When English progressive rock band Barclay James Harvest found out their 1987 concert in East Berlin’s Treptower Park was being made available exclusively to members of the ruling communist party, they refused to play.

“We told them we weren’t doing it until they opened the concert up. So that’s what they did, and that’s when the masses came,” founding member John Lees recalls.

That concert attracted an estimated 170,000 fans and made history as the first appearance by a Western rock band in East Germany.

People got arrested trying to listen to us in the East

Fast forward to this year and on Saturday, July 8, the current incarnation of the band, John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest, will perform at Valletta’s  Pjazza Teatru Rjal.

The 76-year-old might be performing to smaller audiences these days, but he has inspired a generation of music lovers with his genre of progressive rock.

The last time Lees visited Malta was in the 1970s, he tells Times of Malta from his home in Saddleworth, the UK. 

His brother-in-law was a radiographer in the Royal Navy, leading Lees and his wife Olwen to visit the country frequently, with one such occasion bringing the whole band.

“There was a magazine that wanted to do a photoshoot of us at the time and they liked the fact I was in Malta, so they flew the whole band out... we got a fantastic extended holiday because of that,” he says.

A tour of Mosta Dome

Lees recalls one instance of the band being shown round the Mosta Dome by the caretaker, who took them up to where the bells were housed and told them the story of the bomb which crashed through the ceiling during World War II.

“The guy collected posters of films that had been made in Malta and we were gobsmacked as to how many had been shot there,” says Lees, adding he plans to return to the dome during his upcoming visit, as well as to the Ħal-Saflieni Hypogeum, the Tarxien Temples and Marsaxlokk.

At the time of the band’s trip to Malta, Barclay James Harvest was comprised of Lees (vocals/guitar), Stuart ‘Woolly’ Wolstenholme (vocals/guitar/keys), Les Holroyd (vocals/bass) and Mel Pritchard (drums), who had started playing together in the 1960s.

Since its beginnings, the band became known for its use of orchestral and electronic elements, incorporating lush string sounds, brass and synthesisers.

“In the early days, one of the very commercial songs we released was a single called Early Morning. We wanted a string effect on it, and borrowed a thing called a Mellotron [an early electro-mechanical synthesizer],” says Lees.

“It was us trying to incorporate those kinds of instruments in our arrangements at that stage and being able to because of the Mellotron... that then drew in the real string parts.”

Such sounds featured on some of the band’s most iconic and well-known hits, including Mockingbird, Hymn and Child of the Universe, all of which can be expected to be performed in Valletta.

“Classic rock – all the classic tracks from the original Barclay James Harvest and ones written under John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest will be in there.”

In 1974, the band released their first album with UK label Polydor after a short stint with EMI on the Harvest label. The partnership proved to be a fruitful one, producing album chart releases, sold-out UK tours and visits to the US and Germany.

“We used to regularly go into Polydor’s offices and speak to the A&R guys, the secretaries and the other staff. We had a really good relationship with them, and I think that’s what made the difference – they knew us as real people.”

Both sides of the fence

In 1979, Wolstenholme decided to leave the band to pursue life on an organic farm, leaving Barclay James Harvest to continue as a trio.

The album Eyes of the Universe released the following year achieved considerable commercial success in Europe, going platinum in Germany and leading to the band’s first large-scale appearance in Berlin at the city’s historic Reichstag in August 1980.

“The Reichstag was our dressing room, which was a bit bizarre,” Lees recalls.

“The back of the building was in no man’s land; the wall came right up to it. So, we weren’t allowed to go near the windows because the East German police could photograph people and we were warned about that.

“By doing the gig there, it was obviously going to be heard in East Berlin, and, in fact, people got arrested trying to listen in the East,” he says. 

In the context of the Cold War, was the concert a statement?

“I think for the people organising the concert it was a statement. For us, it was just terrifying, really, because we weren’t expecting 180,000 people to turn up,” he replies.

The band would return to Berlin seven years later, but this time to play especially for those in East Germany, a concert John describes as “a thank you to the German people”.

Later years

In 1998, the band announced it was taking a sabbatical, splintering off to form several small projects under the banner of Barclay James Harvest.

Over the years, these included Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd, Barclay James Harvest Through the Eyes of John Lees and now, John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest.

The band would never perform again in the original line-up, with tragedy striking the group twice in the years that followed.

In 2004, drummer Mel Pritchard died from a heart attack shortly after returning from a tour of Switzerland and in 2010, Woolly was found dead at his home after a long battle with depression.

For Lees, performing the music they recorded and released together is a way of remembering them.

In time, bands will come to be popular again and people will want to see live music- John Lees

“It’s a celebration. Woolly did a wonderful arrangement of Mockingbird, for example, called Hors d’Oeuvre, which is a string arrangement for the intro into the song, and it’s always a very poignant moment when we play that,” he explains. 

“We have tremendous memories of these people. We often tell stories and laugh about things that happened in the past, so it’s really a celebration of their lives.”

Lees says this tour will be his last. How does he feel about that?

“I don’t know, really. I’m quite an anxious person and get quite nervous about going on stage and the older you get, the worse that gets... I’m thinking it might be quite a relief,” he laughs.

For many, especially younger musicians, the idea of someone with his experience encountering pre-performance jitters may be surprising.

“I think it makes you who you are,” he replies.

“If I wasn’t the anxious person I’ve always been, I probably wouldn’t have written the songs I have. For some people it comes with the territory.”  

In the decades following the formation of Barclay James Harvest, the music industry has arguably changed immeasurably, transformations that are reflected in the artists it represents as much as the music it produces.

With emphasis increasingly placed on solo artists and pre-recorded and sampled music, I ask Lees what advice he might give to bands starting out now, and if there is still a place for them.

“It’s always cyclical, things always come round again,” he says.

“In time, bands will come to be popular again and people will want to see live music. But, for the moment, hang in there.”

John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest will perform at Pjazza Teatru Rjal in Valletta on July 8. For tickets, click here.