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The Hollies have officially called it a day. And perhaps, like many, you didn’t even realize a version of that classic rock band was still performing. Yet the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group had endured in some
form and continued to tour since 1962 — including two members who go back virtually to the inception of the band, lead guitarist Tony Hicks and drummer Bobby Elliott.
Now, due to health concerns, Hicks has had to step away from the group. And in sympathy, Elliott has also decided it is time to retire. And with that, the group’s six-and-a-half-decade tenure is finally coming to a close.
An announcement posted by the group on social media Thursday read: “Due to health reasons, Tony has decided to step away from touring. Out of respect for Tony and everything they have shared throughout their remarkable journey together, Bobby has also decided to retire from touring. After more than six decades, the Hollies’ touring career will come to a close with immense gratitude to the fans who have supported them around the world.”
Hicks is 80, and Elliott is 84. Both joined the Hollies in 1963, shortly after the group’s inception and prior to their run of massive hits.
They were both inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, along with founding frontmen Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, later singer Terry Sylvester (who stepped in when Nash left in 1969) and early members Eric Haydock and Bernie Calvert. Hicks and Elliott did not actually attend the ceremony, citing a gig that night they did not want to give up.
(The lineup pictured above in 1964, from left to right, is Nash, Clarke, Haydock, Elliott and Hicks.)
In the U.S., as part of the vaunted British Invasion ushered in by the Beatles, they had their first top 10 hit with “Bus Stop,” which reached No. 5 in 1966. Other top 10s included “Stop Stop Stop” that same year, “Carrie Anne” in 1967, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” in 1969, “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” in 1972 and “The Air That I Breathe” in 1974. In the U.K., some of their charting hits were different, like “I’m Alive,” which went to No. 1 in 1965 but barely made a dent in America.
Hicks was not one of the primary singers in the group but had plenty of credits in that capacity, singing “Look Through Any Window” and sharing lead vocals on songs like “Carrie Anne.” He was also a primary writer along with Clarke and Nash, credited on hits including “Carrie Anne” and “King Midas in Reverse.”
After many lineup changes over the years, a version of the group solidified in 2004 that remained intact until the band’s most recent dates, with Hicks and Elliott being joined by new singer Peter Howarth and Steve Lauri, Ray Stiles and Ian Parker, whose had the third-longest tenure, having joined in 1991.
“Tony Hicks and I had a band called the Dolphins,” Elliott said in an interview with Rhino.com to commemorate the group’s 50th anniversary in 2014. “Tony was 14, I was 18, but we were quite a hot band here in the north, and as time went on, Allan Clarke and Graham Nash heard about us. The Hollies were forming and they wanted a guitar player, so their manager kept coming and pestering us: ‘Tony, you must come and join this new band, the Hollies. They’ve got an audition at Abbey Road Studios!’ It was all this, that, and the other. And he said, ‘Okay, if Bob comes along, I will!’ [Laughs.] Anyway, that went by the book, and he went along by himself. Meanwhile, there were no Dolphins anymore!” But Elliott himself joined soon enough.
Hicks, in an interview with Terrascope, said the group’s famous three-part harmony sound developed “by accident. Allan and Graham sung together but we found my voice could blend in as well.”
Of the group’s modern shows, Elliott said in 2014, “Our show now is, like, two and a half hours long. We like to do the traditional sort of British theaters, and we do an hour, then the 20-minute intermission, and then we do about an hour and a quarter more. So that’s a full evening. We don’t go for supports and things like that. It’s our theater for the day. And the crew and everybody, they’re all like part of the family, and…it’s an event, really. And that’s what keeps it going, I think. The live shows are so enjoyable, and the – I dare say – adulation at the end, and the standing ovation. You float off after that. And then you have a shower, get changed, have a drink, and…there’s no better feeling. That’s the best life for me. So that’s something I don’t want to let go! [Laughs.] I’ll have to one day – time’s rolling on – but for now, it’s still great fun.”
Anyone wanting to hear Hollies material live still has a shot at it, as Terry Sylvester, Nash’s replacement, continues to participate in oldies package tours with “of the Hollies” appended to his name. And Nash has tour dates booked into this fall, with “Bus Stop” being the one Hollies tune that figures into his setlists.
