"HQ" by ROY HARPER - August 1975 UK LP on Harvest Records (August 2013 and February 2018 Science Friction CD Remaster in 'Hardback Book' Packaging) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Stand In This Light And See..."

Roy Harper's back catalogue is not surprisingly undergoing constant rediscovery by generations hungry for Seventies Classic Rock and frankly (Frank) by those who were there but simply left his albums in the racks when such things were plentiful in second-hand stores. Somehow our Roy has always remained a bit of a cult – an acquired taste really – like Bovril or Cliff Richard calendars (I like both unadorned myself).

Not unavailable anymore - at least for the purposes of CD reissue that is. Harper owns/controls his own back-catalogue now and this is reflected by the 'Science Friction' label that offers a whopping 27 albums of his for sale on CD – 50-years of original material including obscure sets like the "Flashes From The Archives Of Oblivion" live/studio double album on Harvest Records in 1974. He may no longer walk on water, but you can at least buy something that looks and sounds like he does - which by way of beefy beverages, bare-chested Julys and whiffy underarms brings us to Roy Harper's eight studio set…

1975's "HQ" featured heavy-hitters like Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour and Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones - whilst the core band accompanying multi-instrumentalist Harper was ace-axeman Chris Spedding and his Bassist Dave Cochran playing a storm alongside the Yes/King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford. David Bedford of ELP fame also did some of the arrangements especially the gorgeous brass of The Grimethorpe Colliery Band on "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease". The album is also only the second of two Roy Harper reissues to receive a packaging upgrade into a 'hardback 'book' set on CD (the other is 1971's "Stormcock" - see separate review). "HQ" comes with a 28-page booklet attached within and a new 2012 'digital remix and re-sculpt' by JOHN FITZPATRICK.

In truth (like so much of his catalogue) "HQ" is all but forgotten now and of course screams out not to be. Time to rectify this heinous anomaly - ye Gods of taste and twisty beards. Let's get back to an England joining the EU with a smile instead of leaving it in a strop...

UK released August 2013 (reissued February 2018) - "HQ" by ROY HARPER on Science Friction HUCD048 (Barcode 679076770485) is a straightforward 7-track remaster of his eighth UK album from August 1975 on Harvest Records SHSP 4086. This reissue CD comes in specialist 'hardback book' packaging and it plays out as follows (40:54 minutes):

1. The Game (Parts 1-5) [Side 1]

2. The Spirit Lives

3. Grown Ups Are Just Silly Children

4. Referendum (Legend) [Side 2]

5. Forget Me Not

6. Hallucinating Light

7. When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

The 28-page colour booklet designed by HARRY PEARCE is attached to the inner hardback and reflects the Hipgnosis artwork of the original album complete with the James Edgar sketch of RH on the inner sleeve. Like "Stormcock" this reissue also contains pages and pages of new cryptic almost-poetry-like liner notes from RH, black and white photos of the boys in their bare-chested cricket outfits and some shots of RH playing live, the lyrics to all six songs typed out instead of being in the illegible scrawl they were on the original inner sleeve (repro’d as they were would make reading the words all but impossible), recording and reissue credits and a sheet-card offering all of his albums from 1967's crudely-recorded "Sophisticated Beggar" through to 2005's "The Death Of God" (DVDs, Lyric Books and Tee-shirts too) from Science Friction Ltd in Clonakilty, Cork in Ireland. They're also directions to Roy Harper's own website.

Like "Stormcock" in 1971 – Master Producer PETER JENNER returns at the knobs helm (John Leckie this time as his Engineer) and delivers a gorgeously deep and rich sound yet again. But the big news is that the album has been Digitally Re-mixed and Re-sculpted in 2012 for CD by Irish Musician and Audio Engineer JOHN FITZGERALD at Lettercollum Recording Studios in Ireland (Produced by Roy Harper). This team has produced stupendous Audio - all those clean instruments swirling around your speakers like "Wish You Were Here"-period Pink Floyd on an Acoustic tip (John Fitzgerald recorded Ireland’s own Brian Kennedy and played on Harper's 2005 set "The Death Of God"). Like "Stormcock" (which he prepared also) - this CD is a sonic winner. Now let's get to the music...

Re-listening to this simple yet somehow dense album in 2018 - "HQ" remains alarmingly up-to-date what with its very own referendum song on joining the EU in 1974 as Britain now prepares to leave it 44-years later for exactly the same cultural reasons Harper mentions (amongst other things).  In fact his whole soundscape of huge Acoustic Guitars and echoed swirling treated vocals has surely been a secret stepping point for so many new writers and bands (you can 'so' hear how Fleet Foxes, Elbow and Vetiver got their sound - whilst Kate Bush and others have name-checked RH too and of course Zeppelin had the song "Hats Off To Roy Harper" as the last track on Side 2 of Zep III in 1970).

The brilliant and lyrically acidic five-parter "The Game" is nearly fourteen minutes long and features a bevy of famous types adding hugely to the riffage and chop/change musical ins and outs. Steve Broughton of The Edgar Broughton Band is in there as is Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Dave Gilmore of Pink Floyd, Bill Bruford of King Crimson and Chris Spedding doubling-up with Page on Guitars. You can even sense the spirit of 1976 Punk creeping into "The Spirit Lives" where an angry Harper still wants to believe that 'love prevails'. Side 1 ends with a fun Rock 'n' Roll pastiche to heroes of old in the witty "Grown Ups Are Just Silly Children" - Spedding letting rip on Guitar as he channels Eddie Cochran via T. Rex.

Although it doesn't say so in the liner notes or credits - I'd swear that's Page again on guitar in the 'join the EU' tune "Referendum (Legend)". Whether it is or not my fave-rave on Side 2 is the gorgeous "Forget Me Not" - a love song bathed in swirling guitar-romance and flanged voices - a sort of emotional floating tank for the ears. Hearing it again like this is a total blast and brings me back too to the fabulous soundscapes of 1971's "Stormcock" - always good news in my book. The six-and-a-half minutes of "Hallucinating Light" is a deceptive slow Blues - a sad song with hurt rumbling beneath - organ notes adding poignancy to the beautiful production values and echoed vocals. "HQ" ends on a total winner - the deeply moving "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease" where David Bedford organises Saxophonist Ray Warleigh and the brass hum of The Grimethorpe Colliery Band into the song which such a deftness of arranging touch. You can envisage the scene, smell the grass and hear his shoes shuffling as he leaves something he loves deep down in his DNA.

The 1995 2nd CD Reissue of "HQ" on Science Friction HUCD019 (Barcode 5020522393522) actually included early mixes and a single version from the 1974 double-LP "Flashes From The Archives Of Oblivion" as three bonus tracks ("The Spirit Lives", "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease" and "Hallucinating Light") and I suppose you could argue that their absence here is a bit of a reissue steal rather than a gift - but I'm still loving this 'upgrade' anyway - especially with this upgraded audio.

Whatever way you spin the ball "HQ" on this CD is a classy affair - reigniting my love of Roy Harper's criminally forgotten contributions to England's mighty musical repertoire. Brill my son and bowled for a six. Just keep the shirt on next time old bean...