The Hollies On Track

by Andrew Darlington

Published 31 December 2021
Everyone loved The Hollies. They were the 'group's group'. Never confrontational or rebellious, always smartly suited, always smiling. The band had an unbroken run of immaculate pop singles which, while they seldom had that must-buy factor of the latest Rolling Stones or Beatles record, was hallmarked by tight harmonies and unfailing chart sensibility. Throughout the sixties and well into the seventies, everyone had - own up - at least one or two Hollies singles in their collection. No-one begrudged The Hollies their hits.

When 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' and 'Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress' became global million-sellers, The Hollies were inducted into The Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame. Graham Nash - by then deep into his second career as part of Crosby, Stills and Nash - was reunited with other members of the outfit, all on stage together in the March 2010 ceremony.

This book tells the full story, from the band's origins in Manchester, through the full arc of hits, and the albums - track-by-track, into the twenty-first century, then... now... always

Sheffield in the late-1970s was isolated from what was happening in London in the same way that Liverpool had been in 1963. A unique generation of electro-experimental groupings evolved in the former Steel City around Cabaret Voltaire and The Future. The Future split into two factions, Clock DVA and The Human League. Then The Human League split into two further factions, Heaven 17, and The Human League as we now know them, fronted by Philip Oakey with Joanne Catherall and Susan Sulley.

Dare became one of the most iconic albums of the eighties; the album by which Human League are most instantly recognised. It is a musically ambitious album, both driven and voracious album, with giddy grenades of shared inventiveness. A triumph of content over considerable style, at once phenomenally commercial and gleefully avant-garde.
The American success of 'Don't You Want Me', accelerated by the high-gloss movie-quality video, exploiting the band's extreme visual appeal, heralded what was soon termed the Second British Invasion. It was the first of two Human League singles to top the American charts.

This book tells the full story, from the band's origins in Sheffield, through the full arc of Human League and the very early Heaven 17 hits, and the albums - track-by-track, into the twenty-first century...