Barclay James Harvest Trivia
101 Things You Never Knew About BJH ...
Here it is, by popular demand, the completely useless page full of things you never realised that you didn't want to know about Barclay James Harvest. Waste minutes of your life browsing these rivetting facts!All contributions to this page gratefully received - just e-mail us.
Breaking News:
- The popular BBC drama series Life On Mars, about a modern day detective who finds himself back in the 1970s, featured BJH's alter-egos Bombadil in the soundtrack of a recent episode, with Woolly's "When The City Sleeps". (see also Bombadil)
Albums:
- Early German advertising for 1993's Caught In The Light mentioned an LP version, but this never materialised, so the last new BJH studio album to be released on black vinyl was Welcome To The Show.
Songs:
- "When The World Was Woken" from the band's eponymous 1970 debut album was actually called "When The World Has Woken", until a typo at the printers changed it forever ...
People:
-
John and Olwen Lees' daughter, Esther, was not only a very young attendee at the band's historic Berlin concert in August 1980 (aged one month), but also appeared in the promotional video for "He Said Love" in 1986, feeding a pigeon! Esther later performed live with Barclay James Harvest Through The Eyes Of John Lees, singing "Galadriel" at the Manchester University Debating Hall on 28th March, 2001.
- John's son, John Joseph Lees ("J.J."), was born on his Dad's 39th birthday. Father and son have appeared on stage together at a number of concerts, with J.J. playing cornet on "Mockingbird" and "Hymn".
- Martin Lawrence, co-producer of BJH album including XII, Eyes Of the Universe, and Turn Of The Tide, is the son of the famous bandleader Syd Lawrence. Before Martin ever got involved with BJH, the brass section of his father's band had guested on "Delph Town Morn" from 1972's Baby James Harvest album.
Bombadil:
- When it was first released in 1972, the writer of "When The City Sleeps" was given as Lester Forrest - it may be significant that one of the motorway service stations BJH used when travelling up and down the country was Leicester Forest on the M1. In 2003 the toilets at Leicester Forest Services won a 5 Star Loo of the Year Award ...
- The song was the B-side of an instrumental single called "Breathless", credited to Terry Bull (and it was!)
- The pseudonym Bombadil came from Tom Bombadil, a character in Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings
Tolkien:
- Apart from Tom Bombadil, there are several other Tolkien references in songs written by John Lees:
- Galadriel is another character from Lord Of The Rings. She was a royal Elf of both the Noldor and the Teleri, being a grandchild of both King Finwë and King Olwë. Towards the end of her stay in Middle-earth she was co-ruler of Lothlórien.
- "Long Ships", from John's solo album, A Major Fancy, includes more lyrical tributes to characters from the Tolkien saga, name-checking Elrond (the half-elven Lord of Rivendell) and Legolas (an Elf from Mirkwood, one of nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring and prince of the Woodland Realm. Apparently).
Miscellaneous:
"Sperratus" is an anagram of "Superstar", "Mu Ala Rusic" is an anagram of "Aural Music" and "Lady Macbeth" is an anagram of "Death By Clam". One of these may be unintentional ...