The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132903   Message #3009915
Posted By: Vin2
18-Oct-10 - 12:59 PM
Thread Name: Review: Roy Harper on Liz Kershaw BBC R6
Subject: Review: Roy Harper on Liz Kershaw BBC R6
Listened to Liz Kershaw's Radio 6 show last Sat and great to hear Roy Harper featured and interviewed - a rare treat.

Started off with Pink Floyd's 'Have a Cigar' sung on the album by Roy. Then moved later to a piece of what i reckon is a piece of musical genius with the clssic 'When an old Cricketer Leaves The Crease' from his album H.Q; lovely lyrics and fantastic backing from the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

Nice chat with Liz at the end of the programme when a couple of Roy's fave tracks tracks were played.

Well done Liz Kershaw !

Roy will be seventy next year and hears an excerpt from a biography of him from Roy's web site (www.royharper.co.uk) by Richard Grayson Artist curator and writer; Artistic Director of the 2002 Sydney Biennale, Research Fellow Department Arts and Cultures Newcastle University:

"In his life and dealings with the music business he has insisted on freedom and privileged autonomy and integrity in the face of the contingencies and demands of the record labels and the market - all the qualifications demanded by the 'real world' - often with collateral damage in terms of career and record sales. His work and the way that he has conducted himself have remained deviant and independent, but informed by a strong ethical vision that helped shape many of the attitudes of the 'underground' culture as it developed. 'Hats off to Harper', on Led Zeppelin 3, is written in acknowledgement and celebration of the uncompromising way he followed the dictates of his conscience rather than the prerogatives of the music business.

While the forces of the market, of capital and economic rationalism, would seem to have prevailed over the last thirty years or so, he has continued to maintain his unbending stance and maverick path, and has continued to write music that expresses an opposition to that which he sees as wrong-headed and corrupt, and to document and celebrate moments of transformation and transcendence".