Tony Hicks is the Hollie with the
perpetual smile and Peter Pan looks who learned his guitar style in the
Manchester r’n’b scene of the early sixties after moving there from Nelson.
The Hollies were the British pop band that deserved a cooler image. Hailed
as Mancunian rivals to the Fab Four, they produced a string of brilliant
singles and were, largely underrated as an albums band, the real way to be
cool in the era everybody supposedly can’t remember if they were there.
Still who cares when you are producing songs like ‘Stay’, ‘We’re Through’,
‘Look Through Any Window’, ‘Bus Stop’, ‘King Midas In Reverse’ (which Hicks
co-wrote with Graham Nash and Allan Clarke) and ‘I’m Alive’, to name but a
few. ‘Evolution’, the LP, saw them dabble in psychedelia and cost me money I
couldn’t really afford. They tried a Bob Dylan covers album and a third long
player too. But it all came back to those 45s. I remember their Greatest
Hits LP was actually ALL greatest hits, no filler.
Whatever the catchy tunes and hallmark
harmonies mean to you, Hicks was there at the start when pals Allan Clarke
and Graham Nash were putting the ensemble together. When I spoke to him,
Hicks was in the midst of a Hollies tour. New millennium, but old habits die
hard.
PT: So, how are you Tony?
TH: Fine. I’m enjoying what I’m doing as
much as ever.
Still enjoy touring?
Yes. We do very faithful versions of our
hits. We do two-hour shows and try to create a stadium atmosphere indoors
rather the going through the bullshit of outdoors in muddy fields. We change
the songs around and do new ones. As well as our own songs we do covers,
like a rock’n’roll medley with stuff by Chris Montez, ‘At The Hop’. Classy
stuff.
You don’t find touring arduous at all?
We don’t do that much, about 45 dates over
18 months. It works out a four-day week. I get home most nights. It is
hardly hard work. I’m still living out the fantasy of doing my hobby for a
living with my mates.
You make sure you’re fit after four
decades of being part of a British pop institution?
I look after myself. I take my tracksuit
and my pumps on tour and do a bit of jogging every day.
Your musical influences?
I grew up loving Johnny Kidd and The
Pirates, numbers like ‘Shakin’ All Over’ and ‘Restless’. There was Cliff and
The Drifters, who then became the Shadows, of course. I used to listen to
American stuff too like Bobby Vee, The Everly Brothers, and Elvis Presley. I
loved Scotty Moore, Elvis’s guitarist.
What shows do you remember?
I went to see Tommy Steele at the London
Palladium. That was an early show I went to.
Was that when you started playing music?
Around then. I started looking in windows
of second-hand shops for guitars. I had a homemade one. It was diabolical. I
got a fairly sensible acoustic and then moved on to a Hofner Club 40 and
went semi-pro. It was quite good money around the Manchester scene.
Then you chanced upon Allan and Graham?
I used to play these typical clubs of the
time and Allan and Graham used to be in the audience watching. I did my
audition at Abbey Road Studios! It was a big deal. We had two hours and did
two tracks, one was ‘Just Like Me’. It had a good feel.
What were your first gigs as a Hollie?
We played the Manchester ballrooms and
went to Liverpool and played the Cavern quite regularly. The Beatles were
just ahead of us. We were dubbed the Manchester Beatles. We did two sessions
at lunchtime. It was very exciting.
How did the three-part harmony sound
develop?
By accident. Allan and Graham sung
together but we found my voice could blend in as well.
The stream of hits was seemingly endless,
so what was the secret?
We kept a freshness. The follow-up was not
Part 2 of the previous hit. We experimented with the instruments we used. We
even added banjo on ‘Stop, Stop, Stop’, for instance. ‘Carrie Anne’ (another
which Tony helped to write with Allan and Graham Nash) had steel drums on
it.
The Bob Dylan covers album?
I thought that was very successful. Bob
Dylan has written some very interesting songs. Some of the versions were
half finished, some were. It was okay.
Evolution?
That was an experiment. We had a Byrds
influence. Music was evolving and we wanted to go along with it.
Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll?
I don’t ever remember any TVs thrown out
of windows but, as young lads, we had fun. We lived the life. Excess! We
used to hang around the same clubs as other bands. There was Carnaby Street,
Twiggy, all that in the Sixties. It was like chalk and cheese in image
compared to the cotton mills of the North.
Graham went off to form Crosby Stills and
Nash, which added Neil Young, and all that was considered cool yet the
Hollies weren’t. Did that, does that, bother you?
No. I’m not jealous. Graham and I are
still great mates. When he went off, Graham’s life was a mess. He didn’t
have the happiest of home lives and he got ripped off by some. So he decided
"I’m off" and he got very, very lucky.
What music do you like now?
Great songs. I like Steely Dan. I even
appreciate The Spice Girls.
There’s another musical influence in the
family?
Yes, my son Paul. He worked on The Beatles
Anthology at Abbey Road as an engineer. He’s getting on very well. Abbey
Road has always been a magical place to record and very little has changed.
The control room, though, has. We had mono and stereo. Now it looks like the
flight deck of a Concorde. But the original features are still around like
the echo room. Abbey Road has always been a magical place to record and very
little has changed. My son was engineer for Paul McCartney’s with his Rock
‘n’ Roll album (‘Run Devil Run’). He worked with Paul on the charity he did
with that model (Heather, now Macca’s fiancee). I saw the show Paul did from
The Cavern on TV while we were playing in Blackpool. He looked great playing
there with Ian Paice, who is a big mate, and Pete Wingfield.
What about outside music?
I like my football. I support Queens Park
Rangers from when I lived close by. My favourite era is the one in which
Stan Bowles, Gerry Francis, Don Givens and Phil Parkes were in the team.
Where do you live?
Henley. George Harrison lives up the road…
Tony Hicks interviewette: Mick Donovan (c)
Ptolemaic Terrascope, 2001