Roy Harper Knebworth 5th July 1975
The next time I saw Roy Harper was at the Knebworth Festival in 1975. This one day event was headlined by Pink Floyd, with appearances by the Steve Miller Band, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Linda Lewis and Graham Chapman (Monty Python) and friends, with DJ for the day John Peel. I’ll blog about the full event on another day, probably when I come to write about Pink Floyd, but I wanted to write here about my memories of Roy from that day. Roy was a strong favourite of mine by this time, so I made sure that I had a good view for his set. His band in 1975 was called Trigger and featured Chris Spedding on guitar (ex Jack Bruce band, and Pete Brown’s Battered Ornaments and to go on to further solo success), Dave Cochrane on bass (Dave stayed with Roy for a number of years) and Bill Bruford on drums (ex Yes and King Crimson). Setlists from the day suggest that Roy played: Commune; Twelve Hours of Sunset; Another Day; Electric; Hallucinating Light; Referendum; Highway Blues; Too Many Movies; The Spirit Lives; Home; The Game; Grown Ups Are Just Silly Children. By now Another Day was a favourite of mine, along with Highway Blues. I think I remember Jesus dancing at the front for Roy’s set. If he wasn’t he should have been. It was one of those hippy days. Roy was back on stage later in the day with headliners Pink Floyd to sing vocals on Have a Cigar. I saw Roy appear once more at Knebworth, when Genesis headlined in 1978. He was a big favourite with the festival crowds, and always seemed at ease, even in front of 100,000 people. He would chat away quite naturally to us all, and always had something entertaining and interesting to say.
2 Apr
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Posted by Peter on May 31, 2013 at 10:50 am
If I remember correctly Roy caused some excitement by threatening to emigrate to the US where he would be appreciated more than in his homeland and then setting fire to his caravan by the side of the stage. Happy days.
Posted by vintagerock on May 31, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Great story! I don’t remember that! I’ve just bought tickets to see Roy in Manchester later in the year, which I am really looking forward to Peter