Happy Birthday to Bobby Elliott, the gentleman who started drumming for The Hollies in the early 1960s and continues to tour and record with them. To celebrate, I read a chapter in my autographed copy of his memoir It Ain’t Heavy, It’s My Story - My Life In The Hollies. The beginning of Chapter Eight finds him reflecting on “I’m Alive,” their first Number One single in the U.K. It was a classic example of the group’s steady beat, ringing guitars, and exquisite harmonies.
“It was fantastic, of course it was,” Elliott writes. “We were happy and proud, as were our families. But the pace of our lives was such that there was barely time to stop and blink. We were on a non-stop merry-go-round of TV and radio shows, magazine photo shoots and live appearances.”
As I mentioned above, Elliott is still active with The Hollies, and they just announced today they have a fall tour planned for England in 2021. The band canceled its U.K. and U.S. tours due to COVID-19 earlier this year, breaking the hearts of American fans who were getting their first chance to see them since 2002. No word yet on whether The Hollies have new plans to visit the States.
In the meantime, I’ve been loving all the The Hollies fan sites on Instagram. It’s amazing the photos and art these people are posting, and they never seem to run out of material. Now if only The Hollies would get their online store up and running, so loyal fans could load up on merchandise. Elliott and the lads could learn a few lessons on marketing from the official websites of The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Zombies.
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