Part two of OUR special feature on one of progressive rock's most iconic bands...

Photo: Tim Simpson

Barclay James Harvest

SO, AFTER looking at Barclay James Harvest's glory years of the 1970s, 80s and 90s last week, today's feature part two asks simply ­- what next for John Lees's version of the band?

Following the rather acrimonious split from Les Holroyd in the late 90s, Lees hooked up with ex-Off the Rails bassist Craig Fletcher and former Tony Auton and Lemonade drummer Kev Whitehead, then subsequently with keys wizard Jez Smith around 2009.

Since then the melodic prog rockers have continued to tour the world ­- and in particular, Europe, where they are still massive ­- and for Fletcher the travels appear to have been something of a dream come true.

Craig ­- who played a huge role in brother Morgan's successful Every Which Way Oldham band back in the 80s ­- said: "I've had some great experiences, unbelievable.

"I always wanted to go and play in America, and if someone had said to me when I was a kid, 'at 43 years old you'd go and play in New York', I'd have said 'no way'.

"We've been to Tokyo, and Europe of course, and I've had opportunities that I thought had passed me by, by the time I'd hit my 30s.

"At that point I just thought it was going to be playing at the Nags Head for the rest of my life, but it still keeps going."

Whitehead has similar cherished memories. He added: "We went to Japan and that was fabulous. I personally would love to go back there.

"America too. We played a festival in Philadelphia that was brilliant, so to play more over there would be amazing."

BJH are, of course, still popular inside these shores, though main man Lees isn't necessarily a fan of all UK gigs.

"We do work over here," he said.

"We did the acoustic stage at Glastonbury last year when we were up against Muse, and we did get the only nice weather of the whole weekend.

"It had never appealed to me, though.

"Down the years we'd done loads and loads of big festivals throughout Europe. They can be good, they can be bad, but Glastonbury always struck me as a kind of 'by invitation only' festival.

"I know why the others were asked to do it, but if it had have been me, I'd have said 'no'.

"Like if someone said we could do all a Jools Holland show, I'd say 'no thanks'.

"We are a democracy, though, and clearly I was out-voted last year!"

The 2017 gig diary is pretty packed already. Trips to Switzerland, Germany and Holland beckon, while for British fans, check the guys out at Pwllheli alongside Hawkwind, Curved Air and the Strawbs on March 17 or alongside the Strawbs and Lindisfarne at the New Day Festival in Kent on August 26.

Lees said: "We're still writing. I think the beauty of this group is that I've been able to force it back into what it used to be.

"It's a partnership of people that are writing the songs. We all share the publishing with the new stuff, and everybody's involved in the actual writing of the songs, whether that's lyrically or in arrangement with the music.

"That was always the key with the early Barclay James Harvest ­- it was a partnership until Woolly [the late Stuart Wolstenholme] left and then it became a limited company and crashed and burned.

"It's great still going on stage playing these songs, especially the older stuff because it's like a re-visit, like I didn't write it. I do like standing back and listening to it."

We have not seen the last of John Lees' Barclay James Harvest ­- a statement which will come as a relief to so many.

Asked about what the future may hold for the band, the 70-year-old Oldham legend said: "If all this was going to finish, it would have finished when Woolly committed suicide [in 2010].

"We had to make a choice then whether to stop or go on, and we decided to go on.

"I remember him saying to me after a gig in Germany that 'it's not about you, it's about them', meaning the audience.

"So really, he kind of tricked me in that it became about him and not them, and then he left us.

"As long as people want to hear the music, we'll keep going. You can't play without an audience, and fortunately for us, people do still want to see the band."