I come to this Berlin DVD as a neophyte to Barclay James Harvest. I had heard nothing from them save “Mockingbird” on the streaming audio at Prog Archives. I had heard them described as a “Poor Man’s Moody Blues” before reading their bio on the site. This DVD made me a BJH fan.
The Berlin section is a performance from 1980 in Berlin in front of 250, 000. They had missed the city on a previous tour and wrote a song named after it before coming back, which is featured here but not played live by the band. The more interesting section to me is the Time Honoured Tales bonus. It’s a promotional film featuring five songs from the album Time Honoured Ghosts from 1975.
Although the performers are not the “pump you up with excitement” kind, the performances are exemplary. Each musician plays and sings with excellent precision and talent. John Lees on guitar and vocals is clearly the leader here and sings most of the songs on this DVD. Les Holroyd plays double neck bass guitar and sings with a beautiful crystal clear tenor that I actually preferred on the songs he took lead on. Drummer Mel Pritchard plays effortlessly with precision, and although keyboardist Wooly Wolstenholme is viewed only on the bonus section Time Honoured Tales, he takes lead vocal on the most progressive song here.
The concert begins with the rocker “Loving Is Easy,” and then mellows a bit for the beautiful “Mockingbird.” “Sip of Wine” and “Life Is for Living” are the two that feature Les’ gorgeous vocals and are amongst my favorite on the disc. I especially enjoyed the latter with its beautiful harmonies and acapella section. Lyrically “Child of the Universe” was moving as a portrayal of war and how the children are the true victims.
The bonus section from 1975 has some of the best material from a prog standpoint. It features the original line-up performing songs from their then current album Time Honoured Ghosts. The film quality is not as good as the Berlin section, but the music is stellar. Two songs I especially enjoyed were “Titles,” which is a Beatles pastiche listing titles from Beatles songs. It’s complete with Harrison like guitar playing and homages to musical passages from several Beatles songs. Some may find it a bit twee, but I thought it quite charming. The other is the aforementioned Wolstenholme led “Beyond the Grave.” Without a doubt, the most prog tune here with off-kilter keyboard passages and eerie lyrics. It’s said that Wooly left in later years because he felt that BJH was moving away from their prog roots. Some of his later solo material and work with his band Maestoso sees him carrying the prog flag afterwards.
Although I certainly see that there is some Moody Blues influence (especially on songs like “In Memory of the Martyrs” and “Hymn”), I also hear a bit of Bee Gees, Strawbs and many Folk-Prog acts of the 70s. The question here is… Did the DVD impel me to seek out any CDs from this heretofore undiscovered (at least by me) band? The answer is an unequivocal YES!
Reviewed by Terry Jackson on February 28th, 2011
