- 24 - - 1 -

- 2 - - 23 -

- 22 -

CDs WANTED:Compact Story (Spain promo)

Polydor RCD 071-2/4Nexus (Australian CD)

East West/Eagle 8573804782Best of BJH – Hits 4 Ever (German)

Polydor/Universal 543 450-2 (28)Barclay James Harvest (UK promo)

EMI remaster, CDROnce Again (UK promo)

EMI remaster, CDRAnd other short stories (UK promo)

EMI remaster, CDRBaby James Harvest (UK promo)

EMI remaster, CDRIn concert (UK promo)

EMI remaster, CDR10-track sampler disc (UK promo)

EMI remaster, 2 CDRs

SoloWoolly – Songs from the black box

UK Blueprint BP174CDWoolly – Songs from the black box

Japan Voiceprint VPJ 014

Contact:-John Smith, Somerdown House,Little Somerford, Chippenham,Wiltshire SN15 5JW

john@wbassett98.freeserve.co.uk

FANS' TRIBUTESpirit On The Water - Hutton &BrimbleIf any BJH fans want to chat about therecent Tribute CD, we would love tohear from you. Please contact:-

Steve Brimble, 74 Ringmore WayWest Park, Plymouth, Devon PL5 3QHsbrimble@eurobell.co.uk.

FOR SALE OR SWAP:LPsFace To Face (France w. inner),Welcome To The Show (+ inner),Victims.. (German + inner),Live Tapes (German gatefold),A Concert For The People (+ inner)

LP sleeve:Time Honoured Ghosts, signed by allfour on rear. Great for framing

7”Mocking Bird/Vanessa HAR 5034Poor Boy Blues/Crazy City 2058 474Love On the Line/Alright... (German,different rear PS, 2059 197)Life Is For ../B Hill (France 2059 294)Cheap The Bullet/Shadows On Sky(France PS, 873 636-7, silver label).

12”Frank Farian “Mother & Child Reunion”(German PS with “BJH” butterfly logosticker as Welcome LP, 601 583-213)

Please write to:Martin Ellis, 25 Toronto Terrace,Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 9UX, UK

CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. and Mrs.John Smith, whose son William wasborn on the 13 April

BABY JAMES HARVESTMore congratulations to Brigitte andBeat Deubelbeiss, whose daughtersJanice and Alisha got a baby brothercalled Melvin on 11th June.Just give him a drumkit and start himoff right...

GAVIN AND ELAINE MATTHEWSare also celebrating a new arrival- little Nathan (a brother for Tim) wasborn on Wednesday, 19th June at8:05am weighing 8lb 2oz.

Marketplace

- 3 -

The Barclay James Harvest Magazine #58, September 2002

ContentsNews 4The EMI CD Remasters 8The story behind the Caught Live DVD 13The Gone To Earth artwork - by Mal Tootill 14Feedback 18Marketplace 22

CreditsCover: David Saingery (with acknowledgements to Mal Tootill)

Contributors: Mal Tootill, Andreas Gab, Madge Liles, DavidWarren, Graham Wheelwright, Terry Luck, AlanSmeaton, Alan Hesketh, Frank Gilbert, MichaelGeske, Tim Beckwith, Tim Ingham, Ian Alexander,Rob Price, David Witts, Gordon Hudson, GrahamGooch

Next issue: Last copy date 20th OctoberAvailable end of November

Price in UK: �2.00 per copyEurope: �2.50 per copyElsewhere: �3.00 per copy

The International BJH Fan ClubHamble Reach, Oslands Lane

Lower SwanwickSouthampton SO31 7EG

01489 572787Fax: 0870 162 9935

Nova Lepidoptera

- 4 -

Christine Roberts-Holroyd

By the time you read this, many of you will already have heard the terriblenews of the death of Les’s wife, Christine. The following appreciation appearedin Horse & Hound magazine:-

"Christine Roberts-Holroyd, 52, from Diggle, Oldham, Lancs, died on 21May following an accident when she was kicked by a young horse.Christine competed up to intermediaire I level on Private Benjamin(whom she also took to intermediate level in horse trials) and was a BHSexaminer. She also trained British Paralympic team member AndrewDufton at Middleton Park Equestrian Centre. Colleagues at the BHS andthe RDA centre Middleton Park EC held her in high esteem bothpersonally and as a dedicated and patient horsewoman. Christine leaves ahusband, Les, and son Christopher, 15. The funeral was held last Friday.Donations can be sent to the RDA centre Middleton Park EquestrianCentre, Middleton Grove, Leeds, LS11 5TZ."

“Christine never had any time for people who gave in too easily when thegoing got tough. Once she started a project, she would see it through to theend, no matter what the final outcome would be.

