Roy Harper – Albert Hall 1973 – Extract from Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback/Hardback/Kindle

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Royal Albert Hall 1973

At Roy Harper’s Royal Albert Hall concert I was lucky enough to get a seat near the action. Roy was at the peak of his powers and had packed the place out. It was an incredibly strong set with Roy having just brought out ‘Lifemask’. Who would have thought that the best moment of the show would come from an unexpected source?

Nick, looking nervous and wide-eyed, shuffled on to the stage. Roy beckoned him over and sat him on his lap. Nick looked round at the vast crowd and Roy was grinning and laughing with delight at showing him off. Together they sang a duet of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s ‘Our House’. It was so touchingly delightful it was a show-stealer and set the crowd roaring.

‘Royal Albert Hall 73 – I remember being very nervous. I suppose Roy kind of pushed me to do it. Although I was very nervous I thought I should and I did.’

‘It was me shouting Mr Nixon and Mr Heath when he plays Kangaroo Blues but that might have been at the Rainbow. The concerts get all mixed up.’

‘I walked on and sat on my dad’s lap and singing ‘Our House’ probably just a verse. I don’t remember leaving the stage or anything about it because I was really scared. There were all these hundreds of people looking at me. It was such a massive thing to have done that I’ve kept the moment in my memory. By then I’d been living in Wiltshire for three or four years so I guess I’d been developing that worship from afar. It was a good excuse for me to be with him. It was an iconic stage and a brilliant thing to have done. I’m grateful for him letting me do it.

‘I sang there with my daughter Lily 35 years later which was a nice moment. There were tears in the front row and we sang the same song that me and Dad had sung and she sang it beautifully. We stood on the very same spot. It is one of the highlights of my life.’

‘That song ‘Our House’ is an affirmation of a relationship.’

‘It’s each to his own, but I think that for me a solid foundation is a position of strength to go out in the world. Not everybody needs that, not everybody wants that, but I certainly do. All the joy in the world is twice as good when you share it with someone else. I don’t like doing things on my own as much. Everyone likes space and privacy with time to reflect. But sharing a view, sharing a journey is always better.’

‘I knew I was looking for someone at the age of ten. I was ready. I was looking for someone then. I could have taken that alternative and almost did for a year. Then realised that it wasn’t really me and snuffed out the rock ‘n’ roll gad-about and tried to live up to the ideals I sing about.’

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781678850661: Books

Excerpt : Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback 

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Nick Down the Years

Excerpt : Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback 

Nick Down the Years

I first met Nick in the summer of 1968. I was a young idealist at college in London living the Sixties idyll. I had just met a mad musician called Roy Harper who invited me back to his flat in Kilburn. I did not quite know what to expect.

I rang the bell and went up the stairs.

Walking into the living room of the flat was like entering wonderland – Indian bedspreads over seats, a live chameleon on the lampshade, a picture of Mao on the chest of drawers. It was the bohemian dream.

I looked around with amazement. It was slightly different to the sparse squalor of the student bedsit I shared with my mate Pete.

Roy welcomed me with a grin and a handshake, and then sat himself on the settee next to Mocy, his wife, who gave me the warmest welcoming smile and instantly made me feel at home. She looked beautiful in an Indian print skirt. There was a relaxed atmosphere in the room.

Before I’d even sat down a small child with long fair hair came bounding across the room, flung himself wildly up into me, threw his arms around my neck and planted a great big kiss right on my lips.

Nick Harper had just introduced himself to me.

‘As for the flat in Kilburn – I left when I was four and a half – so not a lot of memories. I remember sitting in the garden downstairs where Eddy Fisher still lives. He’s been coming down to our house in Wiltshire since 1969 every Christmas and some summers and he still does. Sitting in his garden watching an aeroplane go across the sky leaving a vapour trail – for some reason that’s in my head. That’s either ‘Big Fat Silver Aeroplane’ or ‘Aeroplane’.’

‘I can remember bending down in the front garden. I was obviously very small and as I bent down there was a shard of metal from a rusty pram sticking up and I sliced my knee on it. Ran up the red vinyl stairs to Mum (who took me to hospital) and I had stitches in my leg while I watched a mobile spin above me of a donkey and a carrot. Then the nurse offered me what seemed to be a huge bucket of Dolly Mixtures, from which I was allowed to take one.’

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781678850661: Books

Excerpt – Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback/Hardback/Kindle

Posted on by Opher

This book finally came about because Nick decided that it was time to release a compilation. He was excited by the idea of a retrospective of what he had achieved up until now. He told me that he never expected to even produce one CD let alone for it to sell and be followed by others, sustaining his ‘career’ for so long. He was genuinely amazed and felt privileged to be able to live by doing what he loves doing. He saw this book as part of that package.

