Nick Harper - now at Sussex Arms in The Forum Basement
Nick Harper + Christopher Parris
FFO Roy Harper, Crowded House, Richard Thompson, Seth Lakeman
Recorded in Abbey Road Studio 2 on Earth Day 2024, ‘Earth Day Blue’ is the 14th studio album release from Nick Harper, the wildly talented and much loved singer-songwriter. With John Leckie in the producer’s chair (Stone Roses, Radiohead, Muse etc.) and Tchad Blake mixing (Tom Waits, Crowded House, Peter Gabriel etc.), the album is a flash mob of high calibre talent assembled for a few hours’ collaboration in a very special space.
But this was not the first time Nick and John had been in session together in Studio 2. It was way back in 1973, in the very same room, that Nick was given his ‘big break’ in the world of music.
The duo first ‘worked’ together when Nick, aged 8, recorded his first ever songs with John whilst Nick’s father Roy was recording his own seminal album 'Lifemask' with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.
So the circle has been squared off and the journey is complete!
'Earth Day Blue' is peppered with acoustic ear-worms written with a Studio 2 Beatlesque approach of short, immediate songs, but with the added brio of a group of studio attendees sometimes driven to sing along to Nick’s guitar and voice, adding a party atmosphere to the day.
Along the way, Nick displays all his (un)usual talents, from his trademark virtuoso string-bending guitar playing and references to the time of his previous session with John on the paean to Joni Mitchell 'Joni If Only ..' to his penchant for prose poems when describing the scene at Abbey Road in the 70s in 'The Lady In The Fur Coat’.
The recording captures what John says is the magic of a live performance in a controlled recording environment, though, in a space such as this, dripping with portent and legacy (on a personal level for the two as well as to a worldwide community of Abbey Road fanatics) there is a tangible, added depth of poignancy and emotion underlying the album.
For Nick Harper fans and for new fans alike, it is all here in unadorned beauty, a recording that witnesses a solo artist without dilution or compromise, nor studio trickery or production prop, having a great day performing in one of the most hallowed rooms on the planet.
🕕 Venue opens - 6:00pm : 🕥 Event finishes - 9:30pm
🪑 Standing but some seating will be available
Line Up
"My musical discovery of 2016" - Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music
From sell-out tours to a critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe Festival run via numerous radio and TV appearances to a vinyl box-set of his career retrospective - and now on to a winter tour with a band for the first time in 10 years - 2016 has been a high point for Nick Harper. He enters his third decade as a performer with a vitality that could put younger musicians to shame.
Here is an artist worth far more than the sum of his parts. His impeccable musical pedigree means nothing without the skills to back it up and skills Nick has, in his virtuoso guitar playing, song-writing and signature vocal acrobatics. Over a solo career of 9 studio albums, 2 EPs and 2 live albums - as well as the recent vinyl career retrospective - the quality of his musical output has only improved. It is no surprise that artists and producers as diverse as Squeeze, Lana Del Rey, Newton Faulkner, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), The Levellers, Jakko Jakszyk (Level 42, King Crimson) and legendary producer Tchad Blake have collaborated with him. This is not a man easily pigeonholed into existing musical genres; Nick is very much blazing his own trail.
Nick’s full range can be heard in his last two solo albums. He moved from 2013’s ‘Riven’, an epic and lush 75-minute recording split into light and dark halves - celebrating family while railing at the state of the modern world - to 2014’s ’Nix’, an unadulterated recording made in just nine days - 9 songs with acoustic guitar and vocals, which pleased longtime fans with its evocation of his live performances.
In addition to recording and touring with a vengeance, Nick is also known for devoting his energy to fundraising projects, particularly organising Wiltshire’s Avebury Rocks festival for the Prospect Hospice where his mother died. With the Love Hope Strength cancer charity, Nick helped set a new world record by performing at the highest gig on Earth at Everest Base Camp and trekked to Machu Picchu and Mount Kilimanjaro.
In 2017 Nick is only booking to perform at a few, select festivals in the UK. There is no UK solo tour, but there are plans afoot, many irons in the fire… watch this space… But whatever path he takes, rest assured that Nick Harper is, and will remain a musical force to be reckoned with.
Nick Harper Live Nick playing 'Purple Rain' at Henry Tudor House 2016 Listen to the full back catalogue here on Bandcamp: https://nickharper.bandcamp.com "Betjemen with a guitar... Dylan for the iPod generation." Guitarist Magazine
