Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

[qween7096]

There needs to be more thumbs, Come on!

[cricmahanty]

Impeccable lyrics set to a charming and evergreen music...............

[denlo100]

A very ignorant person aswell, I am just flabergasted that someone can find this standard - although it has lots of points which seperates this song from the rest. - You are a narrow-minded person.

[sucioanacoreta]

standard, boring & absolutely gay

[Brickdawg10]

@sucioanacoreta you must be a very boring person to think that this is a great song an absolute classic

[TheExpertanalysis]

@sucioanacoreta improve your music taste

[TheJimmax]

@sucioanacoreta Think you must be talking about yourself.

[guitarman6895]

RIP David Bedford. David composed the beautiful orchestral accompaniment to this piece, along with several others on the Stormcock and HQ albums. David passed away recently, yet his legacy lives on in this music. I am proud to have been able to call David my friend in the 8 years I have known him. Goodbye David, you will be missed.

[areyoureceivingme]

7:16... not long enough.

[GLH09]

R.I.P John Peel. 7 years ago today, gone but never forgotten!!

[GriefTourist]

indescribably poignant

[Lizmarger1]

RIP Graham

[330sk8er]

fucking cunting shit

[SHALQUALIM]

is this Camerons op!I have to go tr=hrough ops., before posting!

[SHALQUALIM]

talk about censorship?

[SHALQUALIM]

kentish beer is best to insprire, ruminations of english country side, that is lost!

[SHALQUALIM]

shearpard neame wil always be a hoppy beer

[MrKeeno99]

Me too. Love it

[timbo808]

BBC live text sent me here!

[dilwich123]

RIP John Peel ;)

[musar1981]

My son Jamie has just sent me this wonderful song of imagery and life. Methinks he is planning my funeral. xxx

[marrakeshmama]

This man should have been a shining star. What more can you say,but he is to chosen few!

[MrSirDel]

@marrakeshmama I totally agree... This song is so intrinsically English..village green...walk to the pub after the match it is wonderful and I don't even like cricket LOL

[GGiblet]

all bow down and worship the glory that is Roy Harper

[tapundinmak]

This song was made for been play in the funeral

[HeadfulOfHollow]

Brings tears to my eyes with every listen.

[Pitsku]

Magical. Used to see him in the Sixties when he was all over the place most of the time. But this is wonderful.

[dan32113]

the days when everyone ran on the pitch at the end of the test match, before it went corporate. the soul has gone from sport.... a great song, of a bygone era!

[54HarryB]

A perfect song.

Never forgotten

Thanks for placing.

harry

[redGorgoroth]

brings back so many memorys was and still is a beautifull song

was fortunate enough to have seen roy in hull about 1982 still one of my all time favourite musicians

an underated genius

[Glaznoz]

ah Harpic!

Clean around the bend!

[ampallang7]

Thanks!

[phennessy100]

bloody beautiful, thanks



[stepenwolf7]

Uplifting music such as this is timeless. Thank you for posting this superb music

[cliffjen100]

This song just refuses to age. Sounds as moving now as when i heard it so many years ago. Glad i found it again.

[thoomoo]

Beautiful-i remember listening to john peels show and his festive fifty-he meant so much to so many people

[bonzodog10]

At the moment, this is the best song ever.

[apriliam1]

John Peel... We miss you!

[3cheekymonkeys]

@apriliam1 do we ever...

[paretsky]

Hope that Nina gets to hear this!! it is so wonderful!! xx

[brommers12345]

There is actually a Youtube recording of the first show John Peel did after the death of John Walters. John Walters wanted this played after his death and the choke in the voice of Peel as he introduces this track is heartbreaking. Just really heartbreaking.

