Sad news for prog fans a couple of days ago.
I saw The John Lees Barclay James Harvest a couple of weeks ago, without keyboard player Woolly Wolstenholme, who had to miss the tour on doctors orders. While I realised he was ill, this announcement still came as a shock
It is with great sadness that John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest announces the passing of Woolly Wolstenholme. In recent weeks Woolly’s mental health had taken a turn for the worse and sadly he took his own life on Monday 13th December 2010. As you can imagine, John, Craig, Jez and Kevin and everyone associated with the band are stunned that a shining light of Barclay James Harvest is no longer with us. In this difficult time our thoughts are with Woolly’s partner, Sue. We would ask all of Woolly’s fans to remember his incredible contribution to popular music and his unique presence on stage.
This comes from the one and only time I saw Woolly perform live, at last year’s Cambridge Rock Festival. I remember this song being one of the highlights of the set. Woolly’s playing swirling Mellotron on the right-hand side of the stage.
Sad. Never one of my favourite bands but I did like Mockingbird.
Never saw him on stage – I saw the Lees/Holroyd/Pritchard BJH back in 1987, long after he’d left. That’s 50% of the band now deceased before their time; very sad indeed.
Sadly two survivors (Lees and Holroyd) now front two different rival bands after an acrimonious split in 1997. There is still too much bad blood for any reconciliation.
a sad loss to music.
BJH were magnificent at best. Wooly was a great contributor to their finest moments.
Onstage, he was the master communicator. His banter and spin on the songs was brilliant.
The Cambridge Rock Festival 2009 was a great Wooly time.
RIP, great guy.