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A few words from some of Harry's acquaintances...

"Harry is an inspiration to anyone who ever wished to further themselves in anything, in my case music. He never stops pushing, looking, trying to find that progression of chords to compliment his ability to solo above the rhythm section..."
Clive Darrington, Musician and Lyricist, Leeds

"Harry has fitted into Blind Lemon seamlessly. We've overloaded him with new songs to learn and he's coped effortlessly and professionally with whatever we've thrown at him and within very tight deadlines. I'm delighted to have found someone else who shares the passion and dedication for playing and performing live music as much as I do. I look forward to a long and productive future"
 Nick McCarthy, Guitarist with Blind Lemon, Worcester

"He has a remarkable ear"
 David Makinson, Author, Bolton

"It was like you've always been there"
 Mark Pearsall, Singer with Blind Lemon, Kidderminster

"Harry is a very accomplished musician"
Steve Collett, Vocalist with The Midnight Movers, Worcester

Media

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On this page is a collection of media images for Harry, his gigs, his equipment (lower down) and so on.

"I hope you enjoy these images, it constantly reminds me of the march of time, deep?" says Harry

 

 

 

 

Some Early Photos

This is probably the earliest evidence of Harry's musical inclinations, attending a wedding in April 1967 at the tender age of 4... he's the one on the left...

Here's Harry as a teenager playing his beloved Les Paul ...

 

Muleskinner

A clip on YouTube of Muleskinner playing "Messin' With The Kid" at the Wheatsheaf, Cheltenham, England on 29 January 2008.

 

Young Gifted Liars

A recording of the band playing Hallelujah with three-part harmonies

 

Ben Waters

Harry jams with one of the world's best Boogie Woogie pianists, Ben Waters, on 3 April 2010...

 

Blind Lemon

Harry at his first Blind Lemon gig, Keystones, Worcester, Saturday 8 May 2010...

 

Roland Juno-G

Harry's main keyboard...

 

Roland Juno-D

Harry's backup keyboard...

 

Ibanez S470

Harry's most frequently used guitar...

 

The History Of Harry's Hofner

Harry's rarely used guitar...

A look at one of the most famous makes of guitar from the sixties. Of course you may never have heard of Hofner but back in the sixties it was a big name in guitars.

Because of heavy import duties on American goods nobody owned American guitars like Fender and Gibson. So consequently European manufactures had a field day in the UK. Particularly the Germans.

Did you know? George Harrison had a Hofner President; Paul McCartney's famous left handed violin bass was a Hofner.

This is Harry's 1960 Hofner President, an arch top guitar.

One day Harry's father came home from work carrying a great big black hard guitar case. As you would expect, Harry was intrigued. This is what he saw when he opened it up.

Apparently one of his father's customers didn't have the money to pay his £15 bill. So Harry's father took the guitar as payment. Effectively it cost £15. Not a bad bargain.

Up until that point Harry had played a basic acoustic spanish type instrument. But of course this thing blew that completely out of the water. Although it was actually quite large for him at the time.

Harry took guitar lessons from a teacher at his junior school, Mr. Whitwell. You can imagine his face, and the other kids' faces, when Harry took this in to the next lesson. Not too long after this Mr. Whitwell commented that he couldn't teach Harry anything else!

The guitar and case was quite heavy for a young boy to lug from home to school on foot.

Nowadays Harry uses a modern case for day to day use, as the original is a little bit tattered. Fortunately the guitar itself is in pretty good condition.

He's had other guitars over the years - they've come and gone - but this one has always remained. He can never sell it so don't ask!

Recently Harry bought an Ibanez S470 for regular use. The Hofner now stays in it's case most of the time. The Ibanez was bought as a working guitar thus avoiding having to lug the Hofner round to gigs and risk damage. It's too valuable. Harry does take it to gigs on the odd occasion - simply to impress folk!

Inside the body is a plain paper label giving some details of the guitar; "Hofner foreign, number 6542, President model"

In December 1993 Harry wrote to Hofner in Germany asking if they could tell when the guitar was manufactured. They replied in January 1994 confirming that it had been made in 1960. It was older than Harry himself!

Behind the head is a gold coloured sticky label showing where the guitar was originally purchased; "Supplied by Hardy Smith, Mansfield Music Centre, 40 & 40a Stockwell Gate, Mansfield, Notts, Tel. 21103"

The original shop no longer exists. The whole row of buildings was demolished in the '70s to make way for the Four Seasons Shopping Centre, Tesco's and a car park in Mansfield. However, the business still goes on in that it moved to neighbouring Sutton-in-Ashfield. Hardy Smith alas is no longer with us but his son Rob now runs the place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see here, Harry occasionally uses it live.

This is a birthday party in Cheltenham held for a friend of Harry's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few years ago the Hofner developed trouble with one of the pickups and a switch.

Harry stripped the guitar down .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The faulty switch was simply a matter of tightening up the mechanism to ensure the ball bearings inside stayed in place. As for the noisy pick up - it was decided that perhaps the coils needed rewinding and so Harry sought the help of someone who knew what they were doing (he didn't fancy winding very thin wire up to seven thousand times around the magnets).

He decided to surf the Internet for help.

And came across some likely candidates...

A Yahoo discussion group called Hofnerhounds came back with some suggestions.

There was Music Ground in Leeds who specialise in vintage guitars.

And of course there was the shop that originally sold the guitar. Would they honour their guarantee? (joke)!

You guessed it - he stuck with the original shop. It afforded him the opportunity to meet Hardy's son Rob.

Harry left the guitar with them for a week. A phone call half way through the week from Rob gave a bit more information. Rob said "The pick ups aren't Hofner! They're Framus!" Framus was a well known German guitar manufacturer from the same period. As is happens Rob was not entirely correct; the pick ups were actually made by another German company called Schaller.

Either someone had put the pick ups on after the guitar was purchased (so between 1960 and 1971) or Hofner had farmed out the job to Schaller and it was sold as a sort of hybrid. Perhaps we'll never know!

The shop actually farmed out the pick up job to a fellow called Max Frecknall. Max, who lives near Mansfield, is a Luthier. That's a posh word for guitar maker. He makes his own guitars, rewires pick-ups and undertakes all sorts of repairs to guitars.

The pickups, being quite old, were quite fiddly to work with and it took Max some time and a number of attempts to make the repair to the errant pick up. Eventually he managed to do it and only charged £85! Good work and at a reasonable price.

So, having fixed the controls and sorted out the faulty pick up all that was left was to rebuild the guitar, give it a quick polish and enjoy!

 

ESP LTD B-50

Harry's bass guitar...

 

Harry's Equipment

 

 

 

 

 


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