This is not a memoir of his life. This is not the inside story. Neither is it intended to be complete. Nick could easily have done this himself; he is a master of using words and knows what he wants to say. Yet he did not want to. It was going back to that reluctance for him to admit that he is good at what he does. He wanted to distance himself and let someone else do the job. That’s fine with me. I have no reticence about singing his praises. I’ve known him since he was a child, I’ve watched him grow and mature, I’ve observed the way he has matured into a man. His ideas, his musicianship and song-writing skills have blossomed; and his family have been at the centre of it all. I’ve been incredibly proud of him over the years and have no doubt that he is a true genius and a human being of exceptional qualities, sensibilities and warmth.

This book is a companion to his set of retrospective albums. Like them it is entitled ‘The Wilderness Years’. That title is partly Nick’s self-deprecating way – to downplay his achievements – and partly because he has chosen to remain low key. If he had played the game, had the desire and pulled out the stops he would have undoubtedly reached a far larger audience.

What I am certain of is that talent like Nick’s does not stay out in that wilderness forever; it does eventually get noticed. Maybe this set of albums will provide the springboard to draw attention to the phenomenon that is Nick Harper and the title will prove prophetic…..

Opher Jan 2015

Postscript

            Unfortunately it has taken a further five years to publish this book!             Opher Jan 2019

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781678850661: Books

Extract: Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback 

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Foreword

I’ve known Nick Harper for most of his life. I was a young student living the bohemian life of the sixties underground and he was the young son of Roy Harper. I’d just been knocked for six by Roy’s take on music, society and the universe at large and he invited me round to glimpse his life. Nick was part of it.

Since then I’ve been a teacher, writer, parent, partner, traveller and avid devotee of rock music.

I love guitar playing. When it comes to guitar playing I have seen all the greats up close playing in small halls – from Jimi Hendrix to Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page to Peter Green, Davy Graham to Eric Clapton; but there is one who stands out for me. His sheer brilliance is beyond anything else I have seen. What Nick Harper can do with a guitar is magical.

To quote Rob Adams from the Glasgow Herald – ‘If you haven’t heard Nick Harper you are missing out on one of the musical phenomenons of our age.’

The strange thing is that the bending of the strings, the tuning and retuning of strings within songs, the creation of new upside down chords and even the surround sound delay is never a gimmick. It isn’t showing off. It actually works to create great music and the tricks are integral parts of the songs that always add to the composition. He is recreating the sounds in his head. Nick expands upon the possibility and generates extensions of improbability.

I have only ever seen one person capable of such a thing and he was Jimi Hendrix. Nick’s limitation, as with Jimi, is merely the extent of his imagination. It goes without saying that Nick’s imagination is of the scope of galaxies. It is phenomenal.

I have been fortunate to observe Nick’s talents develop over decades and I never get tired of the crispness and range that his fingers tease or pound. He can make the guitar thunder or trill with delicate melodies. Nick produces music you can get lost in.

Photo – Jules R Angel

If it were only the guitar playing it would be wonderful. However he is so much more. Nick marries this instrumental genius to a voice that is incredible in range and texture and a song-writing ability that is up there with the best. He now has a catalogue of songs that would challenge any great songwriter of our time. The content is both poetic and meaningful. What more could you possibly ask for?

Nick’s live performances are impressive. He is a showman who deploys wit and cutting humour along with sharp observation. He is a warm, sensitive but forceful man whose sensibilities are complex, always intelligent and forthright. You never get short-changed at a Nick gig. He puts his soul into it.

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781678850661: Books

Nick Harper – The Wilderness Years – Hardback, Paperback and Kindle

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Section A – The Wilderness from My Hilltop.

Over the years I have had numerous conversations with Nick regarding aspects of his ‘career’. As a friend looking in from the outside it always appeared to me that Nick did not so much have a career as such, more a hap-hazard series of loosely connected events in which he wrote incredible music, played that music to people who paid to see him, recorded it when he had accumulated sufficient numbers and only barely made a living out of it.

It seemed unjust.

Nick tells me that he is still amazed and honoured that he has been able to spend the bulk of his adult life doing exactly what he enjoys doing.

I know his claims of indolence are far from the case. Just last week he came to stay for a few days to start work on this book. I had told him that we were going to get down to business and work hard. He agreed. We would make early starts and press on. I suggested we started work promptly at eight thirty.

