Roy Harper - 12/3/2019

I was in two minds about this gig when it was announced - I had last seen Roy Harper in 2005 when he was still putting on a good show despite being in his mid sixties. However I had missed out on the 70th birthday tour and indeed the 75th in 2016 so I was worried that a gig in his late seventies would mar memories of the many times I had seen him in his pomp. I should not have been concerned. His voice is still strong, his guitar playing distinctive and apart from a couple of senior moments early on he remembered the lyrics (not always the case in his early days!). More than that the versions of what were mostly old songs were fresh and interesting and the backing musicians excellent. The band was large but never dominant - Roy's guitar and voice were front and centre throughout. The band included a subtle electric guitar player who played fill-ins and occasional pieces of lead, a drummer, bassist, trumpet player, cellist and the band leader who played fiddle and keyboards. In typical Roy Harper mode he said that the reason he had four guitars on stage was because he didn't want to keep tuning between songs and then of course he did exactly that. The song selection was superb. Although the stage time was close to two hours he only got through about twelve tracks because of the length of some of them. I was delighted that among those were the two I wanted to hear most namely 'Hallucinating Light' and 'Another Day'. Both were great versions as well. Pretty high on my wish list also was 'Don't you grieve' which featured early on. Also great choices were 'Highway Blues' a song I had not listened to for a long while and a stand out version of 'McGoohans Blues' - appropriate because that was the first song I had ever heard of his. It was at the Floyd Hyde Park gig in '68 when he was first on stage and basically just managed a long version of that song before falling off his stool. It was delivered with force and passion - pretty amazing considering his age. He also sang some stuff I didn't recognise at least one of which was a new song as well as a couple more songs I did 'Hors D'oeuvres' and 'Time is Temporary'. Of course he finished the main set with 'When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease' and the encore was a new song about how much he had enjoyed his life. Several days later the gig is still buzzing around in my head. I am amazed and very glad I made the effort to get to Birmingham. I doubt that I will see him again - it's a stupendous way to finish.