, I was keen on modern jazz – Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, people like that – and that’s what I started playing. My mother had a grocer’s shop, and I used to drum on the biscuit and Cadbury’s Roses tins. There were tins in those days, next to the radiogram, and it developed from there. My pals would say, “Robert, you ought to follow that up,” so I got my first drum and sticks and brushes.
Eventually, I met up with [Hollies singer/guitarist] Tony Hicks, and we had a little band called The Dolphins, appearing in the north of England. We were quite successful – so much so that Tony got headhunted by Allan and Graham [Hollies’ co-founders Allan Clarke and Graham Nash] and their manager when The Hollies were forming. I followed shortly afterwards because the drummer that was there before me was the only guy that could drive the van.
Looking For Something To Do?
The Ultimate Guide to What’s on in Wales
When we got rolling, I was on the drum seat for The Hollies. Prior to that, when Tony left The Dolphins, he phoned up and said, “Look, there’s a job going with Shane Fenton and The Fentones.” I went and did the audition all the way to London – my dad took me down in his little van. I saw this queue on a side street, one or two guys with drumsticks sticking out of their pockets, and I thought, “this must be the place where they’re auditioning.” Sure enough, it was. I was at the back of the queue, but I got the gig! I was with Shane Fenton – who later became Alvin Stardust – for a few months. Later on, I found out that number three in the queue was Keith Moon…
Anyway, that’s the side story and then shortly afterwards, I was with The Hollies and up in Abbey Road Studios. Talking about Abbey Road, I was down there last year with Tony Hicks, Elton John and Ringo. There’s a documentary that Mary McCartney is making called If These Walls Could Sing. Mary and the production team had me in there in the Number Three studio, and she was filming me going round, up and down the stairs – as we did in those early days when we were excited, exploring the effects cupboards and the echo room that is still there. It’s just a concrete room with some upstanding sewer pipes for the echo. You have a microphone at one end and a speaker at the other, and they still use that. So, Mary had me retracing my steps and hopefully, it’s going to come out sometime this year. I hope I don’t end up on the cutting room floor!
A favourite Hollies song of mine is one that you’ve written – Then, Now, Always (Dolphin Days).
You like Dolphin Days?
I love it!
Oh, that is sweet. Thank you so much for that. I thought everybody had forgotten about it! That tells the story of Tony and I coming down from the north and making it in the big smoke. I’ve written quite a few things. In fact, I’ve had a book published. It’s called, It Ain’t Heavy, It’s My Story: My Life In The Hollies, and it’s in its second run now. Omnibus Press and quite well-received. I’m quite proud of that. It’s not a blockbuster – it wasn’t intended to be – but I’ve crammed a heck of a lot of stuff in there, and it weighs a ton. [Laughs] That came out right at the start of lockdown, so I couldn’t do much to promote it…
If it wasn’t for music, you wouldn’t be where you are – Dolphin Days tells the story of that.
Yes, [music] was a device for escaping from the north. Much as I love the north, in those days it was industrialised. Here we are up here in the old cotton-weaving area where they had the cotton mills – cotton sheds as the locals call them – and lots of high mill chimneys, but the outlying area is quite beautiful. We’ve got the Brontë country, the Ribble Valley and not far away, the Lake District. [Also] three little towns, Burnley, Colne and Nelson on the Leeds Liverpool Canal.
The cotton came across from the States, up the Leeds Liverpool Canal, dropped at Burnley; the weavers in their clogs and shawls wove it back in the 1800s and early 1900s. Quite a history there. It’s a beautiful area – I’m looking out now. We’ve got the lambs in the field, and the daffodils are out.
Where are you living?
On the outskirts of Colne. About six miles from where I was born on the outskirts of Burnley, in my mother’s little grocer’s shop where I discovered the biscuit tins. I used to borrow the paintbrush handles from the art department from Nelson Grammar School – in the next town along – and it built up from there. The launchpad of my career.
What are your memories of working with Burt Bacharach, recording his theme song for 1966 Peter Sellers comedy After The Fox?
We first met Burt in Hollywood in about 1965, then he got in touch when he was in England with Angie Dickenson [Bacharach’s then wife]. He invited us round to the mews apartment and said, “I’ve got this song, and I’d like you guys to sing it; Peter Sellers is going to be, ahh, shall we say, the lead singer.” We did it in [Abbey Road’s] Number Two studio – Burt on harpsichord, me on drums, and our bass player didn’t turn up so we had a pre-Cream Jack Bruce on bass. Quite a day.
Burt was an infamous taskmaster, demanding numerous takes.
You’re right! The man of many takes. [Laughs] George Martin was involved as well – our producer, Ron Richards, was looking after our side, and George was looking after Peter’s side. George said, “I think we had it on the third take.” Sellers came into the studio and was quite subdued – the only laugh we got was when he threatened to karate-chop the grand piano.
Are you still in touch with Graham Gouldman?
We see Graham occasionally when we’re in Germany. He wrote [mid-60s Hollies hits] Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window. Since lockdown, we haven’t done much over there, but we used to see him at various sort of German extravaganzas. Oh, and I might see him on the plane flying over. Graham’s alright. We’re still chums. We’re part of the tapestry, aren’t we, in a way…
Any chance of asking him to write another hit for The Hollies?
That’s a nice thought. A very nice thought. Yeah, I mean, if he’s up for it. We’ll have a listen. We knew Graham, [him] being a Manchester boy. We’d see him down the various pubs when he started writing with his dad who used to help him in the early days.
Fabulous times, the 1960s…
Yeah, with hindsight, we took it for granted at the time. In those early days – the 60s and then the 70s – we were churning hits out like a machine in those Abbey Road studios. We liked the social life as well, going to all the clubs. We did the very first Top Of The Pops in 1964 from up here in Manchester, and Ready, Steady, Go. It was just a way of life, but I tried to squeeze quite a lot of it into my book. Yes, it’s been a privilege.
The Hollies, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Thurs 2 June; Venue Cymru, Llandudno, Sun 12 June. Tickets: £34-£49. Info: Cardiff / Llandudno
words RHONDA LEE REALI