[MrPOORMANPOWER]

ah great stuff indeed harper s a legend

[MrPOORMANPOWER]

great stuff was indeed the grimethorpe colliery band anyone know what became of roy harper great artist

[EdDueim]

@MrPOORMANPOWER

Still touring last I heard,

[finkployd4658]

Hats off to roy harper

[creccy]

this is an England of my youth not an England today .....those days are gone

[leedsfanca]

Thanks for posting. Saw him only once at Knebworth 1978, supporting Genesis. The song says so much about the England I remember.

[ADHDUK]

this was john peel's tribute song when he died

[marginallymental]

Just breathtaking. I remember discovering this song in the early 80's so well. A summer game becomes the ultimate metaphor, an elegy and "goodbye to all that"---to Empire and greatness, innocence and ritual, even goodbye to a delicate summer day. Whenever I can't remember why I loved England, I remember this, one of the most moving songs ever written.

[parkerTB6]

haunting ..................

[TheSnowmanEddie]

love it

[happyenjoytime]

Classic English nostalgia ... supping a few pints down at New Road (Worcestershire) on a summer's day with the cathedral as a backdrop and hoping the threatening rain will hold off. All suddenly concentrate intently on the match when we espy John Arlott approaching, red wine in fist ... them wuz the daze !

[Bushbaby387]

Left arm round the wicket

[bembridgebabe]

hi there, love this song. was wondering if you could send it to me? my email is ronsamgem@aol. com =D

[bembridgebabe]

hi there, love this song. was wondering if you could send it to me? my email is ronsamgem@aol. com =D

[aoguy3]

Berliners from Once is the one with the Berlin Wall announcement

[ecanuck]

Thanks for posting this--sounds great. I wasn't familiar with Harper, and heard this song on cable radio a few days ago. Disappointing that I can't buy the song online anywhere -- only 2 albums of his available iTunes Canada store & HQ is not one of them. Don't know if I want to buy an entire album from the UK on the strength of liking this song.

The brass section is remarkable--puts me in mind of some of Tom Waits' tunes with a brass band backing up.

[ecanuck]

Thanks for posting this--sounds great. I wasn't familiar with Harper, and heard this song on cable radio a few days ago. Disappointing that I can't buy the song online anywhere -- only 2 albums of his available iTunes Canada store & HQ is not one of them. Don't know if I want to buy an entire album from the UK on the strength of liking this song.

The brass section is remarkable--puts me in mind of some of Tom Waits' tunes with a brass band backing up.

[marginallymental]

@ecanuck: I, an old female Yank, here to reassure you that "Cricketer" isn't even the best song he wrote. Roy Harper may have been one of the best songwriters of his day. Some of his stuff may be offensive or difficult, but his songwriting was second to none in an era of REMARKABLE songwriters. You may purchase with confidence!

[claytonave]

@marginallymental Very much agree with you. I have a radio show here in Sonoma Ca and I play his songs often, he has said that he wrote this in a few minutes and I believe him considering the depth of so much of his writing. He's still playing gigs these days though not often.

[lorcan1602]

to sir alec bedser

[stevennewton08]

roy harper man this is great.

theres one track by harper with a news reporter telling of the collapse of the berlin wall anyone know what it its?

thanx.

[ollie272]

so nice reminds me of playing cricket at school and my old fat cricket master

[eltie95]

this was played at my grandad's funeral while playing a slideshow. it makes me cry every time i hear it

[chickenlampbrent]

Ex pat lancashire lad is deeply moved. I grew up in the seventies in Burnley and I was lucky that my older brothers had lots of Roy. Find him also on the first Dave Gilmour album. I Forget the song. Colliery brass bands embody the 'old Lancashire' for me. Gilmour also plays lead on 'The Game'.

[aoguy3]

"Short and Sweet" is written by Harper and Gilmour and shows up on both the Gilmour albums and also on Harper's 1980 album Unknown Soldier. The Gilmour live concert from that period has Roy join him on stage for Short & Sweet

[chickenlampbrent]

@aoguy3 Thanks, I remember that concert, Dave commented on Roy being as "flat as a fart"

[MetallicBill]

@aoguy3 1985 release on VHS only that I saw, I dubbed a copy since it was only a rental tape!

