JOHN LEES reckons he's a bit of a rocker. "The leather jacket bit at least," he jokes on stage at Gateshead Sage on Friday night.

But I'm not having it... his guitar play is much too well spoken for that and his gentle vocals as soothing and expressive as they come.

Lees is celebrating 50 years in the industry and, in turn, the music of Barclay James Harvest, and the contribution of both was recognised earlier this year when the 71-year-old was hailed as a "visionary of prog rock" at the 2018 Progressive Music Awards.

John Lees' Barclay James Harvest - not to be confused with "Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd" - is very much about honouring that legacy and Lees set the mood early in the show with a gorgeous rendition of Child Of The Universe, from BJH's 1974 album Everyone Is Everybody Else, arguably BJH's artistic high point.

From the rasping guitar of Crazy City to the haunting melody of Mockingbird and poignant lyrics of In Memory Of The Martyrs (penned by Lees for BJH's unique 1987 open-air concert in pre-Glasnost East Germany, playing in Treptower Park, East Berlin, in 1987 to a 170,000-plus audience), all of Lees' craft came to the fore in a show which reprised a series of concerts in May celebrating BJH's half century.

Today, Lees shares the stage with keyboard player Jez Smith, and bassist/vocalist Craig Fletcher and drummer Kevin Whitehead, both from Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme's band Maestoso, and he paid a moving tribute to former BJF keyboard Wolstenholme, who committed suicide in December 2010, with On Leave, inspired by the two words in a Christmas card Lees received from Woolly a couple of days after his death.

The evening finished with a beautiful version of Hymn (Lees tells the audience that Sarah Brightman has chosen it as the title song for her new tour) and bass player Fletcher perhaps summed it up when he turned to Lees and quipped: "You know boss, you wrote a few pretty good songs." He's not wrong you know.

Dave Horsley