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Vic Steele | |
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| Birth name | Victor Winston Farrell |
| Born | 8 May 1945 Manchester, England |
| Genres | Rock, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Years active | 1961–1963 |
Victor Winston Farrell (born 8 May 1945), best known as Vic Steele, is a British former guitarist. He was the original lead guitarist of the Hollies. [1]
Farrell was born on 8 May 1945 in Manchester, England. He played the guitar from early adolescence onward, and was inspired by American rock and roll. In 1961 he became the lead guitarist of Manchester-based group the Emperors of Rhythm, which featured Eric Stewart, later of the Mindbenders and 10cc fame, on rhythm guitar. Farrell was also close friends with Mindbenders frontman Wayne Fontana.
After the Emperors of Rhythm disbanded in the summer of 1962, Farrell decided to team up with singer Allan Clarke, singer/guitarist Graham Nash, bassist Eric Haydock and drummer Don Rathbone. The group went under several names, first calling themselves "The Hollies" for a December 1962 gig at the Oasis Club in Manchester. [2] In 2009, Nash wrote, "We called ourselves The Hollies, after Buddy and Christmas." [3]
In January 1963 the Hollies performed at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where they were seen by Parlophone assistant producer Ron Richards, who had been involved in producing the first Beatles session. [2] Richards offered the Hollies an audition with Parlophone, but Steele did not want to be a "professional" musician and left the band in April 1963. [2] Tony Hicks was brought in to replace him.
The Crickets were an American rock and roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in January 1957. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in May 1957, peaked at number three on the Billboard Top 100 chart on September 16, 1957. The sleeve of their first album, The "Chirping" Crickets, shows the band line-up at the time: Holly on lead vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, and Joe B. Mauldin on bass. The Crickets helped set the template for subsequent rock bands, such as the Beatles, with their guitar-bass-drums line-up, performing their own self-written material. After Holly's death in 1959 the band continued to tour and record into the 1960s and beyond with other band members through to the 21st century.
The Mindbenders were an English beat group from Manchester, England. Originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana, they were one of several acts that were successful in the mid-1960s British Invasion of the US charts, achieving major chart hits with "The Game of Love" in 1965 and "A Groovy Kind of Love" in 1966.
The Hollies are a British rock and pop band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke and Graham Nash founded the band as a Merseybeat-type group in Manchester, although some of the band members came from towns further north in East Lancashire. Nash left the group in 1968 to form Crosby, Stills & Nash, though he has reunited with the Hollies on occasion.
Eric Michael Stewart is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, best known as a founding member of the rock groups the Mindbenders with whom he played from 1963 to 1968, and likewise of 10cc from 1972 to 1995. Stewart co-owned Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, from 1968 to the early 1980s, where he recorded albums with 10cc and artists, including Neil Sedaka and Paul McCartney. Stewart collaborated with McCartney extensively in the 1980s, playing on or co-writing songs for McCartney's solo albums Tug of War (1982), Pipes of Peace (1983), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), and Press to Play (1986). Since 1980, Stewart has released four solo studio albums.
Harold Allan Clarke is an English rock singer, who was one of the founding members and the original lead singer of the Hollies. He achieved international hit singles with the group and is credited as co-writer on several of their best-known songs, including "On a Carousel", "Carrie Anne", "Jennifer Eccles" and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress". He retired from performing in 1999, but returned to the music industry in 2019. Clarke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
In The Hollies Style is the second album by the British rock band the Hollies and was released in November 1964 on Parlophone Records. It missed the official Record Retailer album chart in the United Kingdom, which at the time only had a total of 20 available spots. In Canada, it was released on Capitol in October 1965, with an altered track listing.
Evolution is the first of two albums released in 1967 by British pop rock band the Hollies. It is their sixth UK album and peaked at number 13 on the UK Albums Chart.