[MrPOORMANPOWER]

ah great stuff never tire hearing this

[sxybumfluff007]

Still brilliant after all these years. First saw Roy in 1968. You cannot listen without being moved.

[zaqwert777]

I bet it drives this guy crazy that he's best known for singing the song "Have a Cigar".

I remember the 70s but I've never heard this or any other song done by him (other than..... you know)

[clivetemple]

Or being name checked in a Led Zep title.

[Ruddha56]

I I heard this with an English friend in the North-West of Western Australia in a mining camp.

I do not understand the gormless comment attributed to this song by the person whom designated 'gayy'. Does he/she like Led Zepplin? There is a song Hats off to Roy Harper on LZ 3--yes THAT Roy Harper! And, by the way: Who did Pink Floyd invite to provide the vocals on Have a Cigar, recorded on Wish You Were Here?

Roy Harper.

[jenphil100]

What a beautiful, evocative, sad song. Went to a funeral where this was played as the coffin was carried out - not a dry eye in the house (especially as the cricketer wasn't so very old). Thanks so much for posting this - am off to buy the album now.

[dobsondale]

This is gayy

[botfldn]

fucking idiot.

[Cryolemon]

I hope Janice Long opens her Radio2 show with this next Sunday, since it'll be the 5th anniversary of John Peel's death.

[richardyingren]

I enjoy the John Peel connection here .....

[mimibaileathcliath]

this video is an audio i cannot find to download on amazon as they are selliing the entire cd and i'm not pushed about the rest of the album called HQ on amazon. it is beautiful, unforced and evocative. i played cricket in rathmines

in the 1970s but was no good at it. the

song reminds me of the Hovis ad back

in the 1970s in the UK because of the brass band.

[RatherLargeAllan]

@mimibaileathcliath I hope you've changed you mind about the whole album: "Hallucinating Light" doesn't half grow on you - especially if you grow the other half yourself!!

[topgate]

i hadn't heard this song in years when it was played on radio 4,saturday just had to visit you tube to listen to it again a great song from my youth

[irb3ni]

I heard it on Radio 2, driving home from work (Sounds of the Seventies I think). It's been one of my favourites every since.

[bonzodog10]

Anyone know who did the brass section ?

[mijmijrm]

@bonzodog10 :

my info is it's : The Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band .. prob worth double checking via Google.

[bonzodog10]

Thank`s for that.

[piran75]

same band that did brassed off a ch 4 classic film!

[ShanghaiRooster]

@mijmijrm It is indeed the Grimethorpe band; this from Roy's own comments on the HQ album page at Amazon

[ShanghaiRooster]

@mijmijrm It is indeed the Grimethorpe band; this from Roy's own comments on the HQ album page at Amazon

[kabeauregardajax]

@mijmijrm man everyone used them..! lovely!

[majikthise]

@mijmijrm :

It is.

[RatherLargeAllan]

@bonzodog10 Grimethorpe Colliery Band arranged by David Bedford, the same guy that 'collaborated' with Mike Oldfield for Tubular Bells and then orchestrated that piece. A master musician.

[bonzodog10]

Thank`s for that mate.

[TheSnowmanEddie]

@bonzodog10 it was grimethorpe colliery brass band

[falangngong]

one of the famous N.W. bands, I'd think: Black Dyke Mills? Grimethorpe? CWS Footwear?

Artistically, totally correct, whatever...

[claytonave]

@falangngong Grimethorpe Colliery. Just beautiful and ambient.

[juziapinkfloyd]

@bonzodog10

I am ;]

[kwhitt26]

@bonzodog10 100 % sure that it is Grimethorpe Colliery Band

[trellzaboppin]

Wonderful stuff, deeply evocative.

