Jim Neill, belatedly getting on board here. I had a somewhat magical experience concerning Roy. Had always known his name but never heard him as in the States he's still sadly a bit of a cult artists, as he was in 1989 when I was living in Boston and my friend, musician Mary Lou Lord, blew my world open with Cricketer/HQ. From there I became a loony about his music. Went up to Mariposa Folk Fest with John Lombardo (10,000 Maniacs) who was on the festival bill as well. At the time I was working at Rykodisc (the upstart US label that would eventually join forces with Joe Boyd as the US R&D for Hannibal.) Lombardo was signed to the label for his John & Mary duo. But I'm drifting here. Met Roy finally at the Mariposa fest. Think it was 1990. He killed it, playing on a revolving turntable stage. Jacqui was still with him and did the sound. She'd become integral to the shows he later explained. Fast forward. Tried to get Ryko to release ONCE in the U.S. to no avail. I.R.S. Records finally put it out but did no promotion at all. Think they did is solely to exploit Bush and Gilmour's presence. I moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to work for Rhino Records. One Sunday afternoon I was in my living room looking out the window of my Curson Ave apartment and who should walk by on the sidewalk but Roy! I rubbed my eyes. Looked again. No doubt. I went out the door and shouted "Roy? Roy Harper?" He spun around with wide eyes and I realized I may have inadvertently conjured a Mark David Chapman/John Lennon moment and quickly explained myself. He was visiting his first wide Verna who also lived on Curson with their son Ben. Roy roomed with me that summer and I helped him drum up some activity including a Thursday night residency at cafe Largo on Fairfax Ave. ( the still thriving though relocated venue run by Mark Flanagan, former Hothouse Flowers member) and a live session on KCRW, NPR' LA affiliate. Also a gig at McCabe's Guitar shop in Santa Monica. I wrote a feature on Roy for the now defunct Raygun magazine. He played a house concert a year later at a party I threw and I still consider it a high point of my life. This is a very abbreviated version of the story but this is who I am with respect to Roy and his universe.