It is with her determination in mind, and because of the truly overwhelmingresponse, in terms of messages of support and condolence from many ofChristine’s friends and from the friends of BJH everywhere, that Christopherand myself decided that the concerts for this year should go ahead asplanned, as a mark of respect and the much love that we both have for a veryspecial lady.

I’m sure there will be more hard moments ahead, but Christopher will be withme, and we will support each other through the worst of these times.Christine’s beloved horses will remain with us at Yew Tree, and will receive thebest care and attention as always. She would have wanted things to continuein this way.

I know that Christine will always be with us in spirit, and she’ll be saying ‘Justget on with it.’”

Les and Christopher

News

- 21 -

player display, since the intro totrack 1 is identified as the firsttrack. However, this is minor: thepackaging of this album is superb,even more so in view of the factthat it is mid-priced. EMI havereally done the band proud. Iwouldn't have considered thispackage overpriced if they had beenasking �20 for it. It's all very clever(and not a little bit crafty ;-) )creating a homogenous design forall five albums, since many people(including myself!) will want tocollect the set.

The difference between the twoversions is quite marked. "ThePoet" and "Summer Soldier" wereedited for the transcription disc.The mono version of theperformance presents these songsin their entirety. (Incidentally, thereis a minor error in the sleeve notes,which states that it is "MockingBird" and "The Poet" that wereedited). I rate the stereo mix thebest by a large margin. Les's bassand a lot of John's guitar work isalmost lost in the mono mix. Moresurprisingly, though, quite a lot ofthe nuances of the orchestra arealso lost on the mono mix. Anotherthing in favour of the stereo versionis the obvious one: the stereoseparation gives the music morebreadth and depth. Comparing thetwo versions provides an interestinginsight into the problems of soundengineering. Neither mix is'perfect', and bringing one thing upin the mix is at the expense ofsomething else. Nevertheless, I stillthink it's an album well worth

having, a unique moment frozen intime. Regarding the criticisms byGordon and David of the orchestralperformances: the Barclay JamesHarvest Symphony Orchestra wascomprised mainly of music studentsif I remember correctly, so perhapswe shouldn't be too hard on them.In fact, the 'organicness' of theorchestra is part of the magic of thewhole thing imo.

Graham Wheelwright

On the ibjhfc website news for 15May 2002, it mentions a (6th)bonus track for Once Again:-* Mocking Bird [German single edit,originally released in 1981 asHarvest 1C-006 07635]. Why is itnow missing from my version -bought last Monday from HMV? :-(A puzzled Graham Gooch

The album was pretty over stuffedas it was and the German edit wasjust a faded out version. If you turnthe volume down as you listen tothe original you'll get the sameeffect. Woolly

n.b. That edit appears on theCentenary Collection Best Of andthe Premium Gold Collectioncompilation CDs. Incidentally, whenthe BBC Concert was broadcast inlate 1972, “Moonwater” wasinterrupted by a newsflash about anescaped IRA prisoner - Woollywould love a copy of that version ifanyone has a tape! Keith

Feedback

- 20 -

most charming BJH vignettesimaginable, just absolute treasures- "Need You Oh So Bad" soundsuncannily like Richard Thompson,circa mid 70's, while "Small TimeTown" is almost Van Morrison-esque (in a small time kinda way!).You've got to hear the other stufftoo - a more spartan version of"Pools of Blue" and the original"Dark Now My Sky" complete withchorus. I've also noticed things onthe album proper that I hadn'tnoticed before - that little quaver inthe haunting backing vocals to "TheIron Maiden" at [0:47]. And thatguitar in "Good Love Child" has tobe the filthiest sound evercommitted to vinyl! Even "DarkNow My Sky" sounds half decent!(sorry, I'm not having a go at thesong, but I always thought theproduction sucked). Can't wait forthe rest! Terry Luck

First of all the BBC disc, absolutelymarvelous, a real gem. I can'tenlarge on this as I don't knowwhere to start. A major piece ofclassic BJH history preserved andfinally available for us to savour,brilliant! The whole package of the4 studio discs and the BBC disc isabsolutely first class right down tothe sleeve notes and the previouslyunseen pics. Les with short hair anda fringe hiding behind a cello -wonderful! (on 1st Disc) I apologisefor raving on like this. But I thinkEMI have done us proud. Let’s hopePolydor continue with the rest ofthe catalogue with the sameprofessionalism. Rob Price

I've listened to the BBC concert CDand it's a great piece of history, aunique record of orchestral periodBJH - BUT.....I reckon it soundsrubbish! Maybe it’s the recordingtechniques, the equipment or thesound engineer's fight to get agood balance but the orchestralplaying is pretty poor, not muchbetter than a good schoolorchestra, and the band seem to behaving an off day as well. Highspots for me are the differentarrangements, Les' vocals areparticularly good and Woolly'ssynth sound on “Summer Soldier” isvery interesting. Something totreasure for what it is, not for theperformances. Sorry guys!

