Stuart J. Wolstenholme
- Composer
Stuart John Wolstenholme was born in Chadderton, Oldham on April 15th,
1947, and went to school at North Chadderton Secondary Modern. His
first instrument was a tenor banjo, which he took up at the age of
twelve, and he also played tenor horn for the Delph band. He met John
at Oldham School Of Art and Woolly played tambourine and sang in The
Sorcerers, then The Keepers, where Woolly played whatever instrument
was required, such as harmonica and twelve-string guitar. Later he
taught himself keyboards, first the Mellotron and then adapting to
organ, piano and synthesisers. His musical influences range from Love
and Vanilla Fudge through Mahler to UK. Woolly was a founder member of
Barclay James Harvest in 1967, and remained with the band until 1979,
when he became frustrated and unhappy at the direction their music was
taking. He recorded a solo album, Maestoso, in 1980, and toured as
support to Judie Tzuke and Saga, as well as writing film and TV music.
A projected second album was shelved and Woolly lost interest in the
music business and went into farming, originally in Lancashire and then
in South Wales. Woolly came out of retirement in 1998 and collaborated
with John on the album Nexus - Barclay James Harvest Through The Eyes
Of John Lees and the live set, Revival, before releasing a long overdue
follow up to Maestoso, entitled One Drop In A Dry World, in May 2004,
and returning to live work in the UK with the Maestoso band. A live CD,
Fiddling Meanly, was rapidly followed by a new studio album, Grim, and
a new collaboration with the renamed John Lees' Barclay James Harvest.
In 2006 Woolly not only toured with John Lees' Barclay James Harvest,
but also found time to record another new studio album with Maestoso,
Caterwauling, released on 19th November, 2007. Woolly performed with
JLBJH at numerous concerts in 2009, and the activity continued into
2010 with a summer festival appearance in Portugal at the Douro Rock
and Blues Festival. It would prove to be Woolly's final live
appearance. A recurrence of a severe depressive condition meant that he
was unable to participate in a series of concerts with John Lees'
Barclay James Harvest in November and December, and tragically he was
found dead at his home on 13th December, 2010.