I was privileged, as one of Roy’s friends, to be invited down to Abbey Road Studios for the recording of this album. I’d toddle along to St John’s Wood on my old AJS motorcycle to quietly sit in the background in the control room as Roy recorded this gem of an album. He and Pete were meticulous and Roy was very hands-on, experimenting and learning how the mixing board worked. The quality of the sound matched the quality of the songs – and what a bunch of songs!
Going to the studios was an experience. I’d just park up and walk in. Often there was nobody on the front desk. When there was I’d just nod and walk through. Security was virtually non-existent. John Lennon, Syd Barrett and Paul McCartney were recording and wandering around. Pink Floyd were there. Sometimes the control room would fill up with rock luminaries. At one time I found myself sitting with Keith Moon, Jimmy Page and Dave Gilmour. At other times the Nice all piled in and Robert Plant. We bumped into Syd in the corridor for a chat. Roy was hot property. It was widely expected that he was going to explode onto the scene. All the major acts – the Who, Led Zep and Pink Floyd rated his songs. They recognised the huge talent. It felt like a matter of time and this album seemed as if it was going to be the breakthrough album. I sat in amongst this melting pot of talent and absorbed it. A camera would have been good. It felt as if I was at the very centre of a hurricane that was going to blow Roy into the stratosphere. I’d known him for a few years, from the tiny clubs and Cousins to the Royal Albert Hall and now poised on the brink of major stardom. Bewildering.
I could only imagine what Roy was actually feeling at the time. He knew his songs were good. By this time he’d produced epics like McGoohan’s Blues and I Hate The Whiteman and was being courted by the biggest label in the world and all the top rock musicians of the age. He was riding the wave. This album was going to do it. Each song was being honed to perfection. The quality was obvious.
To be sitting in a control room with the top hierarchy of the rock world was incredible for me, but heaven knows what emotional impact it was having on Roy.
From: Roy Harper: Every Album, Every Song (On Track) Paperback – Flat Baroque and Berserk – 1970
Harvest Label 1970
Recorded at Abbey Road Studio
Roy Harper: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar on Hell’s Angels and all song writing
Pete Jenner: producer
David Bedford: strings
Skaila Kanga: harp on ‘Song Of The Ages’
Tony Visconti: recorder on ‘Tom Tiddler’s Ground’
Keith Emerson: keyboards on ‘Hell’s Angels’
Lee Jackson: bass guitar on ‘Hell’s Angels’
Brian Davison: drums on ‘Hell’s Angels’
Lon Goddard: gatefold cover design
John McKenzie: photography
EMI had become aware of the burgeoning underground scene that was emerging in the late sixties. They had a few fingers in that pie, with Pink Floyd, but wanted an opportunity to delve deeper into this potential market. Their answer, in 1969, was to set up a subsidiary label which was to specialise in music from the underground scene. That was the Harvest label. They signed up Deep Purple, The Battered Ornaments, Syd Barrett, Robert Wyatt, Pink Floyd, Edgar Broughton and others.
By 1969 Roy was making quite a name for himself. He was recommended to EMI by Pete Jenner who managed the early Pink Floyd. Pete had been impressed with Roy’s Hyde Park performances at the free festivals and after hearing his recorded material he thought that Roy had the ability to do more. So Roy became one of their first signings on the Harvest label.
The beauty of the deal was that, for the first time, Roy had access to top quality recording facilities (the Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded), unlimited studio time, a quality producer in Pete Jenner (they became good friends and cannabis buddies), and brilliant sound engineers in Phil McDonald and Neil Richmond.
Roy had been prolific on the song writing front and in 1969 he entered the studio with a batch of songs surpassing anything he had created previously.
With a bunch of friends to egg him on, a producer who was happy to work in collaboration on the whole process, all manner of rock cognoscenti dropping in to listen, comment and contribute, Roy was all set for a ground-breaking album and that is what we were treated to with the magnificent Flat Baroque And Berserk.
Even the gatefold album cover is brilliant. Designed by old friend Lon Goddard with a photograph from John McKenzie, Roy looks resplendent in psychedelic shirt and flat cap. Eyes shut, cig in mouth, he is reclining on a chaise longue with a background of flock wallpaper and a tiger growling into his face!
Roy Harper: Every Album, Every Song (On Track): Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789521306: Books
