![]() There were lots of famous people, it was a nice place to be.” Harper now lives in County Cork, Ireland. She told officers: “I couldn’t wait to go round there. The alleged victim told police Harper’s home had been an exciting place to be when she was younger because there were lots of famous people there. The Guardian gave it four stars and called it “an absolute corker”.ĭuring his trial, the prosecutor Anthony Potter told the jurors that several offences against the younger victim were alleged to have occurred at the singer’s then home near Marden, Herefordshire. In September that year his first album in 13 years, Man and Myth, was released to critical acclaim. He was first contacted by the police in connection with the allegations in February 2013. He has never been a household name but he continues to influence young musicians and has always been hugely admired by his peers, not least Led Zeppelin, who honoured him on their Led Zeppelin III album by including the track Hats Off to (Roy) Harper. Harper has been a professional musician since 1964, releasing 22 studio albums and 10 live albums across his 50-year career. We will be meeting with the complainant and her family in order to fully explain our decision.” Thank you, all of you.”Ī Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “We keep all our cases under constant review and in this case it was decided that based on the strength of the evidence there is no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction. I’d like to thank everyone who’s continued to support me. “I’m now going to restart my working life where I left off nearly three years ago. Despite coming out of this without a blemish on my name, I cannot recoup my costs and that’s left me incredibly angry. “I realise these are difficult issues at this time in this society, and I thank my lawyers for standing by me and working so hard to show the truth. I lost my livelihood and I spent my savings. “The psychological and personal cost to my wife and myself has been enormous and the financial cost hugely unfair. This case should never have gone as far as this, or taken so long to resolve. He said: “I have now been acquitted on all the charges that were brought. Outside the court, Harper said he had always maintained his innocence. Finally, prosecutors at Worcester crown court offered no evidence on these charges on Monday. ![]() But it failed to reach verdicts on other charges relating to the 11-year-old and he faced a retrial. The following decade found him in exile in Ireland, where he still lives, quietly releasing albums of extraordinary power, chiefly Death Or Glory? and The Dream Society.Earlier this year a jury cleared Harper, 74, of claims that he sexually abused an 11-year-old girl in the 1970s and indecently assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 1980. Though he is relatively unknown in America, Harper is a legend in his native England, a sort of Bob Dylan meets John Lennon, by way of George Orwell. He nonetheless recorded some fine records, among them 1985’s collaboration with Jimmy Page, Whatever Happened to Jugula. For the past five decades, Roy Harper has possessed, and been possessed by, one of the most distinctive visions in contemporary music. In the 80s Harper found himself stigmatised as part of the old guard that punk and new wave had supposedly swept away. His spate of scintillating albums in the 70s – from Flat Baroque And Berserk through to Bullinamingvase – have been hugely influential. He was never a folkie in the traditional sense, though, and laced his songs with a freewheeling sense of experimentation. He survived a tortuous early life of homelessness, petty crime and prison, fetching up on the Soho folk scene of the early 60s. Led Zeppelin included the tribute Hats Off To (Roy) Harper on their third album, while Pink Floyd brought him in to sing Have A Cigar on 1975’s Wish You Were Here. The journey from “impressionable little beatnik” of the 60s to the folk-rock titan of today has produced 21 studio albums and plus live recordings, peppered with appearances from the likes of David Gilmour, Kate Bush, John Paul Jones and, most prominently, his great friend Jimmy Page. Harper has always had friends in high places.
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