August 2009
"One of the true craftsmen of song, Harvey has created some pieces which are elegant magic and which last a lifetime. There are very few performers who are as committed as him and who can work an audience with such consummate skill. It is a genuine privilege to have met him and seen him at work!
Folk on the Moor, 2008
April 2009
Those of you who have the equipment (Sky) have access to a great new channel. Cine Moi is for French films from the 40's to the present day and all are subtitled, no dubbing. Wendy and I are enjoying a feast at the moment because the films are free until May. We love French cinema because it is almost without exception about character and story, not special effects. So go to international on your Sky box, click Cine Moi, download three films a night, and enjoy! We've subscribed for a year (30 new films a month) for just £100.
Thought for the day
"Words make you think thoughts, music makes you feel a feeling, a song makes you feel a thought."
Yip Harburg, composer of " Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
March 2009
Listening to Vince Cable recently, and being impressed as usual by his prescience, I played 'The way we lived then' from the 'Spring Again' CD which I recorded in 1994.
The last chorus strikes me as the best bit of crystal ball gazing I've ever written (in the middle of the last Capitalism earthquake):
Yes we'll live it again, selling Euro or Yen
Only this time we'll know where it comes from
We'll know how to keep it and then
We'll make someone else pay for our mad holiday
For the Porsche and the Rolls that are our only goals
Me and Jason and Ben
We'll live it again
As a saver, I know who's paying this time around! If you've got it, give the track a spin. It'll bring a wry smile to your face as it did to mine.
February 2009
Email feedback
I just pop in to let you know I came across your music by chance and think it´s fantastic. Real singing, with real instruments, rhythms and atmosphere. It was a note on a blackboard in a Hamburg supermarket here in Germany that led me to discovering your music. I´m writing down the lyrics of early songs for the person who advertised on the blackboard and whose English isn´t good enough to do this himself. He really is mad about your music for decades! Again, great music and so different and relaxing from all the crap that airs, unfortunately successful, every day.
Feedback from Huntingdon Hall Concert, 28/2/09
Came to Huntingdon Hall on the 28th with my younger brother, we came up from Bristol. We have to say we have seen some fine concerts of many different sizes but yours was by far the best. Thank you for living up to a boyhood dream.
November 2008
Harvey has contributed vocals to a Les Barker song on this charity CD to raise money for the blind.
Missing Persians: Guide Cats For the Blind Vol. 2
Here's the most novel way I've yet encountered of someone discovering one of my albums:
"Please find enclosed a cheque for 'Friends of Mine'. I discovered this album on a 35-year-old reel to reel tape in a charity shop, including Ralph McTell and Paul Simon. What a fantastic album, and high time I heard it at a decent quality and able to thank the artist at the same time."
September 2008
A lovely story! Unfortunately the 'I'm Resigning from Today' CD is now out of print, but odd copies may be found floating around the Internet.
"I went to a medical school in Calcutta (India) in early '90s. In those days there used to be a programme in Calcutta Radio from 1310-1400 on Tuesdays which played English Folk Songs. I always skipped my afternoon classes to listen to those programmes. I also recorded these programmes for my friends. Those were the days when the Internet and satellite TV were unheard of in India. And those were the days when I was a dreamy young lad.
"It was a hot summer afternoon when I first heard 'Death Come Easy' by Harvey on that programme. That was a new beginning in my thinking. I always had a deep interest in war history. But this song completely changed my perception of war. I played this song for my friends and my brother. They were moved. Like never before. When I came to the UK in 1996, my brother requested me to get this song in its original recording from somewhere, somehow. I tried hard but failed. I kept on listening to this rickety tape, which I'd brought from India, wondering whether it'll ever be possible to get hold of a proper recording of this song.
"Couple of weeks back, one night, while I was preparing for my Consultant job, I felt really bored and thought of doing something different. I started searching amazon for 'Death Come Easy' (I don't know why I didn't do this earlier) and came across 'I'm Resigning...' I promptly ordered my copy. Last Tuesday, I went for my interview and got the job - when I came back 'I'm Resigning...' was waiting for me. It was too much for me. I wept. I phoned my brother in India and gave him these two good news. He told me he was not sure which one was making him more happy."
