Barclay James Harvest

From softly focused pastoral passages at the end of the ’60s to more muscular rock-outs two decades later, Barclay James Harvest was never a band to wallow in its own heritage.

Pompous enough to be labelled the “poor man’s Moody Blues” but sufficiently self-aware to call one of their songs just that, the young BJH released four albums on Harvest before achieving greater sales on Polydor.

The group came together in Manchester in the spring of 1967, and between 1968 and 1970, they confidently navigated the midst of second-generation rock bands in the era of the supergroup.

By 1969, their first album, Barclay James Harvest, was issued on the newly formed Harvest label. As labelmates of Pink Floyd and Deep Purple at the first peak of prog, they saw nothing pretentious about turning up the Mellotron, co-opting a full orchestra, and singing feyly of ladies named Galadriel and Ursula . . . or constructing mournful, elaborate epics like Song With No Meaning or Mockingbird.

Rock music came of age because bands like BJH were orchestrating their music and taking giant strides when it was still considered heresy to stray that far from formal training. In 1970, Dark Now My Sky was as deep and portentous to BJH fans as Dark Side Of The Moon would be to Pink Floyd devotees in years to come.

Moving to Polydor, the band received praise for their 1974 releases, Everyone Is Everybody Else and Barclay James Harvest Live, the latter being their first ever entry in the album charts. Sales of subsequent albums began to improve, and their Gone to Earth album made #30 in the UK album charts and was a massive hit in Germany, where they became great favourites.

By the late 1970s, the BJH sound was becoming more radio-friendly, classic soft rock with few progressive bells, whistles or recorders, which displeased keyboard player Woolly Wolstenholme. He left in 1979, and the band continued as a trio, with various guests drafted in on keyboards.

A live album of an outdoor BJH concert on the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin was released in 1982, reaching #15 and giving the band their highest ever placing in the UK album charts.

BJH continued throughout the 80s and 90s, releasing albums regularly, though sales generally fell, except in Germany, where the band enjoyed a huge following.

Their last album, River of Dreams (1997), was released only in Germany as their UK record deal had lapsed. The following year, the band’s two main remaining songwriters, John Lees and Les Holroyd, had a major falling-out, and the group split into two competing versions – Barclay James Harvest Through the Eyes of John Lees (with a returned Woolly Wolstenholme) and Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd (with Mel Pritchard).

Mel Pritchard died of a heart attack in 2004. Woolly Wolstenholme had a history of mental health problems and took his own life in 2010.

John Lees
Vocals, guitar, flute, clarinet
Stuart ‘Woolly’ Wolstenholme
Keyboards, vocals
Les Holroyd
Bass, organ, piano, guitar, vocals
Mel Pritchard
Drums

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