David Witts

There is some very dodgy, flatpiccolo trumpet which is prominentin various places on the stereo disk.On the Mono disk it blends togetherand you don't notice it. Also thebass is way too far in front on someof the stereo tracks. This may bedue to my speakers but the mono isa much better mix overall. I wonderif they got engineers from Radio 3to do the Stereo version? It’s quitepossible given the way the BBCworked in those days. It really isvery orchestra centred.

Gordon Hudson

I received my BBC Live albumtoday, and on first impressions I'mvery impressed. A slight flaw Inoticed was that there are 8 tracks,but 9 are registered on the CD

Feedback

- 5 -

Concert Update

Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard take their version of Barclay James Harvest onthe road this year to promote the Revolution Days CD. The concerts are goingahead in spite of Les's recent tragic bereavement. Dates have now beenadded in Germany and Switzerland, and the full list to date is as follows:-

AUG 10 - COLMAR Wine Festival (Alsace) (with Uriah Heep)

OCT 06 - PLOEMEUR l'Oceanis (nr Lorient, Brittany, Tel. 02 97 85 23 23)OCT 07 - PARIS Le Bataclan (50 Bd. Voltaire, Paris, Tel. 01.43.14.35.35)OCT 08 - NANCY Le Zenith (rue du Zenith, Tel. 03.83.93.27.00)OCT 09 - LILLE Theatre S�bastopol, Place S�bastopol, Tel. 03.20.57.52.00)OCT 10 - VILLEURBANNE (LYON) Transbordeur, Tel. 04.78.93.08.33)OCT 12 - STRASBOURG Salle Erasme, Place des Congres, Tel. 03.88.37.67.67)OCT 15 - LEIPZIG GewandhausOCT 16 - M�NCHEN Circus KroneOCT 18 - LOSHEIM EisenbahnhalleOCT 19 - CRAILSHEIM Gro�sporthalleOCT 20 - ASCHAFFENBURG Stadthalle (NEW)OCT 22 - BERLIN ColumbiahalleOCT 23 - BRAUNSCHWEIG Jolly Joker/StadthalleOCT 24 - HAMBURG FabrikOCT 25 - LUDWIGSHAFEN EberthalleOCT 26 - WILHELMSHAVEN StadthalleOCT 27 - ULM RoxyOCT 29 - STUTTGART FILharmonie FilderstadtOCT 30 - BONN Br�ckenforumOCT 31 - MAGDEBURG AMO Kulturhaus

NOV 01 - MAINZ Ph�nixhalleNOV 02 - RASTATT Badener HalleNOV 03 - FELDKIRCH Montforthaus (Austria) (NEW)NOV 04 - PRATTELN Z7 (Switzerland) (CHANGE OF DATE)

Ticket hotline for all German shows: telephone 00 49 711 954 7464

The final band line-up will be confirmed nearer the time, but apart from Lesand Mel, of course, may include one or more of the following: Ian Wilson,Mike Byron-Hehir, Steve Butler and Colin Browne.

News

- 6 -

John and Woolly’s Plans

John and Woolly spent the earlypart of the summer working on theEMI remasters. Both of themassisted in the selection of bonustracks and in the promotion of theCDs when they were released,giving interviews to the likes ofRecord Collector, Classic Rock andthe Rock Ahead web site. Woollyalso oversaw all of the remasteringwork (for more details, see p.8).

Recording on a new album has notbegun as yet, because Johnreceived an offer he couldn’t refuseto rent out the studio for thesummer.

However, they have both been busywriting songs, and we are hopefulthat the autumn will see them backtogether at Friarmere to begin workon an album of all-new songs.

They have received a number ofoffers of live work, including UKappearances as well as shows inplaces where they have neverplayed live before. Contact was alsore-established recently witharranger Martyn Ford from theband’s very early days, and there isa possibility of them workingtogether again. Watch this space!

Lyrical Corrections

A couple of errors crept into thelyrics printed in the last NL for theunreleased tracks on the EMIremaster of the debut album, owingto my attempts to transcribe themby ear!

