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ROY HARPER AT MANDELA HALL
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
BRIGHTON
6th March 1992
I can’t remember if it was at Cropredy talking to Darren Crisp and Tony
Pugh, or maybe Manchester – at Foxy Fowler’s testimonial gig –
talking to Roy, but we asked when he’d be coming back to Brighton as it’d
been about 4 years since we’d seen that first amazing gig. The somewhat
tongue-in-cheek reply was ‘When you put me on!’ We called his bluff,
despite not knowing the first thing about promotion.
Jim McPhee, who was Roy’s agent at the time, gave us a date and we tried to get the Gardner Arts Centre but it was unavailable, so we got in touch with the students ENTS officer at the time and he said that the Mandela Hall was free on 6th March 1992. He said that I should actually promote the gig myself, and he very kindly agreed to meet up with us at the students’ bar on East Slope. He spent about an hour detailing all the things we’d need to think about from promotion to ticket printing, from stewards to lighting, as well as giving us lots of useful contact names and numbers which we feverishly scribbled down…he was really generous with both his time and his experience.
Jim McPhee then suggested that I might as well promote a gig in Portsmouth the
day after as well, as it was only “Up the Road”..yeah…one
and half hours by car and a town I knew nothing about. Was I sensible and turned
him down? Was I hell. Madness!
It all got REAL when the contracts arrived with my name next to Roy’s!
I think there’s a thin line between uber-fan and certifiable obsessive,
and for a while I wobbled somewhat precariously twixt the two. I’d often
try and bring the conversation around to all things Harper. Promoting legitimised
my desire to tell everyone how good he is and turn new people onto his music.
Imagine how great it was mooching around town and seeing Roy’s picture
on posters plastered all over the place.
“....And then came the day of the gig on the stage,
when butterflies fluttered and scenery shook....”
It was my first crack at it and the hall was very boomy plus not having no seats
which didn’t go down too well at first with Roy, though he did say that
the sound in Leeds Town Hall was worse, so that was something and I did learn
a lesson about both seating and venue acoustics. I knew next to nothing about
lights and hired this tiny little rig from a local company, the sort of thing
you might use at a wedding reception…smaller, possibly – with 4
coloured gels on each side it was just about enough to do the job.
Pretty soon it became apparent that the audience were really into Roy and plenty
of badanage and laughter worked its magic, which resulted in Roy doing an accapella
version of Acapulco Gold, further mellowing and hilarity, and Nick playing a
deliberately discordant snippet of Zeppelin which Roy dubbed ‘Stairwell
to Clapham’. They finished the first half with Short & Sweet and we
bought the lights up a bit. That was when we really realised what we’d
managed to do, as we looked around at about 600 people, mostly very happy, it
was a fabulous feeling.
The second half opened to the sound of a disco thumping away in the students’
bar under the hall and we thought,’Oh, oh!’ But Roy was extraordinarily
cool about it and just danced about on his chair a bit and said, ‘Hey,
listen to that, good innit?’ and managed to drown it out with the PA.
I have to say, Tony and Jackie did a fantastic job in coaxing a decent sound
out of that place, there was still that wave hitting you, of a one-man orchestra,
or two man when Nick was playing as well.
By the end of the night Roy was very happy and admitted to the crowd that It’d
been a really good night for him and he wanted to come back in the Autumn with
a new album and I knew then that I’d be doing it again. In fact, I think
I rang his agent in the following couple of days, got a bunch of dates and went
to see the Gardner Arts Centre straight away to get it booked.
We’d asked a group of biker friends to help us with the ‘Get Out’
because the PA had to be brought up a steep set of steps at the back. Tony had
his van at the bottom of the steps and having packed the stage gear down the
guys carried it all down to him (for the price of a ticket each). Tony could
barely keep up, he said it was the fastest get out he’d ever done, they
were big guys those bikers.
It was a truly memorable night. I’ve still got the original contract and
a slightly muffled tape recording. The next night we were off to Portsmouth
and the New Theatre Royal. As I say, Jim had suggested that I do that one as
well – madness in retrospect and the only gig I’ve ever promoted
outside of Brighton. As it goes, we sold that out too, but it was a different
evening. Somehow more formal, less Brighton banter and hysterical laughter.
I commented to Roy afterwards that I should’ve gone round with a pointy
stick and livened them up a bit.
Dave Burnham
March 1992
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