Those of us at Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley in the 1960s were sad to learn of the death in March of one of our former classmates – Brian Harvey Ellison.

To those of us who were teenagers during the late 60’s and early 70’s, the name of Harvey Brian Ellison will be synonymous with two things, firstly the “Ellison’s Hogline” and secondly “The Glitter Band”.

Brian Ellison was a student at Prince Henry’s Grammar School in the mid and late 60’s. He lived at Norwood above Otley and it was during this time at Prince Henry’s that he developed his love of music.

After leaving school in 1968, he decided to start his own band; initially called Sons of Sin, then renamed The Liberty Takers it finally became Ellison’s Hogline.

The Hogline played at many venues locally; St. George’s Hall in Bradford, The Stony Lea in Ilkley and others around Leeds & Bradford until the end of 1970 when Brian went over to Germany & Italy to play with a band called Root & Jenny Jackson & The Hightimers. It was whilst working with this band in Hamburg that Brian also joined a band called Boston. Three of the members of Boston, including Brian, went on in 1972 to form The Glitter Band. The rest as they say is history!

Harvey (Brian) never forgot his Yorkshire roots and always said “Otley holds some very happy memories starting out in those early days and not least the many musicians from that area that I played with and helped me along the way”.

This is why John Rossall is holding a memorial concert in Otley on Saturday 30 September at Korks Wine Bar & Restaurant in their function room to remember Harvey and to allow his friends from Prince Henry’s, family from around the area, and the legion of Glitter Band fans from the North of England to pay tribute to this wonderful musician.

Tickets for this are now available priced at £10 each if purchased in advance or £12 on the night although it is expected that it will sell out so fans are advised to purchase the tickets well before the event itself.

Tickets are now available from Korks – 01943462020 or Jumbo Records in Leeds 01132455570.