Colin Harper
His biography Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British folk and blues revival (Bloomsbury, 2000) has been widely acclaimed, being republished in revised form in both 2006 and 2012. A themed, expanded collection of journalism, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History (Collins Press, 2004), was co-authored with blues journalist Trevor Hodgett. His writing since 2001 has tended to be for sizeable CD sleevenote histories rather than magazines, often spanning a series of releases, on neglected artists such as Quintessence, Duffy Power and Atomic Rooster.
Since January 2012 he has been working on a substantial new book project, provisionally titled Bathed In Lightning: John McLaughlin, the Sixties and the second Mahavishnu Orchestra.
List of articles in the library by artist
Interview by Colin Harper, The Guitar Magazine, November 1997
ALL OVER the world there are individuals trading copies of grainy videos from European television, cassettes of horrendously obscure old records by people with unpronounceable ...
Dexy's Midnight Runners, Atomic Rooster, Arthur Brown: Vincent Crane
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, unpublished, 2004
Author's Note: This was commissioned for Mojo but for reasons unclear to me never ran. It was during a period where a lot of writers ...
Focus, Jan Akkerman: Phone Home: Jan Akkerman
Interview by Colin Harper, MOJO, July 1996
"AFTER FOCUS I MADE a record called Eli and toured Britain. The record was a success but the tour was a disaster. I did one ...
Rory Gallagher: Ballad of a Thin Man
Retrospective by Colin Harper, MOJO, October 1998
"HE SUFFERED A LOT. His health was bad. He had a problem with drink. His relationships with women were all messed up because of his ...
Interview by Colin Harper, Folk Roots, March 1995
"THE REASON," says David Gray, at the end of our interview, "that journalism doesn't work most of the time is 'cos the artist isn't there ...
Review by Colin Harper, Record Collector, February 2001
DAVID GRAY BEGAN playing live around Ireland's small but discerning music pub circuit in 1993, shortly after the release of his debut album A Century ...
Book Excerpt by Colin Harper, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues (Collins Press), 2004
Author's Note: There was at least one prepared but discarded chapter in my joint book with Trevor Hodgett, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret ...
Interview by Colin Harper, Independent, The, October 1998
CIRCA 1984, and during one of those latterday sojourns in the course of the once Old and Grey Whistle Test's sleepy history when it found ...
Review by Colin Harper, MOJO, July 1998
THE SOPHISTICATED BEGGAR, the Valentine, the Loony On The Bus... Roy Harper has worn these and other Lifemasks for more than 30 years now and ...
Roy Harper: Errigle Inn, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, November 2000
RELEASING HIS THIRTY-SIXTH ALBUM, and still best-known to the world at large as a bloke who once sang on a Pink Floyd record ('Have A ...
Report and Interview by Colin Harper, Record Collector, August 2001
WITH EXPANDED REISSUES of classic albums by himself and his various bands – including Fairport Convention's Leige & Leif and his own Compleat Dancing Master ...
Interview by Colin Harper, Folk Roots, October 2000
HAVING BEEN through the music business mill several times over the past thirty-five years, with spells in such legendary and pioneering Irish music ensembles as ...
Comment by Colin Harper, Irish Times, The, September 2000
CURRENTLY HOT on the heels of Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash as an individualist icon of 20th Century music – name-dropped as an ...
Bert Jansch: The Dazzling Bert Jansch
Report and Interview by Colin Harper, Independent, The, June 2000
"MY INTEREST IN ALBUMS usually wanes around this point," says Bert Jansch, 57 this year and, for all the outward appearance of a man who ...
Bert Jansch, Davey Graham: Bert Jansch and Davey Graham
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, MOJO, July 2000
NOTE: This piece was adapted and expanded, with additional material, from Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch And The British Folk & Blues Revival (Bloomsbury). It is ...
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, Record Collector, 2004
"HARD TIMES IN NEWQUAY, If You've Got Long Hair" was the endearingly absurd refrain performed by that Zelig of British acoustic music, Raymond "Wizz" Jones, ...
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, Record Collector, 2002
"HOW CAN WE explain the phenomenon of Julie Felix?" mused Karl Dallas, Melody Maker's titan of folk, in a December 1965 concert review. "Clearly anyone ...
Interview by Colin Harper, Irish News, The, May 1998
Author's Note: I often had a chance to preview touring artists, soon to be playing in Northern Ireland, in the Irish News, a Belfast-based daily ...
Henry McCullough, John Fahey: John Fahey/Henry McCullough: Elmwood Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, MOJO, November 1999
McCullough set list: Medley: 'Irish Tune'/'House Of The Rising Sun' / 'Failed Christian' / 'Locked In' / 'All I Wanna Do' / 'Murder In My ...
Henry McCullough, Wings: Hello, Goodbye: Henry McCullough & Wings
Interview by Colin Harper, MOJO, September 1997
Author's Note: Both Trevor Hodgett and myself wrote a fair amount about local guitar legend Henry McCullough during the '90s. Indeed, Trevor still does. When ...
John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis: John McLaughlin: God of Fusion
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, unpublished, 1996
Author’s note: I reviewed John’s Cork Jazz Festival gig circa January 1996, and then interviewed him in London shortly after that. Features based on the ...
Mellow Candle: Swaddling Songs (DERAM SDL7)
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, unpublished, 2000
NOTE: This is a slightly longer edit of the piece as published in MOJO, sometime in the early 2000s. Since that time (in the early ...
Duffy Power: People Power: The Remarkable Retrieval of the Duffy Power BBC Sessions
Retrospective by Colin Harper, Record Collector, 2004
Author's Note: the longed-for compilation of Duffy's Parlophone singles mentioned at the end of this piece did indeed (shortly after) come to pass, in the ...
Richard Thompson: Waterfront Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, January 1998
BELFAST'S WATERFRONT Hall embodies all the characteristics of a provincial Barbican – a kind of clinical, beige Gormenghast of a place where corridors lead to ...
Wishbone Ash: Empire Music Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, February 1998
THERE WAS A TIME, as schoolboys of certain vintage will doubtless recall, when knowing the line-up details of the more venerable British rock bands really ...
Wishbone Ash: Empire Music Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, February 1998
THERE WAS A TIME, as schoolboys of certain vintage will doubtless recall, when knowing the line-up details of the more venerable British rock bands really ...
List of genre pieces
The 50 Year Copyright Conundrum
Report and Interview by Colin Harper, unpublished, July 2007
IN SEPTEMBER 1959, an inmate of Mississippi State Penitentiary named James Carter led his fellows in singing a work song, 'Po' Lazarus', while chopping wood. ...
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