July 2008
"One of the true craftsmen of song, Harvey has created some pieces which are elegant magic and which last a lifetime. There are very few performers who are as committed as him and who can work an audience with such consummate skill. It is a genuine privilege to have met him and seen him at work!"
Folk on the Moor
Colonel Mosely had posted a follow up article to his twelve songs piece, providing a bio of Harvey and an appreciation of his work:
"By any standards Harvey Andrews has an impressive body of work covering many themes and styles. They range from the social and political to the artistic, from the domestic and romantic to the humorous and nostalgic. He is recognised as one of the most powerful song-smiths England has produced. In live performance he creates real intimacy with his audience with impeccable delivery, accomplished musicianship and engaging humour."
Word Magazine's blog also recently featured Harvey, in a piece entitled 'Keep it in the family', which says "all the family loved Harvey's songs, rich with imagery, laced with a working class morality we all felt and shared."
Finally, Reinhard Zierke has done a sterling job of cataloguing Harvey's entire output in an exhaustive discography.
June 2008
Colonel Moseley writes: "Some time ago, I wrote a profile reviewing the forty year career of Birmingham-born songwriter and performer Harvey Andrews. Constraints of space meant I confined myself to biography and wasn't able to focus much upon my take on Harvey's life and beliefs, as reflected in his songs.
"With some trepidation, as a fan with no musical background, this is my attempt to explore twelve songs selected as representative of the artist and the man and that I still enjoy listening to in 2007."
Read the whole article.
April 2008
"I just have to write to tell you how very much I enjoyed your book. I came with my husband and daughter to your show at the Brook Theatre in Chatham last week, which was where I bought the book and a couple of CDs. I bought an old favorite, Writer of Songs, and your new one, Somewhere in the Stars. I love it to bits and already know all the words off by heart."
Website feedback.
April 2008
"I was at the Chatham concert on April 24th, with my parents. We all agree it was the best evening we'd had for ages - we haven't stopped talking about it since. It was my first concert, my parents having seen you in Scarborough and Woolwich in the 1970s. My mum is now very much enjoying the book and I look forward to reading it too. Thank you for such a wonderful show and hopefully we'll catch another very soon."
Website feedback.
November 4th 2007
"I saw you at the Bewdley Festival.
"I wear hearing aids and no longer catch words to the modern songs and I was worried that all you said and sang about would be lost on me, but I am delighted to say I got probably 95%. I experienced so many emotions during that short time, some of the songs brought tears to my eyes and shivers down my spine, some, hilarity. What came over was a very sensitive man and I wished the show could have carried on for hours I was enthralled.
"I bought your book and read it in one sitting. You simply must write a sequel. Thank you for giving me a wonderful afternoon, Haven't stopped talking about you."
Website feedback.
June 14th 2007
There's a few hundred copies of the book being read at the moment, so here is some feedback from readers:
"I picked up your book and could not put it down - I read it and enjoyed it immensely. Now, how come I didn't see you in our house when most of what you relate was happening to me? Loved it!"
"Thank you for the book, it was unputdownable so I didn't."
"I have just finished your book. I would like to say it is fantastic and gives a really good insight into a lot of your songs. I just would like to ask - are you going to do a second volume? Please!!!"
"I thoroughly enjoyed your book, once I started reading I couldn't put it down. When is the sequel coming out?"
"It is an honest book; sensitive, emotional, harsh, real, disturbing, thought provoking, funny. All the elements that make a H.A."
"I have just finished Gold Star To The Ozarks - what a beautiful, truthful, emotional book. I'm just about to read it again."
One reader sent me 3 E mails as he read:
1) "Love the book, up to page 66 but I know it's one of those books that you don't want to end."
2) "Well what can I say, I am engrossed in your book, page 109, and it is absorbing. I hope that this book is taken up, I am sure it will be, because it deserves a wider audience."
