Independent: Teach Your Rock Stars Well
Wild Tales: A Rock 'n' Roll Life, Graham Nash, Viking, €25
GEORGE BYRNE – 30 NOVEMBER 2013
There's a certain consistency to the early days of English rock musicians who came to prominence in the 1960s, and Graham Nash is no exception.
Post-war austerity, followed by redemption on hearing rock'n'roll or the blues set many a young man on the way and that generational experience is again recounted here.
Born in Blackpool in 1942 and growing up on the bombed-out streets of Salford, Nash developed an early interest in photography but quickly discovered he had a natural ability when it came to vocal harmonies, one which would carry him far from the greater Manchester area and into the dark heart of 1970s rock excess.
Along with his schoolfriend Allan Clarke, Nash was besotted by Gene Vincent, Bill Haley and, particularly, the Everly Brothers, the duo playing in pubs, clubs and talent contests throughout the northwest of England until they expanded the line-up and morphed into The Hollies. These early days are recalled with a gleeful enthusiasm, although this period of his life is clouded by the fact his father was imprisoned for a year for receiving stolen goods – having bought Graham's first camera from a fellow factory worker – and had come back a broken man who died at the age of 46.
The rise of The Hollies – always one of the most underrated British groups of the 1960s – seems almost too easy. With a core of Nash, Clarke and guitarist/arranger Tony Hicks, they were signed after their first audition for EMI, began having hit singles almost immediately and by 1965 made their first trip to New York. Which is where the first cracks began to show.
Nash is eloquent at describing how he was simply blown away by America, the sheer dazzling scale of the place and the endless possibilities it offered. Equally, there was the fact that American girls were considerably more uninhibited than their English counterparts, something the recently married Nash was more than happy to avail of.
The following year was arguably the most crucial one in Nash's life as, on another trip to the US, he was introduced to the Mamas and Papas (his primary goal being to sleep with Michelle Phillips) and Mama Cass Elliot in turn introduced him to David Crosby. Recently departed from The Byrds, Nash's first impression of the man who'd become his lifelong musical partner was that he was "harmless and agreeable" (ahem, moving swiftly along), the mood also being enhanced by the Salford man's first spliff.
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