John Lees' Barclay James Harvest - 2025 - Relativity

(77:00; Esoteric Antenna)

It is always unfortunate when main songwriters in a band have a disagreement and decide to split, never to work together again, and sadly that is the case with BJH when John Lees and Les Holroyd broke up the band in 1998. The other two founder members took a side each, Woolly Wolstenholme (who had previously left the band nearly 20 years earlier) joined with John while Mel Pritchard went with Les, since when we have had two different versions of the band doing the rounds, although both Mel and Woolly are sadly no longer with us.

I always felt it was the balance between John and Les which made BJH such a vital outfit, but the spark had gone long before they finally went their separate ways, with the last truly essential BJH album being probably 1976’s ‘Octoberon’, and the final album of theirs I bought on release was 1984’s ‘Victims of Circumstance’. In my view all their albums had some excellent songs, but newer releases had fewer and fewer, so although I still play and enjoy their earlier releases, if I fancy a BJH hit I generally turn to ‘A Concert For The People (Berlin)’. Back in the Nineties John formed a new band, and while it went through a couple of name changes before settling on this one, it has been incredibly stable. Initially joining John and Woolly were bassist Craig Fletcher and drummer Kevin Whitehead who were both from Woolly’s band Maestoso, while keyboard player Jez Smith later joined as a second keyboard player, and although Woolly died in 2010 the rest of the band are still together today.

So, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from this release even though I have spent many hours listening to John’s songs, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I discovered that in many ways this takes us back to their heyday in the Seventies. True, we don’t have the offset between the two lead singers and their material, but I always preferred John to Les anyway (although the contrast was great), so didn’t feel the album suffered in any way for that. It is remarkable that John still sounds as strong and powerful as he does, especially given he is now 78 years old and still fronting a version of the band he formed in 1966, but there is nothing which shows any sign of age whatsoever with his guitar still providing the foundation for his vocals. Given how long the rest of the guys have been working with John it is perhaps unsurprising they are really on form, with great performances from everyone and wonderful harmony vocals. It really does seem like the clock has been turned back more than 40 years as this is so thoroughly enjoyable indeed.

But wait, there’s more. This album is available in a few different versions, and what I have here is the extended set, which is a double CD and Blu-ray, with the Blu-ray containing 5.1 surround sound mixes, while the second CD features highlights of a previously unreleased concert recorded at RosFest, Pennsylvania, USA in May 2009 featuring them as a quintet with Woolly Wolstenholm. I was very good and only turned to this when I was satisfied my view of the first CD would not be tainted by the second, as not everyone will go for the extended version. But hearing JLBJH produce stunning versions of the likes of “For No One”, “Child of the Universe”, “Suicide” (the last two being probably my favourite songs of theirs) and “Mocking Bird”, what is there not to love? The legacy of BJH is still going strong in JLBJH, and any fan of the band will be grabbing the extended version with both hands. 

Kev Rowland, December 2025

Links:
https://www.barclayjamesharvest.com/
https://www.esotericrecordings.com/antenna.html