Of course we stayed up into the early hours gabbing and sharing a glass of wine or two. Nick went to bed and at nine thirty next morning I took him a cup of tea to find a bleary-eyed semi-comatose Harper peering at me with vague disbelief.

It transpired that Nick had hit the sack at 1am. – like me, but had a head that was buzzing. We had been talking about lyrics and words and he had shown me a few things he was working on. He could not sleep. Ideas were popping into his head. The upshot was that he had spent the night working those words.

Morosely, over a third cup of strong coffee, he read me the words, full of alliteration, character and style, carefully honed and sweated over. ‘Not much to show for five hours,’ he remarked morbidly.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Harper-Wilderness-Opher-Goodwin/dp/B09ZD12CDW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23AG5LOBPWHLJ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.f9aRhnQ8DI5hysA2oemJrcdYA2GDOKcT_ZIuLa5nO2H61C4CFvjQf3NNsJgLfaSv4C8pU5F-R_w0SXDLtIaYUy_T8rFsXWiNM19Tuo6TI8rOT7S9gf_pJNb_gsZ-WTXa.IYViU_2_jM7FLawPl-Wa80igMM43-2I6daBxbCSc2WA&dib_tag=se&keywords=nick+harper+book&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1732531680&sprefix=nick+harper+book%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-1

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years – Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover

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I first met Nick when he was a young child and over the years he has become a close friend. This book illuminates the genius that I feel is Nick Harper and is designed to accompany ‘The Wilderness Years’, a trilogy of vinyl albums. Nick talks candidly about many aspects of his music and career. I include, with Nick’s permission, the lyrics of all the songs featured in the trilogy. There are also many photos dating from his childhood to the present day.

Nick Harper Book – Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years – Paperback and Hardcover 

Posted on by Opher

I first met Nick when he was a young child and over the years he has become a close friend.This book illuminates the genius that I feel is Nick Harper and is designed to accompany ‘The Wilderness Years’, a trilogy of vinyl albums. Nick talks candidly about many aspects of his music and career. I include, with Nick’s permission, the lyrics of all the songs featured in the trilogy.There are also many photos dating from his childhood to the present day.


Andy Bott

5.0 out of 5 stars Two old friends, one take newly told. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2020

Verified Purchase

This is not just a book, it is a Labour of love. Other has known Nick for most of Nick’s life. He has a pride in him like a father, or at worst the best of teachers (though he will deny having taught Nick anything.) The book was intended as a companion to three L.P. Collection. It is more than that. Much more. It is the story of a songwriter, musician and maverick. It tells of a man who is committed to two things, his family and his musical integrity. The former should be the first consideration for any person with a family, the latter the method to support and provide for the former. Music is love. I have known Nick since 1984, but not as Opher does. I do not have bragging rights, but I know who he is. Looking back I realise he was enigmatic. I watched him over the years. I saw him to from passenger to team player to engine driver in his musical journey. Biscuits playing from very good to superb and peerless. His songs have taken a similar journey. His style has woven down many lanes, albeit closely linked. Through them all you hear Nick’s character. This story was familiar to me, like talking to an old friend. But there was more. The story is bigger than what I knew, the songs more complex, and intellectual.
If you know Nick Harper’s music, this book is essential. If you don’t, this is a guide to some of the most satisfying stuff you will hear this side of Killing Joke, classic 60s and 70s songwriters, modern day guitar wizzkids. A great read in easy style, with delightful interview responses from Nick himself to put flesh and blood to the story. Designed as a companion, but stands up by itself as a great little biography. Not just another chord in your song.

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years – Paperback and now available in Hardcover

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Foreword

I’ve known Nick Harper for most of his life. I was a young student living the bohemian life of the sixties underground and he was the young son of Roy Harper. I’d just been knocked for six by Roy’s take on music, society and the universe at large and he invited me round to glimpse his life. Nick was part of it.

Since then I’ve been a teacher, writer, parent, partner, traveller and avid devotee of rock music.

I love guitar playing. When it comes to guitar playing I have seen all the greats up close playing in small halls – from Jimi Hendrix to Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page to Peter Green, Davy Graham to Eric Clapton; but there is one who stands out for me. His sheer brilliance is beyond anything else I have seen. What Nick Harper can do with a guitar is magical.

To quote Rob Adams from the Glasgow Herald – ‘If you haven’t heard Nick Harper you are missing out on one of the musical phenomenons of our age.’

The strange thing is that the bending of the strings, the tuning and retuning of strings within songs, the creation of new upside down chords and even the surround sound delay is never a gimmick. It isn’t showing off. It actually works to create great music and the tricks are integral parts of the songs that always add to the composition. He is recreating the sounds in his head. Nick expands upon the possibility and generates extensions of improbability.