NightChorus should read:

“Then like a wall descending,Night will the day be ending”

Need You Oh So BadLine missing in second verse:

“You don’t want me any moreLike a thorn that’s in the soreSee you around with three or fourOh my teardrops pourNeed you oh so bad”

Internet NewsAnnouncement List

The address printed in the lastmagazine for our free e-mail BJHnews announcement list wasincorrect. All those of you who areonline are strongly encouraged tojoin the list by sending a blank e-mail to the correct address,

ibjhfc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

News

- 19 -

“Moonwater”. I think I was a littlelate in first hearing these recordings- only got to know about the bandwhen I met a German girl onholiday in 1982. But these early BJHrecordings have always been someof my favourites by the band and tohear them in this renewed gloryafter listening to them for manyyears (and now possessing a farbetter hi-fi as well on which to "see"the difference). Thanks for all thework you and Monica put in with thelads from the band and to get theseissues released and available foreveryone - it does bring a greatamount of pleasure to me and I'msure many other people. I'll bewaiting for the next - hopefully Johnand Woolly will be up to working ontheir new album in the near future.

Tim Ingham

As usual, the presentation isexcellent, and the sound qualitysuperb (considering what they hadto work with!) It’s already aninvaluable addition to my collection,as I had only tape recordings of theParis Theatre concert, and thesessions. It struck me that with thebenefit of hindsight (which is alwaysa wonderful thing), how differentthings could have been if songs like“Too Much On Your Plate”, “TheJoker”, “Night”, “Poor Wages”, or“Pools Of Blue” were released assingles instead of the ones chosenat the time. I think it’s great thatthese songs have been given a newlease of life, especially “Night”, andwallow in some nostalgia for awhile! Ian Alexander

Overall, the audio quality on themis excellent. The sleeve notes are abit repetitive in a "last time onDynasty" sort of way, but at least Ilearned something. I found thebonus material on Once Again alittle disappointing - with roomfor another 10 minutes worth. Idon't have the Quad version - socan anyone tell me why the quadversions of the other 5 tracks arenot worth mentioning? Other thingsto note are that these discs are notcomplete. The other version of"Pools of Blue" is missing. Also, thesingle version of "Child Of Man" isthe mono version from the singleand not the stereo mix which hasappeared everywhere else to date -the main difference being the highharmony vocals are barely audiblein the mono version. I prefer themono version. I must dig out mysingle of "Thank You". Although notmentioned anywhere, I'm sure it isan edited (shorter) version of thealbum mix. Can anyone confirmthis? Finally, conspiracy theory. Ithink "Night" is not from the 60s atall, but John and Woolly doing a"Dukes of Stratosfear". It's so cool.Tim Beckwith

Being a bit skint at the mo, Ihaven't been able to buy all of there-masters in one go, so I plumpedfor just one - it had to be the debutalbum, of course, with all thoseearly BBC sessions that I've beenfantasising about since 1993 whenKen Garner's "In Session Tonight"book came out! What can I say?These bonus tracks are some of the

Feedback

- 18 -

Feedback

Remasters Reviewed

The new remasters look superb -nice looking packages with all thebonus tracks you would want, andhave been hoping for. I'll soon beable to retire my old Tommy Vancesessions material for good.Even better is that I can avoid the�150-ish that a copy of the BBCtranscription disc for the In Concertcosts. Alan Smeaton

Well, having finally got round tolistening to the BBC broadcast,(which I haven't heard before), Imust comment on the magnificentbrooding intensity of the first twominutes of "Dark Now My Sky",straight after Woolly's spokenintroduction,superb stuff, I can'thelp feeling this would make awonderful theme score, if ever theydecided to make a re-make of EmilyBronte's "Wuthering Heights".Worth the price of the CD aloneimho. Alan Hesketh

As far as I am concerned, this isBJH at their peak. After seeingthem for the first time at their (forme) life-changing performance atthe Weeley Festival, this BBCconcert recorded in 1972 capturesthe essence of BJH. I am sure theWeeley Festival was responsible forgaining the then relatively-unknownBJH an enormous number of newfans. In the absence of a recordingof that astounding event (as far as I

know), this must be the next bestthing. Despite the rather woodenly-scripted BBC announcer, the songsstill made me shiver, (especially“The Poet/After the Day”) like theyused to 30 years ago. The playingand arrangements are excellent, asis the quality of the recording.Thank God this is one BBC tape thatdidn't get recycled like so many did!If they had also performed “SheSaid”, this would have been aperfect album. Come on guys, howabout playing with an orchestraagain? You can make it happen ifyou really want to! Meanwhile, asthey say, if you only buy one BJHCD, make it this one! By the way, Iwas there! Frank Gilbert

Just this morning the 2CDs- BBC inConcert-album was brought by ourpostman. Well, what should I say? -Yes, in fact I’m a real BJH-of-the-seventies-fan. This is really andtruly "my" sound, this is "my" music- these are my memories. Thealbum is a wonderful collection ofsongs in a brilliant, clear sound(even the mono version). I love it.Thanks to all who were involved inthe realisation of this work,especially to Woolly. Yoursenthusiastically, Michael Geske

The re-masters are great - nice tohear with such clarity after so manyyears of enjoying these recordings.It is a great bonus to hear thedifferent arrangements at the BBCsessions and the demo of “BraveNew World” and Woolly's re mix of

- 7 -

... Other Short Stories ...

