Saturday 11 October 2008

Roy Harper

One of the best gigs I ever attended took place in a small back room of the social club of the IT company who first employed me and featured Roy Harper. This was not the first or last time that I had seen him perform live but that night was really special, a small PA system, a couple of guitars and an A4 ring binder and the man himself. It must have been 20 or more years ago but it still remains fresh in my memory.

There could only have been around 40 people in the room but it was a cool relaxed atmosphere and after doing some new numbers he was happy to play anything that was requested from his 20 year back catalogue.

A great guitar player and song writer he has never gained the main stream recognition which his talents should have brought him, but then he has always been content to do his own thing, making the sounds that he wanted to make and not chasing the illusions of “success”.

This was filmed in 1984 with his friend and collaborator Jimmy Page (who played on the studio album version from 1971 – which came in over 12 mins long).



This next clip is from the same TV show, they were half way up a hill in the Lake District.

2 comments:

Sezme said...

That was really nice.

While I was watching the clips, I was thinking about how comforting it must be to pick up an instrument and just play. (Will be getting back to the guitar in a month or so.)

DBA Dude said...

rt, Don't give up on the guitar - try and find a wee bit of time each week to practice.