[TheBarbara47]

Memories of days long ago when lyrics were the poetry and the music reached levels not achieved now.

[77onesjj]

@TheBarbara47 Just because you stopped playing doesn't mean the game didn't carry on without you ...

[GriefTourist]

Deeply moving.

[cartimand]

As a keen cricketer who realises his days of playing at a serious standard are now drawing to a close, this great song resonates profoundly with me. Ah well - I can still enjoy the sting in the ale!

[MultiWaterman]

only to pleased to explain the words and references to 68hummingbird, this aslo brings so many memories to me as I played cricket for a Sussex village in the early 70's as said a happier time

[68hummingbird]

O.K., MultiWaterman... have at it!

[68hummingbird]

This song has been haunting me for over 35 years... back to the early 70's when it came out and was played on a local alternative radio station. I lost track of it and of Roy Harper, vaguely remembering only a bit of melody and a few lines. Now if only I could understand all the words and the references; it can't possibly mean as much to a Yank as to an Englishman, but it is beautiful and evocative nonetheless, and takes me back to a happier time. Thank you for posting it.

[68hummingbird]

test

[vulpecula999]

A beautiful song. As much as I dislike brass bands, the brass section here is really moving

[poada2008]

Roy

[BuddinTheAmazing]

Hats off to Roy Harper...

[WillShakespeare2007]

If you only listen to one song today about loss, love , the nature of being and cricket. let it be this one.

[Jwo32]

Its just loaded with sadness....fantastic song...i might post a cover

[pleasesir]

this is a great and beautiful song

[wilsonslass]

i adore this song, it makes me go all sloppy

[tirnanog20]

This beautiful elegy to a gentler, vanished England reminds me what a great, unacknowledged lyricist Harper was. The Northern England accent---"thee" "sting in the ale" etc; the elegiac atmosphere--"the hallowed strip in the haze/The fabled men and the noonday sun/Were more than just yarns of their day" Beautiful. I also remember a lovely Harper song, called, I think, "Commune" with enchanting lyrics.

[RatherLargeAllan]

Super comment but... that England isn't as vanished as people think - we're all still here. Also, the brass arrangement is way beyond Roy so "Hat's of to David Bedford"!

[erimayne]

this song is way toooo long....boring

[frostyEnumerator]

! .. he's captured the spirit of cricket, erimayne. 8-)

[bluescj]

God bless John Peel and Roy Harper - and us all

Three cheers for less complicated days.....

[seerauberjohnny]

I shall have to ammend my previous comment,according to Wiki,both Andy Kershaw and Rob da bank played this tune at Peel's passing...

[putthetellyon]

This song closed MOJO radio after 5 years. A fantastic sentiment.

[POMPEYSTEVE2104]

I'm on my 7th copy of HQ. This track stirs my soul and my 50 years on the planet don't seem so bad after all. One of my all time favourites.

[erimayne]

eh yo..my man, harlem is what it is...jim jones all day b....dont play wit us and i dont care if you 50....bang bang anywhere gang!

john peel was a real nigga!

[mizofan]

Thanks a lot for this- i haven't heard it since i was a kid in the 70's.

[frostyEnumerator]

yw, mizo. i love this track.  it surprises me we don't hear it all round the place.

[stuross74]

i always played this over at my mates when we got drunk, such a good track

[Iucy]

for a lifetime of musical memories, thank you

respect - John Peel and Roy Harper

[mancsmoveseast]

One of his best!

[paretsky]

ah, John Peel days come back so fast with this! Brilliant!

[seerauberjohnny]

After Walters died,I remember Peel saying that J.W always said he would play this song after J.P died (clearly expecting to outlive him)

It saddens me that none of the hip radio one crowd thought to play this tune after J.P passed!

[shikamaru412]

Have the rest of this album?

[mijmijrm]

fraid not .. just dug out that one track from somewhere.

[shikamaru412]

lol... Guess I'll have to BUY it then...