Published: August 21, 2026 · 10:08 PM EDT
The longtime guitarist and drummer, both members since 1963, step away from touring as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band closes a live career spanning more than six decades
The Hollies have announced the end of their touring career after more than six decades, following the retirement from live performance of longtime guitarist Tony Hicks and drummer Bobby Elliott.
The announcement was made on August 20, 2026. Hicks, 80, has decided to step away from touring because of health concerns, while Elliott, 84, is retiring from touring out of respect for his longtime bandmate and their shared history with the group.
The Hollies said their touring career would come to a close with gratitude to the fans who supported the band around the world.
The announcement specifically addresses the end of The Hollies’ touring activity. It does not separately state that the band has formally dissolved or that its name and catalog activities are ending.
Hicks and Elliott both joined The Hollies in 1963, at the beginning of the group’s recording career.
Hicks became the band’s lead guitarist, backing vocalist and an important contributor to its songwriting, while Elliott established himself behind the drums during the period in which The Hollies became one of the major British groups of the 1960s.
Together, they remained connected to the band for more than six decades through numerous lineup changes and different periods of The Hollies’ career.
Their retirement removes the final two musicians from the group’s 1960s recording era who were still performing as part of the modern touring lineup.
Beyond his role as guitarist, Tony Hicks was part of the songwriting partnership with Allan Clarke and Graham Nash that produced a series of original Hollies songs during the 1960s.
Among their compositions were “Stop Stop Stop,” “On a Carousel,” “Carrie Anne” and “King Midas in Reverse.”
“Carrie Anne”, released in 1967, reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Stop Stop Stop” reached No. 7 and “On a Carousel” peaked at No. 11 in the United States.
Hicks also contributed backing vocals throughout the band’s classic recordings, becoming part of the vocal harmony sound that helped define The Hollies.
The Hollies emerged from Manchester in the early 1960s and became associated with the broader British Invasion that brought a generation of British rock and pop groups into the American market.
Their U.S. breakthrough accelerated with “Bus Stop” in 1966. Written by Graham Gouldman, the single reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the band’s first American Top 10 hit.
The Hollies subsequently built an international catalog that includes:
“Look Through Any Window”
“Bus Stop”
“Stop Stop Stop”
“On a Carousel”
“Carrie Anne”
“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”
“Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)”
“The Air That I Breathe”
Several became major American hits. “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” reached No. 7 on the Hot 100, “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)” climbed to No. 2 in 1972, and “The Air That I Breathe” reached No. 6 in 1974.
The Hollies were formed around childhood friends Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, with Hicks and Elliott becoming central members during the band's early recording years.
Nash left the group in 1968 and subsequently became a founding member of Crosby, Stills & Nash with David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
The Hollies continued after his departure and maintained chart success into the 1970s.
Clarke remained the group’s principal lead singer for much of its history before retiring from The Hollies in 1999.
Through those changes, Hicks and Elliott provided a direct personnel link between the modern touring group and The Hollies of the 1960s.
The Hollies were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
The seven members recognized by the Hall were:
Allan Clarke
Bernie Calvert
Bobby Elliott
Eric Haydock
Graham Nash
Terry Sylvester
Tony Hicks
The Rock Hall describes The Hollies as one of the most commercially successful groups to emerge from the British Invasion, highlighting the band's combination of vocal harmonies, melodies and pop songwriting.
Hicks and Elliott did not attend the 2010 induction ceremony because The Hollies already had a previously scheduled concert in the United Kingdom that evening. Former members including Clarke and Nash represented the band at the ceremony.
The end of touring closes an unusually long continuous chapter in British rock history.
Hicks and Elliott joined The Hollies before the band's major international breakthrough and remained associated with the group through the British Invasion, the departure of Graham Nash, the band's 1970s hits, later lineup changes, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction and decades of subsequent touring.
The retirement announcement does not detail the nature of Hicks’ health concerns, and no additional medical information has been made public.
For that reason, the confirmed information remains simply that health reasons have led Hicks to retire from touring and Elliott has chosen to step away alongside him.
The announcement of August 20, 2026 marks the end of The Hollies as a touring band after more than 60 years.
For Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliott, it also closes a partnership with The Hollies that stretches back to 1963 - before “Bus Stop,” “Carrie Anne,” “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)” and “The Air That I Breathe” became part of the group's international catalog.
The music and the name remain part of that history. What has now officially reached its conclusion is the live road that accompanied it for more than six decades.
Written by Gino Alache – Music Journalist
IMAGE CREDIT: Courtesy of The Hollies
Watch The Hollies perform “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)” below:
