It might surprise you as it did me, that Barclay James Harvest never had a top ten album in the UK. The best they did was #15 for the Berlin live album and #19 for the excellent Octoberon album.
I think it’s unexpected because at least for the whole of the 70s they seemed high profile or at least they were in my world. The first side of the live album of Summer Soldier and Medicine Man. was one of the most played records for us ‘rock lads’ at school. So subconsciously I thought they were popular.
But of course I now know they were less popular than I assumed, for example the first five albums didn’t chart in the UK. The sixth, Time Honoured Ghosts finally got to #32
The ‘Poor Man’s Moody Blues’ tag that followed them around was always grossly unfair. I think compared to fellow prog rockers like Yes and ELP they were less flashy or muscular in their music and more pastoral but they did make some really beautiful, ambitious music from the very beginning.
When I saw them on the Octoberon tour they were really tight and together. That album was the only one to chart in USA at #174. I adored it and its cover too. When Hymn was a minor hit from Gone To Earth they had always made vaguely spiritual music and I thought it might lead to more success but by then they were fighting the prevailing antithetical musical trends.
One last thing about BJH; they produced some lovely album covers, none better than the pastoral scene on Time Honoured Ghosts which was also released on a promotional poster. While other 70s prog bands have undergone a positive revisionist perspective with the passing of time but not BJH for some reason. It's time they were more widely appreciated. .
