I was first introduced to his material by a friend, who was dragging me to one of his concerts. My friend, Ian, was well into Roy and several other of his contemporaries, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd etc. And having the dubious privelage of living most of his life down south, with easy access to London and the like, he had seen most of them live before (lucky b*****d). I was a teuchtar (see
Scottish Slang
), with the great honour of spending my adolescence in the deepest, darkest Highlands of Scotland (more or less). While this was great it did mean that my live music choices were somewhat limited, Plenty of ceilidhs (more
Scottish Slang
) and people getting on stage and battering out a tune or whatever, very few professional acts. So this was my first 'real' concert (still one of the two different musical acts that I have seen, the other being Dr. Phebes and the House of Wax Equations / Mercury Rev / Spiritulised later the same year).

After the month and a half build up, borrowing Ian's tapes of Roy, I really started getting in to it. The night came along and Nick Harper, his son was playing with him. I was blown away. 'One Man Rock and Roll Band' literally just blew me away. He had a few words leading up to the song, talking about when he wrote it (bumming around California at the height of the Vietnam war) and when they played it, wow. I do not know how they did it with just two guitars, but it sounded like a couple of
Hueys
in the room, their roters thumping in time with the music. Unreal and stunning. Well that was me hooked, I have seen him again, in Aberdeen again, since that fateful day, and I see him again on the 20/11/99 WOOHOO :)

We arrived at the Pleasence Theatre just after 19:00. The theatre is in the student union, or at least part of the Edinburgh chapter of it. Drinks were purchased downstairs, but no glass upstairs meant a return trip to get a plastic beaker. The theatre itself was small, no more than a couple of hundred seats, with benches running down into seats before the stage. The crowd almost filled the theatre, and was lively, though, as always, there was one drunk t****r, a couple of rows behind who just wouldn't shut up (hmmmm, another use for
The Moronomater). Though the theatre was non-smoking it wasn't long before there was a certain aromatic quality to the atmosphere, which definately enhanced the mood.

Nick Harper was on first and with a wee bit of banter soon stormed into one of his songs (unfortunatly I havn't really followed Nick and so the titles escape me, however after this playing, I am a convert.) His guitar playing was awesome truley awesome, how I would of imagined his father at the height of his power. After a quick string change and another great tune Nick starts singing a song whose name I can remember (see if you can tell why). 'Titties and Beer', a new classic about a guy about to sell his soul to the devil, and when the devil's lines came up out stepped Roy onto the stage, thunderous applause (well as thunderous as that small theatre would let).

After finishing off 'Titties and Beer' with Nick, they start into some of Roy's own songs including 'Highway Blues' ¹. Roy was in an expansive mood, and furnished us with the stories behind the songs, and some banter. A draught from offstage provided ample opportunity, due to guitar retunes between the songs for some excellent repartee between the two onstage and those off. After a few more songs it was back to Nick's tunes and some more awesome guitar.

The songs jumped between the two, but Roy was ready and several classic Roy Harper songs were sung. My personal favorite 'Me and My Woman' was sung, with Nick helping out with the more difficult guitar parts. And all in all an excellent concert. As I am a convert it is no suprise, but if either make it north of the border again, I will be at the head of the queue for tickets.