Hello to the Stormcock Gang from Sydney, Australia

[dbolli]

Hi Paul,

Just finished listening to the RH interview on
the podcast ep. 12.

Great work and made me want to sign up
to the stormcock site and re-post a fan email
I sent to Roy's web site some 8 years ago. I'd like to
think that he read it and it made him smile.

Great to hear Roy's voice again on the podcast
and I think he sounds as switched on as
he did in the seventies.

I recently found a clip of One Man Rock and Roll
Band from Australian TV from 1986
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=n2DwPhnxTNI

This was the clip that got me into Roy's work
after the intro mentioned that he'd worked
with Pink Floyd (my obsession then and now)

Anyway, please keep up the great work and
here is the fan post from 2000.

Cheers,
Derek.

From: dbolli@bigpond.com
Subject: Hi to Roy
Date: 24 September 2000 8:56:12 PM
To: fanmail@royharper.com
Reply-To: dbolli@bigpond.com

Hi Roy,

Hope you are well. I'm looking forward to receiving my
copy of "The Green Man" which I've just ordered
via your site (which I love by the way). The diary
extracts are great, please keep them up. I loved
the tale about the bees and the insights into your
creative process. Truly inspirational.

I just had a look at the photo of you and the Floyd
at Knebworth. Is this the same day that you wrecked
the trailer dressing room when you discovered that
someone had nicked your stage costume? Rog supposedly
used this for the spaghetti up the wall scene on "One
of My Turns" on The Wall album/film. Could you jot
down your reminiscences of this episode in a future
diary entry please?? Have you bumped into Dave G. recently
at all? Or Peter Jenner? I thought that he and you and
Jimmy were the perfect production troika (with Dave G.)
as Peter seemed to have an instinctive grasp that "less
is more" with regards to your sound. I still think that
he brought out the best in your material with his
spare approach (probably due to his jazz background).

I'd like to share with you at this point the tale
of how I managed to miss your concert at the St. James
theatre in Wellington NZ, in Feb of 1986. I was a
fresh faced 18yr old who had seen your rendition of
"One Man Rock and Roll Band" on NZ TV and had gone
out and bought Stormcock, Jugula and Work of Heart
based on that clip and the revelation that you were
the vocals: R. Harper on Have a Cigar by my fav. band
at that time (and since) The Pink Floyd. I had told
my (then) mates about your Wellington show and we
were all set to go. My mates were to provide the
transport (I didn't and still don't drive) and
I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, about an
hour or so before the show, my mate rang me to say
that he wasn't keen on going as he'd canvassed several
other musical illiterates of his aquaintance who
thought that folk music involved mostly The Gay Gordon
and maypoles. No, no, I told them, think Bob Dylan.
Alas, the question of how many roads must a man
walk down was not writ large on their consciousnesses.
They offered me a lift to the train station in
compensation but I did what I thought was the
reasonable thing and said no, that's fine and joined
them at whatever pub or party that was on that night.
One of the few major regrets of my 32yrs of life. Strangely
a number of the good friends that i have met subsequently
were all at that concert at the St. James which I find
rather spooky and/or karmic. Sorry for boring you with
this :}

So if you are ever back this way, Roy, please stop and
play a concert or two in Sydney Australia, where i am
now ekeing an existance. Either that or keep gigging
in the British Isles and I'll struggle over there in
a year or two.

Keep up the good work, and keep well.

Remember Gen. Moshe Dayan's words on the Gaza Strip in '67
"If we lose this war I'll start another one in my wife's name"
That's the spirit
The definition of style: When you are being run out of
town and you make it look as if you are leading a parade

Regards,


Derek Bolli,
Sydney Australia

P.S. Could you start a section on your web site that
has chords and lyrics for your albums?? For instance
I can play "I'll See You Again" (badly ) right up until the
"I wanted to help, but i couldn't stay" bit. I can't
work out the chords for the life of me and what's
worse is I *know* it's in standard
tuning which makes it even more frustrating. Please
extend a hand to us amateur strummer

[pd]

hi Derek!

Thanks for the kind words and welcome aboard. I'm really pleased that the podcast brought you here. Yes, Roy is as clued up as ever and is truly fascinating to talk to. You really have to keep on your toes as well.

In the letter you mentioned his diary entries. These have been sadly few and far between in recent times, though he's posted stuff to his myspace page from time to time. It'd be really good to have more "essays" from him but as always it's a huge balancing act. He showed me a massive work - one might almost call it a novella - about "Stormcock" that he'd been writing lately. We're talking 40-50 pages worth. It's not finished yet. He puts 100% into anything he does. So I guess it's a matter of making the most of the time available.

We have some other Aussie RH fans here and if you listen back to podcasts 3 and 4 you will hear an interview with Pete and Steve - might be of interest!

Cheers

Paul.

[dbolli]

Hi Paul,

Yes, I enjoyed the interview in podcast 3 with the Sydney reprobates. Great stuff. I'm hoping for some inside gossip on Roy's relationship with Pink Floyd in the next podcast especially re. his ongoing friendship with David G. and the lifetime Lord's membership swindle re. Have a Cigar vocal duties. Please don't confirm or deny so I can spend the next two weeks in eager anticipation.

Cheers,
Derek.

[SHAUN I]

Originally Posted by dbolli

P.S. Could you start a section on your web site that
has chords and lyrics for your albums?? For instance
I can play "I'll See You Again" (badly ) right up until the
"I wanted to help, but i couldn't stay" bit. I can't
work out the chords for the life of me and what's
worse is I *knhttp://musicnaut.iki.fi/musicnaut/royharper/guitar/ill_see_you_again.htmlow* it's in standard
tuning which makes it even more frustrating. Please
extend a hand to us amateur strummer

Hi Derek and welcome, there's a lot of guitar tabs to Roy's songs on the HQ site here's the link for I'll See You Again.
Cheers Shaun,

http://musicnaut.iki.fi/musicnaut/ro...you_again.html