3) "Just finished it today, and I cannot believe it, how could you? I turn the page after leaving you standing, guitar in hand, in the street, finally getting the courage to face your first audition, and.........NOTHING, a BLANK PAGE!!!! Don't do this to me, it's the stage coach heading over the cliff, it's Batman being crushed by falling boulders, it's YOU standing in the street. Ah mate, you HAVE to write the next book, I loved it, I absolutely loved it. You should have started this years ago, you are a natural story-teller. Of course, I already knew this from your concerts!"
May 29th 2007
Yesterday I was called by BBC Radio Northampton. Apparantly someone sent them a copy of my CD 'The Gift' with the track 'Driving in the Middle Lane' when they began a drivetime campaign against middle lane hoggers. The song has become their signature tune. I gave a phone interview to a bright young pair called Annabel and Richard and then listened as the dulcet tones of Mike Silver yelled "'Ere, will you move over!" once again. They assured me they'd had a "staggering response" from their audience.
But will it make a difference to driving habits?
May 23rd 2007
Book Review:
"The sounds, faces and places of Harvey's childhood are recalled with warmth and insight in his recently-published book, 'Gold Star to the Ozarks'. This beautifully-written musical memoir charts a journey beginning with singing cowboy Roy Rogers through many by-roads such as Gilbert and Sullivan, film musicals and Family Favourites on to rock and roll and folk. The real heart of the book lies not just in music but in its depiction of family life after the war. It explains the importance of education as a means of escape. Harvey and both parents are vividly portrayed in a memoir which is actually about aspiration and fulfilling personal potential."
Deryck Solomon "Colonel Moseley's Brummie Heroes"
April 24th 2007
On BBC Radio 4 at 11.30 am on May 1st there was a programme on Richard Hearne, otherwise known as Mr Pastry.
I wrote a song for him on his retirement which will be featured in the prog, as will a short chat with me about him.
If you enjoyed this please phone the Beeb on 08700 100 222 and say so as it's getting harder and harder for producers to sell progs like this to the radio due to the ever increasing pressure to dumb down.
April 19th 2007
Well, my book is finally here and in my hands at last. I have to say that as an artifact it's really all I could have hoped for. My printer has done a great job and it feels good and it looks good.
As to how it reads, well, I can't say. I'll have to leave that to those who buy it.
Somehow it's not the same as a CD because this is more personal. I tell stories about my own life, not about imaginary lives or the lives of others like in my songs. But at the same time I've tried to make it as relevant to the reader as the songs are to the listener.
Now I have to wait and see what YOU, dear reader, make of my efforts. I hope I make you laugh and I hope I make you remember, sometimes with sadness, sometimes with affection, the times we lived through when we were younger.
Now, off you go to order your signed copy and then you can settle down in your favourite chair for a quiet read. Let me know how it is for you!
March 24th 2007
Sometimes you get a gig when EVERYTHING goes wrong. This one was a classic. However, for the few who managed to sort out tickets with a box office that never answered, who shivered in their overcoats as the heating wasn't on, who were denied a sound system because builders dust in the sound box had ruined the sound desk etc, it was an evening when I left the stage, organised the seating and gave a purely acoustic performance.
I recieved this email from one of the attendees:
"We're pretty sure Harvey won't consider Saturday's concert at the Rugeley Rose to be one of his most successful ones ever: no sound system, no heating, no support organisation, and, due to the booking facilities, not exactly a shedload of punters (though on reflection, it was probably just a shedload).
But, commercial disaster though it must have been, definitely the best Harvey evening we've ever had in terms of true entertainment - just the man and his guitar, heard as nature intended, and a wonderful interchange with the audience (especially with Harvey trebling up as stage director for the support band and as the evening's M.C.).
He gave a terrific response to audience requests, salting them with snippets of background info and musical techniques - even an insight into the tutoring used at the week-long sessions at La Jeusseliniere.
His interchange with the guests was continuous, including a great response to song requests, even when no-one could remember the older lyrics!
All in all, a truly exceptional gig that will be, as confirmed by every attendee we spoke to, remembered and treasured for a very, very long time, especially by the teenage members of the audience."