Wednesday 2nd July

I first saw and heard them and of them in a field at Weeley in 1972.  They played with an orchestra and were simply sublime.  They came from Stockport, and were in the vanguard of “Prog-Rock”, as it became known, blending rock music with a classical theme.  Great musicians and wonderful songs with enduring melodies.  They were signed to Harvest records, a new imprint of EMI, which had signed up a lot of new and weird bands.  They made four albums for Harvest, their eponymous first album, Once Again, And Short Stories and Baby James Harvest.

They also released a couple of singles which bombed.  The band were just gaining popularity when, for whatever reason they were dropped by Harvest.  For about a year they floundered without a record deal but then signed to Parlophone.

My favourite of this quartet, though all four are wonderful is Once Again.  It features the majestic “Mockingbird”, the gentle acoustic song “Galadriel” and the simply brilliant “She Said”.  There was nothing quite like them in music at that or any time since.  Largely down to the brilliant guitar playing of John Lees, who wrote the best songs too and the classical training of Wooly Wolstenholme, who brought them some of their best melodies.  They lost the orchestra soon after I saw them, it nearly bankrupted their management.  Wooly managed to replicate most of that big orchestral sound on the Mellotron, a new instrument which involved playing short pieces of taped music by pressing keys on a keyboard.   Of all my favourites, BJH hold a very special place.  And John Lees is still recording occasionally and has a new version of the band too.  They still play mostly stuff from these first four albums  because though the band made many more records these were the best.