For Certain Because is the fifth UK album by the Hollies and their second released in 1966. It was the first Hollies album in which all the songs were written by members Allan Clarke, Graham Nash, and Tony Hicks, and the first on which they did not use the songwriting pseudonym "L. Ransford". It was also the first Hollies album recorded with new bassist Bernie Calvert replacing Eric Haydock. In Bobby Elliott's book It Ain't Heavy, It's My Story, he explains how he came up with the title For Certain Because by taking the three words from the children's song "Teddy Bears' Picnic".
Anthony Christopher Hicks is an English guitarist and singer who has been a member of the British rock/pop band the Hollies since 1963, and as such was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. His main roles within the band are lead guitarist and backing singer.
Stay with The Hollies, also known by its American release title Here I Go Again, is the debut album by the British rock band the Hollies and was released in January 1964 on Parlophone Records. In Canada, it was released on Capitol in July 1964, with a different track listing. In the US, Imperial Records issued the album under the title Here I Go Again in June 1964 to capitalize on the moderate success of the singles "Here I Go Again" and "Just One Look". It also features covers of well-known R&B songs, not unusual for Beat groups of the day.
Hollies is the Hollies' third studio album for Parlophone. It is also referred to as Hollies '65 to differentiate it from the similarly titled 1974 album. It went to No. 8 in the UK album charts. Originally available in mono only, it was reissued in stereo under the title Reflection in 1969. In 1997, British EMI put both mono and stereo versions of this album onto a single CD.
The Hollies' Greatest Hits was the first greatest hits collection by English pop group the Hollies. The album was released by Imperial Records in the US in May 1967 and by Capitol Records in Canada, under the title The Hits of the Hollies and with two different tracks, in July 1967. It was the Hollies' highest charting album in the US, peaking at number eleven during a chart stay of forty weeks. When Imperial was dissolved into United Artists Records in 1971, this album went out of print, prompting Epic to issue its own "Greatest Hits" album two years later.
The Hollies' Greatest Hits is a compilation of singles by the Hollies, released on Epic Records in April 1973. It includes hit singles by the group on both the Epic and Imperial labels over a time span of 1965 to 1972. It spent seven weeks on the Billboard 200 charts, peaking at number 156.
The Hollies is the first EP by The Hollies. It was put out by Parlophone in mono with the catalogue number GEP 8909 and released in the UK in early June 1964. The EP entered the British charts on 6 June 1964 and spent 8 weeks there, peaking at #8 on the Record Retailer chart.
Here I Go Again is the title of the third EP by The Hollies. It was put out by Parlophone in mono with the catalogue number GEP 8915 and released in the UK in October 1964. All songs on this EP were previously released by the Hollies at the time. Side A consisted of covers of R&B songs, tracks from the band's debut album, Stay with the Hollies while the B-side contained both sides of the "Here I Go Again" single from May 1964.
Bus Stop is the fourth U.S. album by the British pop band the Hollies, released on Imperial Records in mono (LP-9330) and rechanneled stereo (LP-12330) in October 1966. It features songs ranging from both sides of the band's then-current hit single to material recorded in the Hollies' early days on the UK's Parlophone Records in 1963, 1964 and 1965. The song "Oriental Sadness" had previously been issued in the U.S. on the Hollies' album Beat Group! earlier in 1966.
The Toggery Five were an English freakbeat band from Manchester, England that was formed in the midst of the Manchester beat scene. The band emerged as other popular British acts like The Hollies and The Dakotas were also coming to prominence in Manchester. They were the first band to record "I'm Alive", which inspired The Hollies to also record the song. The band released two singles, but never were able to achieve success outside of the local scene or in the United States. Still, the band members went on to perform in more prominent musical acts.
What Goes Around... is the 21st UK studio album by English rock/pop group, the Hollies. It includes their version of The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love", which became their last US hit single. The Hollies reunited with Graham Nash for this album and for the following US tour. The LP was the band's first and last album with Nash since Butterfly (1967) and also their last one with lead singer Allan Clarke. Among the guest musicians, you can find Brian Chatton who was formerly keyboardist for The Warriors with Jon Anderson, and Flaming Youth with Phil Collins.
This is a timeline of music in Greater Manchester
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