... Madge Liles has discovered a reference to BJH in a novel. Ian Rankinwrites very good detective novels set in Edinburgh, and in his novel Set InDarkness, published in 2000, one of the minor characters was in a fictionalrock band called Obscura, who are described as “supporting Barclay JamesHarvest at the Usher Hall.”...

... David Warren writes: “Did anybody catch the closing moments of'Moonwater' on Banzai, Channel 4 on Sunday, 9th June? It was used asaccompanying music to one the show's daft betting sketches. No kidding.Those Barclays - they everywhere” ...

News

Thanks to club member Andreas Gab, we have an exclusive prize of a uniqueBarclay James Harvest Through The Eyes Of John Lees jigsaw to give away.This is a one-off, which Andreas has had made from an original photo whichhe took on the band’s 1999 tour in Germany.

To be in with a chance of winning this item, or one of two consolation prizes oforiginal 1970s BJH patches, just send your name and address to the followingaddress to reach us by September 30th:-

Prize Draw, IBJHFC, Hamble Reach, Oslands Lane, Lower SwanwickSouthampton SO31 7EG, UK

Winners will be announced in the next magazine.

Prize Draw

- 8 -

The background to EMI’sdefinitive CD editions of the

band’s first four albums

The first question that fans could betempted to ask is why? After all,BJH’s first four albums have alreadyappeared on CD several times, inthe form of the BGO 2-on-1s andthe Four Barclay James HarvestOriginals miniature box set, not tomention innumerable compilations.However, these new remasters getour ringing endorsement, notsimply for the fact that the soundquality is superb, but primarilybecause of the wealth of unreleasedmaterial which has finally seen thelight of day.

The series has been mastermindedby Mark Powell, who acts as aconsultant to major recordcompanies on classic rock reissues,and is particularly keen on BJH.John and Woolly also backed theproject, with Woolly gettinginvolved to the point of coming upwith the concept for the sleeveartwork and overseeing theremastering at Abbey Road (where,of course, three of the originalalbums were recorded and mixed).

Club member Peter Kendall and weourselves also played a part inproviding photos, memorabilia andin helping to track down the rarerecordings.

Appearing as a single CD for thefirst time, the first album comeswith a staggering thirteen extratracks! Whilst four of these arefamiliar as the A and B-sides of thefirst two singles, and two more (“ICan’t Go On Without You” and“Eden Unobtainable”) were 1968outtakes which had previouslyappeared on The Harvest Years, theremaining seven are previouslyunreleased gems from the band’stwo 1968 BBC sessions for the JohnPeel show.

The master tapes of most of theband’s BBC sessions had beenwiped many years ago, during aperiod when the BBC’s economymeasures included re-using reels oftape, oblivious to the historic valuewhich would later be attributed tothem. The same fate befellcountless other artists’ pricelessrecordings. However, the dedication

The EMI Remasters

- 17 -

Mal Tootillthe darkish green paperoverpowered the delicate colours ofthe skies. To overcome this Isprayed a fine dusting of whitegouache on the base and put thecolours over this- Thankfully, thisworked and produced the effect Iwas hoping for.

The other major worry was ensuringthat the illustrations on the innersleeve accurately fitted behind thecutaway of the outer cover to makea consistent single image.This was ensured by slightlyenlarging the area of the sky sothat when slotted in the cover, thecutaway image cleanly overlaidwithout any of the backgroundsurrounding the sky being visible.No other worries bedevilled theproduction as it developed until thefinal conclusion.

The only last consideration was thequality of the print and the accuracyof the cutting form and finalproduction of the inner and outersleeves. This was entirely out of myhands ,but thankfully, I had donemy bit and the final productionproved that the album cover was asuccess.

If I had to do it all over again Iwould implement the advice givenat the time by more experiencedguys, but I hope that the resultswere appreciated.

Mal Tootill

- 16 -

Gone To Earth 25 Years On...concept or myself as the artist. Iremember being firmly put in myplace by J. when he challenged meexplain how production costs couldbe kept to a minimum whilst stilltrying to achieve the desiredconcept. Obviously, I had no idea,as my print production knowledgeat this stage in my career wasvirtually non-existent, and the moreI tried to blag my way around it, itwas painfully clear that costings andrestrictions on die-cutting for thecomplicated cut-out had been mylast consideration!!! I felt J. wasjust being bloody-minded at thetime, but now I can see everyargument put forward, and inreality, he was a brave man puttinghis reputation on the line for an upand coming inexperiencedillustrator, who insisted onproducing the artwork in aparticular way regardless of all thepotential pitfalls.

