Prog The Enid’s has a firm opinion on how big Barclay James Harvest could have been. The man who helped to orchestrate the band’s first two albums – their self-titled debut (1970) and (’71) –says today: “If they hadn’t got rid of me, they’d have been bigger than .” It’s a view that mildly amuses those three remaining members of the band who were there at the time.
“We never wanted to be like Pink Floyd,” says keyboard player Woolly Wolstenholme. “We’ve not done badly anyway. Just because we didn’t do what he felt we should doesn’t make us a failure.
In fact, I don’t think it was the ‘loss’ of Robert that held us back. “If anything it was losing our producer, Norman Smith, after . He had his own recording career by then, as Hurricane Smith.
I do wonder what he might have gone on to do with us.” “Robert John Godfrey’s track record since those early days says it all,” adds bassist Les Holroyd. “If he believes we could have been bigger than Pink Floyd, then obviously he would have moved on to greater things.
” Whether you feel BJH have unfulfilled potential or not, the fact is they’ve created some of the most enduring and startling English progressive music of the past four decades. Formed in 1966, they enjoyed their greatest success with the line-up of Wolstenholme, Holroyd, guitarist John Lees and drummer Mel Pritchard (the first three all sang as well). This lasted throughout the 1970s, before Wolstenholme quit in 1979, lead.