Roy Harper, Royal Festival Hall - review

Nevertheless, this English folk artist can still pack out the Festival Hall with true believers who were hushed during the music and as boisterous as unruly teenagers between songs. "Calm down, dear," Harper told a noisy man who shouted demands for him to play in Wales.

It might have resulted in a cultish claustrophobia but thankfully Harper's emotional performance with his acoustic guitar, at a show to mark his 70th birthday, was focused on the ambitious, sprawling folk that still sounds like no one else.
A string section enriched several songs, including the evocative North Country and the break-up lament I'll See You Again, while Harper's son
Nick added virtuoso guitar playing on Me and My Woman.

Joanna Newsom's appearance surprised everyone and Harper acknowledged the Californian singer-songwriter's part in his revival by getting him out of retirement for her tour last year. Their intimate, tender duet on Another Day was a wonderful one-off, not least for the opportunity to see Newsom singing without her harp.

Former collaborator Jimmy Page also joined this party and the Led Zeppelin guitarist's bluesy, acoustic solo on The Same Old Rock was astonishing in its intricacy.

Perhaps the abiding memory will be Harper's sad, soaring vocal on When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease.

A poignant moment, though Harper's admission that "I can't let go yet" offered hope that he may do this again one day.

Roy Harper
Royal Festival Hall