Throughout the meeting, the bandremained staunchly supportive andI left the meeting thinking that I’ddug a huge hole for myself and thatI couldn’t afford to either let J. havethe last laugh and say I told youso, or let the band down afterputting their faith in me. Up to thispoint everything had been a dreamcome true - support from a wellknown, successful rock band,meetings at the corporateheadquarters of Polydor, Londonand a peach of a commission in thebag. So, why didn’t I feel elated ?You must have experienced therush of adrenaline when you’re

making things happen, but thistime, with all the production worriesand doubts, reality kicked in andthe confidence which carries you toachieve great things suddenlydissipates in the face of theonslaught. I felt totally alonebecause I couldn’t go to the bandand tell them I was losing it after allthey’d done, so I just had to soldieron.

I stuck to my guns and started toproduce the artwork, consisting offour separate pieces - front andback outer cover and front and backinside cover. I went along to mycolleagues design studio just offNewman Place W1 and commencedairbrushing the sky backgrounds.Several test pieces wereundertaken, which proved moredifficult than I’d expected due to myinsistence on preparing the artworkon a coloured art paper, which gavethe album its antique look. I’dbecome interested in the work ofthe Victorian Natural History painterArchibald Thorburn famous for hismountain scenes depicting grouseon the Scottish moorlands. Hepainted on this coloured stock andproduced remarkable worksevocative of the highlands and Ihoped to emulate the effect.

The airbrushing of the skies andbackgrounds finally came togetherafter many technical problems. Ihad started to experiment withwatercolour dyes which were veryclear and translucent and whenfinely sprayed through the airbrush

- 9 -

of fans and those in the businesswho took a longer view, it has beenpossible to piece together nearly allof the BJH recordings. The first Peelsession, from April 1968, originallyincluded “Early Morning”, “Mr.Sunshine” and “I Can’t Go OnWithout You”, which do seem to belost to posterity, although we arefamiliar, of course, withcontemporary studio recordingswhich are probably little different.Back in February 1980, though,Friday Rock Show mainman TommyVance unearthed the other twosongs from that first session,probably rescued by the producer,Bernie Andrews. “So Tomorrow”and “Eden Unobtainable” (the lattera different version to the one whichmade its debut on The HarvestYears) were already familiar tosome fans from off-air tapes, buthave been cleaned up andpresented in their full Mellotronicglory here.

The jewel in the crown of this disc,though, is the second John Peelsession, recorded in July 1968, andlong thought to be lost forever.Woolly tracked down an old four-track tape through an old friend ofthe band, and we were able to playit on an ancient reel to reelmachine. From there it wastransferred to the digital domain onour PC, then Abbey Road workedtheir magic on it. The result waswell worth it - three early BJH songswhich have never been released inany form before (Woolly’s TimHardin-esque “Need You Oh So

Bad”, John’s childhood memories in“Small Time Town” and Woolly’sexcellent rocker “Night”) plus analternative version of “Pools OfBlue”. The bonus was that the tapealso included a fifth song which wasrecorded for the session but neverbroadcast - the prototype of “DarkNow My Sky”, minus the orchestraand with a completely differentchorus, giving a fascinating insightinto the development of the band’sgeneral songwriting and arrangingskills, and casting a new light onthis song in particular.

Not quite such rich pickings were tobe found when researching bonusmaterial for Once Again, but stillenough to whet the appetite offans. Although “White Sails” wasnever recorded by the band(although it was performed live onthe 1970 orchestral tour), it did getas far as an orchestral track being

The EMI Remasters

- 10 -

laid down. The latter part is aRobert Godfrey pseudo-classicalpiece along the lines of a pianoconcerto, and was rejected astotally unsuitable for BJH. The firstsection, though, is Woolly’s themebased on the chorus of the song, soWoolly added some ambient ‘seanoise’ for its inclusion on the discand credited Godfrey as arranger.

“Too Much On Your Plate” wasanother also-ran which will befamiliar to long-standing readers ofthis magazine. Completists shouldnote, however, that this is not thesame mix which appeared on thefree club flexi-disc in 1991, but aNorman Smith remix done after therelease of Once Again, possibly witha single release in mind. Thisversion features quite a lot of guitarparts which cannot be heard on thefirst mix.

Three of the more interestingquadraphonic mixes of Once Againtracks complete the package,although regrettably the version of“Vanessa Simmons” is not theoriginal UK quad mix with waywardharmonies, excluded on grounds ofgood taste! More quad mixes anddifferent edits/mixes of “MockingBird” were also considered, butgiven that the Brimstone CD of thewhole quad Once Again is stillavailable, and that the alternativeversions didn’t really add anythingto the originals, they were left off inthe final reckoning.

