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Roy Harper

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[[Image:243_Roy.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Roy Harper. Source:[link]]

Roy Harper (born 12 June, 1941), is an English singer-songwriter who specialises in folk music.

Contents

Early life

Harper was born in the Manchester suburb of Rusholme, England. After the death of his mother during childbirth, he was raised in Blackpool by his father and his step-mother, whom he did not get along with because of her Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Harper's anti-religious views would later become a familiar theme in his music. At the age of 10, he began playing skiffle music with his older brother, David Harper, as well as being influenced by blues music. Leaving school when he was 15, he joined the Royal Air Force only to reject its rigid discipline, and then managed to feign madness (and received Electroconvulsive therapy) in order to get a discharge. Harper then busked around Europe until 1964 when he returned to England and gained residency at London's famous Les Cousins folk club in Soho.

The Sixties

His first album, The Sophisticated Beggar, was recorded in 1966 after Harper was spotted at the Les Cousins club and signed to Peter Richard's Strike Records. It consisted of his sung poetry backed by acoustic guitar with a revox tape machine. CBS Records saw his potential and hired producer Shel Talmy to arrange Come out Fighting Genghis Smith, with the 11 minute blues track "Circle", marking a widening of Harper's audience away from pure folk. Its cover was controversial at the time, depicting a new born baby, complete with umbilical cord.

1969's Folkjokeopus virtually mirrored the previous album, with a 15 minute version of "McGooghan's Blues". Starting since May, 1968, Harper was making regular appearances at free concerts in London's Hyde Park attracting a cult following of fans from the underground music scene. Harper's first tour of the United States followed the release of the album Flat Baroque and Berserk in 1970 which featured The Nice on one track called "Hell's Angels". Its ethereal sound was achieved by a wah-wah pedal attached to an acoustic guitar. Flat Baroque and Berserk also marked Harper's long yet confrontational association with Harvest Records.

The Seventies

After the Bath Festival of 1970, Led Zeppelin wrote a song titled "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", which appeared on the album Led Zeppelin III. According to Jimmy Page, the band admired the way Harper stood by his principles and did not sell out to commercial pressures. In a mutual appreciation of their work, Harper would often attend live performances by Led Zeppelin over the subsequent decade as well as contribute sleeve photography to the album Physical Graffiti and appear, uncredited, in the 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same.

Harper's 1971 critically acclaimed album was the four song epic, Stormcock, featuring Jimmy Page on guitar (credited as "S. Flavius Mercurius") and David Bedford's orchestral arrangements, who would collaborate on future releases. In 1972, Harper made his acting debut playing Mike Preston alongside Carol White in the John Mackenzie film Made. The soundtrack for this film appeared in the following year with the title Lifemask. His next album Valentine, was released on Valentine's Day, 14 February, 1974 and featured contributions from guitarist Jimmy Page. A concert to mark its release was held at London's Rainbow Theatre with Page, Bedford, and Keith Moon on drums. The live album Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion soon followed.

Between 1975 and 1978, Harper spent considerable time in the United States. Pink Floyd's 1975 release Wish You Were Here saw Harper as lead vocalist on the song "Have a Cigar". Floyd's David Gilmour returned the favour by appearing on Harper's next album, HQ, along with Harper's occasional backing band called Trigger (Chris Spedding on guitar, Dave Cochran on bass guitar, and Bill Bruford on drums) and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. The single "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease", taken from the album, is Harper's biggest selling and best known solo record to date. Harper also co-wrote the song, "Short and Sweet" with Gilmour for Gilmour's first solo record released in 1978. He performed the song live with Gilmour at least once in the 80's singing the lead vocal.

Controversy soon followed with the release of 1977's Bullinamingvase, with Watford Gap service station objecting to the lyrics in the song "Watford Gap", which criticised their food ("Watford Gap, Watford Gap / A plate of grease and a load of crap..."). Harper was forced under duress to drop it from future UK copies of the album, though it reappeared on a later CD reissue and remained on the U.S. LP. Bullinamingvase also featured "One of Those Days in England", with backing vocals by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, which became a Top 40 hit. In April 1978, Harper began writing lyrics for the next Led Zeppelin album, with Jimmy Page, but the project was shelved when Robert Plant returned from his self-imposed sabbatical after the death of his son Karac.

For much of the seventies, Harper was managed, and had records produced, by Peter Jenner.

The Eighties

In 1980, Harper sang backing vocals on the song "Breathing", found on the Kate Bush album Never For Ever.

Harper's 1982 album, Work of Heart, marked the formation of Harper's own record label with Mark Thompson, entitled Public Records. Throughout 1984, Harper toured the United Kingdom with Jimmy Page, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as The MacGregors, and Themselves. They released an album called Whatever Happened to Jugula? under Harper's name and co-credited to Jimmy Page. Tony Franklin, the bass player in Harper's group at this time would later join Page in The Firm.

The Nineties

Since 1986, Harper had a relatively low public profile, although 1990's Once was a tour-de-force, again featuring David Gilmour and Kate Bush.

After the end of his marriage to Jacqui in 1992, Harper composed the melancholy Death or Glory?. Harper's spoken words can be heard on The Tea Party's 1995 album The Edges of Twilight and he sings on the track "Time" from their 1996 multimiedia CD, Alhambra. In 1998, Harper released The Dream Society, a concept album based on his own life, particularly his youth. Jethro Tull's singer Ian Anderson also sessioned, contributing flute to the song, "These Fifty Years".

Recent work

The 2000 album, The Green Man was an entirely acoustic effort, with help from the Tea Party's Jeff Martin on guitar, hurdy gurdy and numerous other instruments.

In June 2001, Harper celebrated his 60th birthday with a concert at London's Royal Festival Hall, featuring many guest artists. A recording of the concert was released as a double CD shortly afterwards.

In 2003, Harper published The Passions of Great Fortune, a large format book containing all the lyrics to his albums (and singles) to date, including a wealth of photographs and commentary on his songs.

In April 2005, he released a lengthy CD single, The Death of God. This 13 minute song is a critique of the 2003 Gulf War and features guest guitarist Matt Churchill, who has also joined Harper on-stage at his live performances. May 2005 saw the release of Harper's latest album Counter Culture, a double compilation album featuring songs from a 35 year songwriting period.

Awards

After an influential, individualistic and uncompromising recording career spanning 40 years, Harper was awarded the Mojo Hero Award by the staff of Mojo magazine [link] on June 16th 2005 at the Porchester Hall, Central London. The award itself was presented by long time collaborator and friend, Jimmy Page.

Nick Harper

One of Roy's sons, Nick, is a successful singer/songwriter in his own right. Nick occasionally tours and records with Roy, and has appeared (as guitarist) on a number of his albums since 1985.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations, remixes, etc.

Soundtracks

Collaborations

Singles / 12\" Singles / EP's

Downloads

Videography

Filmography

External link

 

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