JIMMY PAGE & ROY HARPER - CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL JULY 28TH 1984

"We are creatures of darkness.....bodies in Lime"

The summer of '84 was a good time. Lots of positive signs in the air, the most important to me was Jimmy was playing again. We'd had the (wonderful to me) Death Wish II soundtrack and a few jams and toe in the water moments, so I was really excited to hear he was working seriously again collaborating with old friend Roy Harper. 

After a couple of low key appearances at the May Tree Fair in Kenley near Norwich on May 6th and St Ives Hotel, Lytham St Annes on the 21st (it was Lytham where some of the recording for the forthcoming 'Jugula' elpee was done), Cambridge was altogether a different affair. Announced in advance, there was a healthy crowd piling in from the friday, even if by saturday some of the shouts were unrealistically for Zeppelin numbers.

I remember getting there on the friday, with Lol Dyer and a workmate Tony and settling down to a hazy summer evening at a relaxed Folk Festival sponsored by Guinness. Perfect. It was great to meet up with old friends and collectors alike, and we caught a friday evening set from Roy in one of the (Semi) acoustic tents as a gentle build up to the main event. By Saturday afternoon the crowd was swelling and anticipation was high. Jimmy was wandering around backstage, dressed in white and looking good.

The full electric set was great as I recall. The hour plus set began with the Harper/Gilmour Short and Sweet, and ended with The Game. In between we were treated to 3 tracks from the yet to be completed Whatever Happened To Jugula? Page/Harper elpee. Jimmy was in good form, playing the botswana brown Telecaster and wringing some lovely dissonant country edged licks from the b-bender device fitted to the guitar.

Not only was he in fine form but he seemed genuinely touched by the reception he got. It was a real pleasure to see him playing and playing well, enjoying the interraction of a live band and taking the odd risk. But the best was yet to come. That evening Roy played in the acoustic tent, and after an extended version of One Of These Days In England, Jimmy joined him for a quite astonishing version of Hangman and Same Old Rock. Sitting about 5 feet away as he tore the desperate tale of impending death to shreds was something I'll never forget. 

After the set a few celebratory pints of Guinness - in the tankards commemorating the event no less - and the day and evening were perfect. We headed home the next morning, deciding sadly not to go to Battersea where we later heard Jimmy had again played with Roy. Oh well, Cambridge was enough at the time. 

There are a couple of bootleg CD's of this, and they're well worth seeking out. Anglian TV filmed the event but despite hounding them for a few years was never able to secure even the details of what they had in the vaults....