Although the 1971 demo version of“Brave New World” had previouslyappeared on a fan club CD, it wasthought to have sufficient merit togive it a wider audience on OtherShort Stories, although on balanceit was decided that the demo of“Hymn” from the same sessionwasn’t good enough to be included.

It’s the BBC’s John Peel sessionswhich provide the bulk of the extramaterial here again, with “MedicineMan” in a rockier version from 15thMarch 1972, plus four tracksrecorded on 29th June 1971,including previews of “Ursula” and“Someone There You Know”. AsWoolly stated in a recent interview,unfinished and slightly tentative asthis version of “Ursula” is, it isactually truer in spirit to the angstof the original song than the upbeatversion which was eventuallyreleased on the album.

The EMI Remasters

- 15 -

Back to the plot. At the time ofpreparing for my exhibition I hadamassed a great amount ofresearch on birds of prey and cameacross a very specialist bookentitled "Gone to Earth". The bookwas a publication on Australianowls, one of many such bookswhich were used as referencepoints for aspects of my work.

After securing a vote of confidencefrom the band I set aboutdeveloping some ideas.I used tomeet the band in The Hanging Gatepub on a regular basis when I cameup from London and this was wheremuch of the business was done!Several titles were kicked about andI proposed Gone To Earth whichwas evocative of the owl striking itsprey as it descends to earth.I was working on several drawingsof owls and became particularlyinterested in producing somepaintings showing the birds inflight, and prepared some sketchesto discuss with the band.

I was staying at my parents’ housefor a short while in Saddleworthgiving me close contact with theband. After seeing my ideas andturning the project over and over, itwas decided that the band wouldsupport my ideas of using the owlcoming in to land and utilise thetitle Gone To Earth. I was asked totake the idea further and produce avisual so that the concept could berecognised and developed enough

to take it to the art director atPolydor Records in London. I havevivid recollections of producing afelt tip pen visual which I draftedover and over again as thecomposition progressed,whilstsitting on the sofa at homewatching T.V.!!!

I can’t fully recall how the cutawaycover emerged, but I do recallfeeling quite pleased with myself atinnovating the concept of using theinner sleeve or bag as afundamental part of the illustration,and one which carried analternative image on the reverseside, showing a dawn scene incontrast to the dusk image whichformed the main conceptimage. Being a young andinexperienced illustrator at the timeI was blissfully unaware of theproduction problems inherent inproducing the cover in this way,and to this day I’m eternallygrateful for the band’s supportthroughout the project in the faceof some initial shock-horrorresponses from Joe Mirowski, theart director at Polydor.

Before the meeting in London wasset up to discuss the cover, theband had to convince theaforementioned Joe of their wish togrant the commission to me. Likemost good art directors Joeobviously had his own network ofcreative people for him to call onand at first wasn't convinced hewanted to go with either the

Mal Tootill

- 14 -

This September sees an amazing quarter century elapse since the release ofone of Barclay James Harvest’s best-loved, and certainly their best-selling,albums, Gone To Earth. To mark the occasion, Maldwyn Reece Tootill, theartist responsible for the stunning original cover design, tells NL the storybehind his involvement in the album.

In 1977 I was working as a freelance Illustrator in London and still hadclose ties with the band, who’d always shown interest in my work. I hadbecome very involved in developing my work in the field of naturalhistory with a keen interest in painting birds of prey. Mel Pritchardpurchased and commissioned several works around this time so I guess Ihad a reasonable currency with the band. It was a good year for meactually as I had an exhibition in the north which was previewed by theBBC. The next day, I received a call from Joan Woodgate, PA to non otherthan Ringo Starr who was in Liverpool at his mother’s and he saw me onthe box and wanted to buy two paintings. This he did and subsequentlycommissioned two others. 1977 - a good year all round !!

Gone To Earth 25 Years On...

- 11 -

The June 1971 session tapes werealso casualties of the BBC’s money-saving policies, but the recordingswere rescued from a BBC stereotranscription disc and have come upremarkably well thanks to theministrations of Peter Mew at AbbeyRoad.

Baby James Harvest also providessomething of a treasure trove forcollectors, with ten bonus tracks.Seven of these are lifted from theband’s singles for the Harvest labelin 1972 and 1973, including bothsides of the pseudonymousBombadil single. However, there’salso an alternative take of “ThankYou”, originally intended to be thesingle mix, but discarded at thetime in favour of the album version,plus a BBC session recording of“Child Of Man” with some differentlyrics.

