Jacob Collier is on stage with the Britten Sinfonia, in a packed-out concert hall. We’ve already been treated to a freewheeling, virtuosic and wildly joyful programme, ranging from Bob Dylan to scat-s

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Lees, Holroyd, Wolstenholme and Pritchard; you might think it sounds like a legal firm in, say, Oldham, Lancashire. And you’d be right about the Oldham part. John Lees (guitar), Les Holroyd (bass), St

IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE

Barclay James Harvest ’s co-founding singer and guitarist John Lees has been leading his iteration of the prog overlords since the band split into two separate entities in 1998. With a new studio album – their first in 12 years – having recently landed, Lees joins Prog to chew over the band’s legacy, the perils of playing to 250,000 fans by the Berlin Wall, and why the door has seemingly been left ajar for future live dates and, whisper it, even a reunion.

’Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning’… ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’… ‘This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine’… ‘One more step along the world I go’… Just a line from one of