Popular & Rock Music Around Greater Manchester

The Hollies

The Hollies formed from 2 earlier Manchester groups, The Deltas and The Dolphins in 1962, and launched on a career of long running UK hit records. They comprised Alan Clarke (vocals), Tony Hicks (guitar and vocals), Graham Nash (guitar and vocals - see below - next entry), Eric Haydock (bass), and Don Rathbone (drums). Most of their early music came from outside writers, but by 1966 they were achieving great success with their own compositions. "Bus Stop" reached No.5 in the USA charts, and this established them firmly in the American market. They produced numerous singles during the "psychedelic" era of the early 1970s, but failed to produce successful albums. By 1971, disillusioned, Clarke left to go solo, though the band continued well into the 1980s producing memorable and well crafted singles. A revival of interest in the music of the Hollies was prompted in the early 1990s by the television advertisement for Miller Lite Beer which featured "He Aint Heavy- He's my Brother".

• Searchin'
• Here I Go Again
• I Can't Let Go
• Carrie-Anne
• Jennifer Eccles
• Air That I Breathe
• He Aint Heavy (He's my Brother)

Graham Nash

Graham Nash was born in Blackpool on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire in 1942. By the age of 14 he had already begun playing music with his school friend, Allan Clarke - these two went on to found The Hollies (above), and were to be met with international acclaim by the early 1960s. While on a 1967 US tour, Nash met up with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, an experience that was to change his life, as within a year he had left The Hollies and moved to live permanently in Los Angeles, California. It was here that he participated in the formation of Crosby, Stills & Nash. As a Rock & Roll musician, Nash has sung and played on hundreds of recordings, performed all over the world and has published more than 200 songs: these have included classic hits like "Carrie Ann", "On a Carousel", "Teach Your Children", "Our House", "Marrakesh Express", "Just a Song Before I Go" and "Wasted On the Way".
He has also maintained a career as a respected photographer and pioneer in digital imaging with "Nash Editions" and is particularly involved in interactive multimedia entertainment. Nash has also been involved in many political, environmental and conservation movements as well as having taken part in numerous antiwar benefits and aided such organisations as Live Aid, Greenpeace, and the Vietnam Veterans. Graham's three main interests as an activist remain the antinuclear movement, environmental protection and children.
His love of photography stems from his father, an amateur photographer who encouraged him to help in the darkroom. Nash began to collect photographs in 1971 and subsequently his collection had grown to more than 2000 prints, including works by Cartier-Bresson. His more recent digital film and multimedia work and photography earned him, in February 1997, the Arts & Technology Medal and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree for his groundbreaking work in bridging the arts and technology from the New York Institute of Technology. Nash is both a devoted husband and father. Married for 20 years, he and Susan have three children - Jackson, Will and Nile.

Magazine

Howard Devoto

Formed in 1977, when Howard Devoto left the Buzzcocks and made a songwriting partnership with John McGeogh, which developed into the group, Magazine. With Devoto on vocals and McGeogh on guitar, they were joined by Barry Adamson on bass, Bob Dickenson on keyboard and Martin Jackson on drums. Their slower, moodier music contrasted sharply with the hectic fast music that was popular at that time. Debuted at the Electric Circus, Manchester. Various new band recruitments and departures resulted in the band's eventual break-up in May 1981.

• Real Life
• Second-hand Daylight
• The Correct Use of Soap
• Play
• Magic, Murder and the Weather

John Cooper Clarke

The so-called "Salford Punk-Poet", owed much in his wit and wordplay to the Liverpool poet Roger McGough. Clarke recited his poetry in folk clubs accompanying the group, the Ferretts and sharing bills with such groups as the Buzzcocks. Clarke really came into his own with the popularisation of punk. Went into semi-retirement in the late 1980s, and is still active in pub entertainments and on the club circuits. Albums include:

• Disguise in Love
• Snap, Crackle and Bop
• Ou est la Maison de Fromage
• Me and My Big Mouth