The best is left until last on thisdisc, though, with Woolly’s 2002remix of “Moonwater”. Readers maybe familiar with the story of howthe original orchestral recording of“Moonwater” was made at AbbeyRoad with Woolly whilst the rest ofthe band was working on the albumat Strawberry Studios. When Woollyarrived with the tapes in Stockport,he discovered to his horror thatthere were audible tape tones onsome of the tracks, and had to goback to London to sort the problemout. The only solution they couldfind in the end was to lower someof the tracks, giving an airless,unbalanced mix with which Woollywas never happy.

Seizing the chance to rectify thisthirty years later, Woolly listened tothe original multi-tracks, where theoffending noise could still clearly beheard. Confident that moderntechnology could remove it, hearrived at Abbey Road with thetapes, and met resident engineerPeter Mew, who even remembereddoing some work on the originalalbums all those years ago! To theirastonishment, when the tapes wereplayed, there was no sign of theextraneous noise, just like thirtyyears previously, and the remix wascompleted with all of Woolly’soriginal arrangement intact. Thelikely explanation then dawned onthem - the machine they were usingfor the remastering was probablythe very same one on which theoriginal version had been done backin 1972!!

The EMI Remasters

- 12 -

The EMI Remasters

The final piece of the EMI package isin many ways the most interesting,as it has never been released in anyform until now. On November 16th,1972, BJH played a live show in theBBC’s tiny Paris Theatre in London’sLower Regent Street, for laterbroadcast as part of Radio One’s InConcert series.

What made this concert special,though, was that it included theBarclay James Harvest Orchestra (orat least the 25 or so of them whocould fit on the small stage!). Bandand orchestra turned in a wonderfullyexuberant performance of most oftheir early classics, in front of acouple of hundred highly appreciativefans. The show was broadcast on atleast a couple of occasions, and hasachieved legendary status amongstfans not only for its greatatmosphere, but also because it isthe only known recording of the bandplaying live with an orchestra still inexistence (at least part of the Albert

Hall show in 1970 and the Weeleyfestival performance in 1971 areknown to have been recorded byaudience members, but no tapeshave yet surfaced, and the qualitywould probably be very poor in anycase).

The club has campaigned for over adecade to get the BBC concertreleased, and after a number of falsedawns, it has finally happened thanksto Woolly, Mark Powell and EMI.

On raiding the BBC archives, it wasfound that the only tape of theconcert left was a mono mix, used forthe original Medium Wavebroadcasts. However, fans haveknown for many years of theexistence of a stereo transcriptiondisc, albeit with some edits and re-arrangement of the running order tomake it fit on a single LP for use byoverseas radio stations. Peter Kendallkindly loaned his copy of the disc,which was duly transferred to tapeand cleaned up, and proved to be avery different mix. However, thatraised the question of which versionto use - the full one in mono, or theedited stereo? Happily, EMI waspersuaded to produce a limitededition double CD with both, leavingfans to make up their own minds (seeFeedback in this issue for some viewson this!). Once the limited version inits card slipcase is sold out, the discwill revert to a single one featuringonly the full-length mono mixpreferred by Woolly, so order now ifyou want both versions!

- 13 -

The Caught Live DVD also has aninteresting background. Back in1977, someone had the idea ofsending a film crew to make adocumentary about BJH. The crewdid a great job, capturing theatmosphere of the band at homeand on the German leg of the GoneTo Earth tour and including a gooddeal of fascinating behind thescenes material. The editingdeserves a special mention, too, foremploying wit and humour whilststill creating a unique record of aband just breaking into the big timein Germany. The title, incidentally,followed the planned live LP title,until a fan club member pointed outthat the Moody Blues had alreadyreleased a live album called CaughtLive Plus Five. The BJH LP title waschanged at the last minute to LiveTapes, but the film was alreadyfinished and kept the original name.Unfortunately the fim didn’t receiveas wide an audience as hoped, withjust a few TV broadcasts and theoccasional supporting programmecinema slot. From there itdisappeared into obscurity, andalthough one or two half-heartedattempts were made to track itdown for video release, the mastersproved impossible to locate.

Fast forward to September 2001,when a 16mm print copy came upfor sale on an Internet auction site.With John and Woolly’s backing, wewon the auction, only to find thatthe reels included an added bonusof four songs from the band’s 1974Drury Lane performance! We were

now in possession of two large filmcanisters, with no means to playthem, and uncertain as to whetherwe had any right to release them!Fortunately Mark Powell had theright contacts and, having obtainedPolydor’s agreement that theywouldn’t seek to exert any rightsover the films, brokered a deal withClassic Pictures for a DVD release,whilst ensuring that all the bandmembers received a good royalty.

The poor sound quality of the printwas a big disappointment, but thefilms have been very well restoredand the project has made anotherlegendary piece of BJH’s historyavailable to the public. Now all wehave to do is get working on gettingthe band’s other video materialreleased on DVD!

Caught Live