1. Nick Harper was born on 22 June 1965 and is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
22 Facts About Nick Harper
1. 2.
Nick Harper is the son of English folk musician Roy Harper.
3.
In 1996, after this release, he had a chance meeting with Squeeze frontman and songwriter Glenn Tilbrook, which led to Nick Harper being given the support slot for a Squeeze tour and being signed to Tilbrook's own Quixotic label.
4.
Nick Harper's 2005 album Treasure Island was a change of direction, seeing both a concerted shift to more overtly political themes and to more historical perspectives.
5.
Nick Harper quickly followed this in October 2014 with an all-acoustic album Nix, Harper's 9th studio album of 9 songs recorded in 9 days.
6.
In 2017 Nick Harper produced an epic paean to his home county of Wiltshire called 'A Wiltshire Tale'.
7.
The project was supported by Wiltshire Creative, based at Salisbury Playhouse and Nick Harper toured a one man spoken word show with added music and effects in surround sound across the West country in 2018.
8.
Nick 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.
9.
In 2020, Nick Harper released Phantastes, a crowdfunded album that was partly inspired by the 1858 book of the same name by George MacDonald.
10.
Nick Harper frequently plays solo acoustic tours of the UK as well as European dates and festivals across the UK and Europe.
11.
Nick Harper received a second Fringe Angel award for his show 58 Fordwych Road in 2019.
12.
Nick Harper performed at the 2004 Cropredy Festival and Leicester's Summer Sundae.
13.
Nick Harper has played sets at the Glastonbury and Beautiful Days festivals numerous times, including both in summer 2005, then again in summer 2010.
14.
In January 2005, Nick Harper played two shows in Thailand to raise money for Indian Ocean tsunami relief.
15.
Nick Harper hosted his own Love Hope Strength fundraiser, Avebury Rocks, which first took place on 9 July 2011 and ran until 2019.
16.
Nick Harper uses tuning pegs as an integral part of his playing style, turning them mid-song to intentionally cause a pitch bend.
17.
Charles De Ledesma for BBC Online took a less enthusiastic viewpoint, saying that "this Nick Harper set is a little patchy, especially if compared alongside 1995's Seed and 2004's Blood Songs which updated brilliantly the folk confessional", but the author still admits that "Nick Harper though must be applauded for trying be a politically inclined sort of modern troubadour".
18.
Some major musical influences on him include his father Roy Nick Harper, Killing Joke, Public Enemy, Stephen Stills, Gang of Four, Frank Zappa, Eric Idle of Monty Python, Django Reinhardt, Jeff Buckley and Led Zeppelin.
19.
Nick Harper has covered songs by many of these artists in concert.
20.
Nick Harper has played lead guitar and sang backing vocals, as well as playing support, at a number of Cy Curnin solo gigs in the USA and elsewhere since the pair met in 2007.
21.
Nick Harper has written and played with Brighton-based political indie group The Levellers.
22.
In 2014 Nick Harper worked with Lana Del Rey on her cover of 'Chelsea Hotel No 2' by Leonard Cohen.