Leeds Town Hall was magical!
As I drove to the Roy Harper gig with Liz, clutching my ticket in my hand, I couldn’t help thinking how times have changed.
Some fifty odd years ago, when I first saw Roy play at Les Cousins, you didn’t need to buy a ticket. You paid at the door – usually around 12p. Roy would hitch-hike to the gig and I’d be on my old 350 AJS. It was 1966/67 and the sixties counter culture was in full flow. London was a hot-bed of sedition. Everywhere was hair, colourful clothes and revolution. We’d seen through the establishment, warmongering lies and wanted a less greedy world. I wouldn’t say it was all Love and Peace but there was certainly a feeling of comradeship and togetherness. We were the freaks who shared different values.
Roy was a fiery young twenty five year old escapee from the Beat Generation who was full of angst and fury that he was pouring forth in poems that he put to music. I’d never heard anything like it – so full of bite and observation. This was no Cliff Richard. This was no showbiz performance. This was unadulterated access to the canny mind of Harper – an invite into the interior thoughts and dreams of someone who had thought about it and knew what he liked and what he didn’t and wasn’t afraid to express it. Sometimes that was in poems and songs and sometimes it spilled out into streams of thought on whatever came into his head – often mid-song.
The passion was intense. The performance extreme. In those early days it was like a seat in Roy’s front room. Not so much a performance as a sharing between friends. There was much laughter, much madness and much exchanges of views.
Roy was the acerbic poet of the sixties revolution who painted pictures in words and expressed what we were thinking.
Those days are gone. The idealism melted. The game engulfed and absorbed it. The mad game goes on untouched by the sixties revolution. It is left as a blip on the landscape of history. The protest came to little.
But Roy’s songs and poems are even more relevant today!
Now Roy is 78 years old. The amazing thing is that we still have him. Who would have thought that? He was never meant for old bones. He burnt too brightly. Yet he is here and still performing his amazing songs.
Back in 1966 Roy would turn up to a gig, a small club, clutching a battered guitar case housing an equally battered acoustic guitar that had served its time as an instrument of busking. He used the house PA – usually a couple of old mics – and launched in to whatever came to mind.
In 2019 he turns up at places like the Festival Hall in London and here, in the Leeds Town Hall.
The faithful are more numerous, just as colourful, though mostly with a lot less hair.
He comes equipped with a plethora of guitars and a band.
There’s lights, sound checks, set lists and rehearsals. It’s a real performance!
Well there is no way that Roy could maintain the energy and intensity of those early shows. Unfortunately he is no longer in his twenties. But the songs are just as good as ever and the essence of Harper is intact. His social comment is every bit as valid. Indeed, it is a different experience to appreciate the musicality, the melody and musicianship, as well as the message. The band were great. They didn’t intrude, merely augmented. An evening with Roy is special. He’s precious.
So I sat back, with my camera, and basked in the poetry, enjoyed the musicality, sang along and shared an evening with one of England’s greatest songwriters! He still had the voice, the music and the vibe! Those songs have it all.
I was drawn back to the flames!
Here’s a few photos!