10cc

10cc were a UK group from Manchester who formed the band in 1972. The original line up included Eric Stewart (guitar and vocals), Graham Gouldman (bass and vocals), Lol Creme (guitar and vocals), and Kevin Godley (drums and vocals). In October 1976, Stewart and Godley and Creme left to form their own duo group, and in April 1977, Stuart Tosh, Rick Fenn and Tony O'Malley joined as replacements. The origins of the group were in 1970, when Stewart, Creme and Godley, under the name "Hotlegs", had an international success with "Neanderthal Man". Godley and Creme had met while at Art School together, and Stewart had been with the group "Mindbender" when they had gained a success with the record "Groovy Kind of Love" in 1966. As Hotlegs they had accompanied groups like The Moody Blues and The Yardbirds on tour.
They worked largely out of Strawberry Studios in Stockport. It was their hit with "Donna" which brought them to the attention of impresario Jonathan King, and with the songwriter Neil Sedaka, and King was to guide them for some time, suggesting that they change the band's name to "10cc". Instant worldwide success followed with several US tours, and by their number 1 hit "I'm Not in Love" in 1975. Despite a bad motorcycle accident in 1977, and the cancellation of their planned Japan/Australian tour, they continued to perform, with various involvements and songs written for such artists as Sad Café, the Ramones and Gilbert O'Sullivan in 1981. Godley and Creme went on to make a successful career after their departure from 10cc, before becoming major video producers and part of the pop promotions industry.

HIT SINGLES Donna (1972) Rubber Bullets (1973) Wall Street Shuffle (1974) I'm Not in Love (1975) Art for Art's Sake (1975) I'm Mandy, Fly Me (1976) Dreadlock Holiday (1978) Under Your Thumb (1981)

ALBUMS 10cc (1973) Sheet Music (1974) How Dare You (1976) Deceptive Bends (1977) Live and Let Live (1977) Things We Do For Love (1979) Ten Out of Ten (1981) In Concert (1982) Windows in the Jungle (1983)

GODLEY & CREME Consequences (1977) Freeze Frame (1979) Ismism (1981) Birds of Prey (1983) The History Mix (1986)

Mick Hucknall - Simply Red

Mick Hucknall

A British group formed in 1982, originating in Manchester, with an original line-up of Mick "Red" Hucknall on vocals, Chris Joyce on drums, Tom Bowers on bass, Tim Kellet on keyboard and trumpet, Fritz McIntyre on keyboards and vocals, and with Sylvan Richardson on guitars. Hucknall has always been the driving force and the most identifiable image of the group. Brought up in Manchester, as an ex-art student he originally formed an Indie-punk band called "Frantic Elevators", who released 3 singles, including an early version of Hucknall's later and most celebrated single "Holding Back the Years".
From the outset, the newly formed Simply Red band was offered a multi-million pound deal with Solo Records, but they turned it down, and Hucknall reformed the band with fellow Mancunians Joyce, Bowers and Kellet, from fellow Manchester band Durritti Column. Chosen to support already heavyweight bands like UB40 on their UK tour, the band attained almost instant success, which has continued throughout the 80s and 90s, with hit singles like "Ev'ry Time we say Goodbye" and "Holding Back the Years". Other albums and singles include:

• Money's Too Tight
• Come to My Aid
• Picture Book (Album)
• If You Don't Know Me by now
• Men & Women (Album)
• The Right Thing (Album)

Davy Jones - The Monkees

Although generally considered to be an American pop group, Davy Jones (pictured top right) was the Manchester born vocal element in the group. The line-up included Mike Nesmith (guitar and vocals), Peter Tork (bass and vocals), and Mickey Dolenz (drums and vocals). Formed in 1966, they were "invented" in the wake of the Beatles great success in America, an attempt to create an "American" phenomenon to equal the rising and popular wave of bands from Britain. Although they lasted only 2 years, the Monkees are seen as a great success for the marketing strategy of the broadcasting giant, NBC Television, who were the prime movers behind the event. Essentially, NBC was looking for a new popular TV series, comparable in style to the successful and zany Beatles' film "A Hard Days Night"; their music would feature in the show, and the show would promote their music.
NBC picked former child actors Dolenz and Jones (the latter had appeared in "Oliver Twist") and the other two virtually unknown musicians, Tork and Nesmith to complete the lineup. The TV series was highly successful, Monkees music became very popular, and the whole exercise was a great business success, though none of the group's members managed to successfully create other subsequent roles for themselves. Nesmith went on to form a Country & Western Band in America, which enjoyed some minor successes; Dolenz moved to England and became a Television Commercial Director. Jones and Dolenze tried unsuccessfully to resurrect the band in 1975. Jones went on to appear in the stage performance of "Godspell" in 1986-87. Re-runs of their television series in the 1980s prompted a brief second success for the group in 1986, but this was short-lived. They remain an oddity in popular music.