Nick Harper

Nick Harper (born 22 June 1965) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

He is the son of English folk musician Roy Harper.

Harper was born in London, England, to the folk singer-songwriter Roy Harper.

Nick tells of how he remembers a continual procession through the Harper household of his father's famous friends, including not only 'folk/acoustic' artists such as Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Jackson C. Frank, Sandy Denny and Paul Simon but also rock musicians such as Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, David Gilmour and others.

Influenced by his upbringing in such company Nick himself started playing guitar at the age of 10.

He made his recording debut on his father's 1985 Whatever Happened to Jugula?, and subsequently toured with him for a few years before beginning a musical career of his own.

His first solo release was the 1994 EP Light at the End of the Kennel which he quickly succeeded with his 1995 album Seed.

In 1996, after this release, he had a chance meeting with Squeeze frontman and songwriter Glenn Tilbrook, which led to Harper being given the support slot for a Squeeze tour and being signed to Tilbrook's own Quixotic label.

Following tours in the UK, US and Japan, Harper recorded both the 1998 album Smithereens and 2000's Harperspace with Tilbrook as producer.

After moving to the Sangraal label in the early 2000s, a further EP (2001's Instrumental), live double album (2002's Double Life) and studio album (Blood Songs in 2004) were released.

In 2003, he was awarded a Herald Fringe Angel award for performance excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he has played many residencies in recent years.

He performed at the 2004 Cropredy Festival and Leicester's Summer Sundae.

His 2005 album Treasure Island was a change of direction, seeing both a concerted shift to more overtly political themes (songs such as "Knuckledraggers", "Sleeper Cell" and "Intelligent Design" – spliced together from audio clips of George W. Bush's speeches on the War on Terror – were all highly critical of the Bush regime) and to more historical perspectives.

According to Harper,"The album's title track is inspired by an obscure Liverpudlian philanthropist, Joseph Williamson, who employed destitute men returning from the Napoleonic Wars, to dig tunnels for no other reason than to give them something to do. This venture is referenced in Uk TV's Dr Who 'Flux' aired in November 2021.

He has also played sets at the Glastonbury and Beautiful Days festivals numerous times, including both in summer 2005, then again in summer 2010.

In summer 2006, he again played a multitude of festivals, including the Moseley Folk Festival, Jersey Live, Beautiful Days and Clonakilty's second annual Guitar Festival, along with appearances at festivals in France and Catalonia.

May 2007 saw a special iTunes download release of his first single "Blue Sky Thinking", taken from his sixth studio album Miracles for Beginners on behalf of the Love Hope Strength foundation, a cancer charity founded to provide a global support network for cancer survivors.

It received favourable reviews and radio airplay across the UK and Europe.

All proceeds from the single went to the Foundation.

Miracles for Beginners itself was released in June 2007.

In November 2007, he performed at the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain for the fourth time.

After taking a three-year hiatus from recording to focus on touring and charity work, he announced that in February 2010 he would embark on a UK tour to promote his forthcoming album, The Last Guitar.

The album was released the following month and features his then 13-year-old daughter taking a guest vocal slot on one of the songs, "Silly Daddy".

The tour and album served as a prelude to his gig on the Glastonbury Festival Avalon stage on 26 June 2010.

Harper's 2013 album Riven was perhaps his most ambitious work.

'Riven' contains 15 songs in 75 minutes of music.

With guest appearances including Jakko Jakszyk of King Crimson, Dave Graney and jon Leveller.

He quickly followed this in October 2014 with an all-acoustic album Nix, Harper's 9th studio album of 9 songs recorded in 9 days.

In 2016 Harper teamed up with west-country musicians Jacob and Reuben Tyghe of Port Erin and Isaac Phillips of Wasuremono to form 'Nick Harper and The Wilderness Kids'.

The resulting album ''Lies!

Lies!

Lies!'' was recorded and produced by Tchad Blake at La Fabrique in France and toured in 2017.

In 2017 Harper produced an epic paean to his home county of Wiltshire called 'A Wiltshire Tale'.

The project was supported by Wiltshire Creative, based at Salisbury Playhouse and Harper toured a one man spoken word show with added music and effects in surround sound across the West country in 2018.

The show was directed by Jo Newman.

2019 saw Harper tour the '58 Fordwych Road' show.

Harper related tales and anecdotes of the folk luminaries who would drop by and jam with his father at the address where he spent the first 5 years of his life.

The music was a selection of songs associated with each artist, set in a recreation of the flat with items still in Harper's possession.

In 2020, Harper released Phantastes, a crowdfunded album that was partly inspired by the 1858 book of the same name by George MacDonald.

Harper frequently plays solo acoustic tours of the UK as well as European dates and festivals across the UK and Europe.