I have only ever seen one person capable of such a thing and he was Jimi Hendrix. Nick’s limitation, as with Jimi, is merely the extent of his imagination. It goes without saying that Nick’s imagination is of the scope of galaxies. It is phenomenal.

I have been fortunate to observe Nick’s talents develop over decades and I never get tired of the crispness and range that his fingers tease or pound. He can make the guitar thunder or trill with delicate melodies. Nick produces music you can get lost in.

Nick Harper – the Wilderness Years – The book!

Posted on by Opher

Another snippet from The Wilderness Years: Nick is one of a rare breed who has integrity. He is genuine and honest. What you see is what you get. He’ll give you time after a show because he wants to. He is genuinely in awe that you should bother to make the journey and pay to see him play. Playing is what he loves doing. He’d do it for free. The guitar is not just a meal ticket to Nick; it is a friend he needs to play in order to keep sane.

This book finally came about because Nick decided that it was time to release a compilation. He was excited by the idea of a retrospective of what he had achieved up until now. He told me that he never expected to even produce one CD let alone for it to sell and be followed by others, sustaining his ‘career’ for so long. He was genuinely amazed and felt privileged to be able to live by doing what he loves doing. He saw this book as part of that package.

This is not a memoir of his life. This is not the inside story. Neither is it intended to be complete. Nick could easily have done this himself; he is a master of using words and knows what he wants to say. Yet he did not want to. It was going back to that reluctance for him to admit that he is good at what he does. He wanted to distance himself and let someone else do the job. That’s fine with me. I have no reticence about singing his praises. I’ve known him since he was a child, I’ve watched him grow and mature, I’ve observed the way he has matured into a man. His ideas, his musicianship and song-writing skills have blossomed; and his family have been at the centre of it all. I’ve been incredibly proud of him over the years and have no doubt that he is a true genius and a human being of exceptional qualities, sensibilities and warmth.

This book is a companion to his set of retrospective albums. Like them it is entitled ‘The Wilderness Years’. That title is partly Nick’s self-deprecating way – to downplay his achievements – and partly because he has chosen to remain low key. If he had played the game, had the desire and pulled out the stops he would have undoubtedly reached a far larger audience.

He’s on tour at the moment and has a new album out! A JOY!!

More on Nick Harper

Posted on by Opher

Nick is extremely ambitious in only one aspect; he wants to get better as a singer, musician and writer and pushes the boundaries continuously. When it comes to promoting his career, getting on radio and TV, or looking at potential marketing he tells me he is lazy. That is not true. It is not so much laziness as a disinterest in doing anything that he is not inclined to do.

Nick is one of a rare breed who has integrity. He is genuine and honest. What you see is what you get. He’ll give you time after a show because he wants to. He is genuinely in awe that you should bother to make the journey and pay to see him play. Playing is what he loves doing. He’d do it for free. The guitar is not just a meal ticket to Nick; it is a friend he needs to play in order to keep sane.

This book finally came about because Nick decided that it was time to release a compilation. He was excited by the idea of a retrospective of what he had achieved up until now. He told me that he never expected to even produce one CD let alone for it to sell and be followed by others, sustaining his ‘career’ for so long. He was genuinely amazed and felt privileged to be able to live by doing what he loves doing. He saw this book as part of that package.

This is not a memoir of his life. This is not the inside story. Neither is it intended to be complete. Nick could easily have done this himself; he is a master of using words and knows what he wants to say. Yet he did not want to. It was going back to that reluctance for him to admit that he is good at what he does. He wanted to distance himself and let someone else do the job. That’s fine with me. I have no reticence about singing his praises. I’ve known him since he was a child, I’ve watched him grow and mature, I’ve observed the way he has matured into a man. His ideas, his musicianship and song-writing skills have blossomed; and his family have been at the centre of it all. I’ve been incredibly proud of him over the years and have no doubt that he is a true genius and a human being of exceptional qualities, sensibilities and warmth.

This book is a companion to his set of retrospective albums. Like them it is entitled ‘The Wilderness Years’. That title is partly Nick’s self-deprecating way – to downplay his achievements – and partly because he has chosen to remain low key. If he had played the game, had the desire and pulled out the stops he would have undoubtedly reached a far larger audience.

What I am certain of is that talent like Nick’s does not stay out in that wilderness forever; it does eventually get noticed. Maybe this set of albums will provide the springboard to draw attention to the phenomenon that is Nick Harper and the title will prove prophetic…..

Opher Jan 2015

https://harperspace.com/live