''Once'' is the sixteenth studio album by English rock/

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

singer-songwriter Roy Harper, released in 1990.

History

David Gilmour,

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...

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. Early life Harper was born in London, England, to the folk singer-songwriter Roy Harper. Nick tells of how he ...

and

Nigel Mazlyn Jones Nigel Mazlyn Jones (born 26 June 1950) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. Early life He was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, where he did part-time work at Dudley Zoo from the age of 12. In 1969, he moved to Jersey, to wor ...

appear on the album, with both Gilmour and Bush on the title track.

Songs

The Black Cloud of Islam

The track "The Black Cloud of Islam" is a despairing castigation of radical Islam. The song provoked some criticism, to which Harper responded, in 2006, when he wrote: "I let my guard slip. I knew that I’d let it slip. I wanted it to slip. I was absolutely sick of being politically correct. I am not politically correct, I never have been..". His stated reason for penning the song was his "feelings of despair" about his "worst dreams coming true" about religion gaining ground. Religion, he stated on his personal blog, was something he regarded with the "deepest possible suspicion" and now, to his horror, he could see it "about to storm the world" and "take over whole swathes of humanity"; a thought that he detested and made him "want to die on the spot". In a later interview with ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', the matter of this song was raised. Harper asserted that he wrote the song "as a liberal, not as a racist" and was inspired to do so by the 1988

Lockerbie Bombing Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boe ...

Berliners

The opening verse of "Berliners" is the 4th stanza of Laurence Binyon's "

Ode of Remembrance "For the Fallen" is a poem written by Laurence Binyon. It was first published in ''The Times'' in September 1914. Over time, the third and fourth stanzas of the poem (usually now just the fourth) have been claimed as a tribute to all casualti ...

", and is preceded by a recording of a

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...

ceremony where the same stanza was recited. The song also uses a BBC news broadcast describing the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Video

Harper supported the release of the album by touring the UK. One of the concerts took place at the

Dominion Theatre The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre and former cinema on Tottenham Court Road, close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point, in the London Borough of Camden. Planned as primarily a musical theatre, it opened in 1929, but the following year ...

(a West End theatre on

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road t ...

in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and ...

) and was filmed. The concert took place on 22 November 1990, the same night

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

announced her resignation as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

which Harper referenced closing the concert by stating "...it's been a day to remember on many levels, it can only get better...if you can spoke the wheel of the present authority, then do it as quickly as possible, we need a change...". The

concert film A concert film, or concert movie, is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by either a musician or a stand-up comedian. Early history The ...

was later released as ''Roy Harper Once – Live''.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Roy Harper # "Once" # "Once in the Middle of Nowhere" # "Nowhere to Run to" # "The Black Cloud of Islam" # "If" # "Winds of Change" # "Berliners" # "Sleeping at the Wheel" # "For Longer Than it Takes" # "Ghost Dance"

Personnel

*Roy Harper – guitar, vocals * David Gilmour – guitar *

– guitar *

– guitar, dulcimer * Tony Franklin – bass *Steve Broughton – drums, percussion * Mark Feltham – harmonica *Jacqui Harper,

, Terry Cooke – backing vocals

References

{{Authority control 1990 albums Roy Harper (singer) albums I.R.S. Records albums