HOLLOW EARTH
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE 70s TRIBUTE PROGRESSIVE ROCK MUSIC SHOW
Harry Collins
At the tender age of 13 Harry performed in front of his first audience at Colkirk Village Hall playing 'Apache' originally recorded by the Shadows. He played a Watkins Rapier, through a Watkins Copycat and guess what, he used a 15W Watkins Clubman for amplification. He later played 'Flingel Bunt' and 'Wonderful Land' at the same venue and the sex, drugs and rock and roll path was formed!
At 14, he got together with some other like minded misled people and formed 'The Triffids' playing a Hofner violin 6 string lead guitar (What's that worth now?) Needless to say he doesn't own it anymore! Their best gig was at Heacham Village Hall backing 'Dean Ford and the Gaylords' (Later to become Marmalade) They went on opportunity knocks but were beaten at the auditions by a juggling contortionist in swim wear.
The 'Triffids' became 'Force five' and tackled all sorts of tricky numbers like Michelle by the Beatles amongst others. Force Five became 'Spencers People' who worked as a semi professional band, travelling all over the country doing gigs with UFO, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, Rory Gallagher, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Focus, Rarebird.....the list could go on and on.
'Spencers People' were very popular in Norfolk and Suffolk, Tony Spencer the Black lead singer was something special, the band had a rare mix with Kenny Philpot on Hammond Organ, Alfie Hall on Bass and Ringo Ward on Drums and of course the now legendary Harry Collins on lead.
There were many 'mini' tours for 'Spencers' one of them was a week 'Up North' with the Mixtures (Push Bike Song) and a Gig at the Speakeasy Club in London. They all fell in love with the incredible atmosphere, the glamorous women and the music of Steely Dan! It was a wonderful time, but they just couldn't get anywhere financially and so in the end it affected their relationships with partners and other band members and so they decided to call it a day.
A long lay off from playing anything at all insued but suddenly came an offer to put a band together for a battle of the bands competition, Ken Philpot (Organ), John Lawson (Bass) Sos Savory (Drums) and the now top celebe and universal legend Harry Collins (Lead guitar) formed ....wait for it......'WINNER' the band with Harry wearing a black and white chequered jacket, just blew the audience away and won the competition.
Another long lay off and the very popular band 'Remould' really needed a bass player. Harry was asked if he would play bass instead of lead guitar and taking up the challenge, borrowing a friends bass guitar, set off down the road of bass playing. Remould became 'Rock Hard Willie' Gary Gizmo Platten (Lead Guitar) Shane Randell (Drums) and the Universal legend Harry Collins on Bass guitar. RHW really did rock!
Yet another long lay off and along came 'Bo-nidle' a superb rock blues band and guess who was in the band? Gizmo and Shane from RHW, plus Smithy (Dave Pentney-Smith) on vocals and blues harp. The recession saw a dip in bookings and the enthusiasm waned, then Harry saw 'Hollow Earth' and after visiting their web site realised they were looking for a bass player. He took up the challenge, applied......and.......the rest is in the future!
RETURN TO HOME PAGE