“I might consider”: the one person who can make Graham Nash rejoin The Hollies
While not the absolute leading names of the 1960s British invasion, The Hollies proved to be one of the most consequential. Having crossed paths with The Byrds’ 1966 UK tour, Graham Nash became acquainted with David Crosby and shortly after met Stephen Stills playing piano at The Monkees’ Peter Tork’s house.
The three hit it off immediately and swiftly found that they could hold a decent vocal harmony. Departing from The Hollies in 1968, Crosby, Stills & Nash was formed following Buffalo Springfield’s dissolution and Crosby’s boot from The Byrds, becoming one of the biggest acts in folk rock.
It was when Stills’ old bandmate Neil Young joined the supergroup that Nash and his new band reached their critical and commercial apex. Following the success of Crosby, Stills & Nash, a mammoth four-leg 39-date tour plus stops at the Woodstock Festival and The Rolling Stones’ Altamont disaster thrust them to a countercultural stature that eclipsed all their collective former bands. Dropping 1970’s Déjà Vu to rave reviews, CSNY had cemented themselves as the supergroup of all supergroups.
While Nash was scoring the West Coast experience, The Hollies were still able to cut hits without him. Recruiting The Swinging Blue Jeans’ Terry Sylvester in Nash’s absence, they’d go on to score chart-toppers with covers of ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ and ‘The Air That I Breathe’ and continue along with The Stones as one of the key acts of the 1960s that’s yet to throw the towel in.
Pursuing different career paths, Nash’s relationship with his old band has often been a source of curiosity, and he was once asked about the possibility of a reunion.
“I did rejoin The Hollies for a bit in the 1980s… and if Allan was there, I might consider doing a record with them,” Nash told Uncut in 2009. “But I don’t think Allan’s coming out of retirement. Yes, I’m still in touch with Allan—he is my oldest friend, and I’ve known him since I was five years old! I also speak to Bobby (Elliott, the drummer with The Hollies) a lot because he was the archivist in the band. Since I’ve been putting together my box set, I needed certain facts and figures that only Bobby would know.”
Nash and Clarke have known each other since primary school and played skiffle together as a duo long before finding UK fame. Following a short stint as an Everley Brothers-styled act, the evolution to The Hollies saw Parlophone assistant Ron Richards singing and the band being labelmates with The Beatles scoring their classic 1960s output. Clarke would hover in and out of The Hollies membership until his final departure in 2000, and 1983’s What Goes Around… would be the last time a ‘classic’ reunion would be offered to their devoted fans.
The British invasion generation is fast becoming a real moment of the past, but while The Stones can still play world tours and Paul McCartney can rock out to ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ over 60 years later, who’s to say one last roll of the dice from Nash and Clarke is entirely off the table.
