ABOUT ALAN HARRIS

Al Harris first picked up a guitar in the late 1960s and despite friends' pleas, he absolutely refused to put it down.

He began performing at Worksop Folk Club, a centre of tolerance, and formed the group Widdershins, featuring Clive Heenan, 6 foot 8 inches tall and with a voice to match. This was followed by Six Hands in Tempo, with Steve Bailey and Dave Proctor, playing songs from the 30s and 40s, together with such immortal creations as the Western Medley and Songs from Science Fiction TV Programmes.

Amazingly, with a repertoire like that, Six Hands played at Folk Clubs and Festivals all over the UK and in Europe and Canada, appeared on radio and TV, and made three albums. They also played at some spectacularly unsuitable venues, the true stories of which will be told in the fullness of time…

Photograph by David Walston - see www.pr-photography.org

At the same time, Al was learning bass, having joined the Ken Eatch Jazzmen in Nottingham when their bass player moved on, selling his bass to Al as he left. Al also took up double bass and recorded albums with Tufty Swift, the Excelsior Band (with John Tams), Judy Dunlop and Umps and Dumps, with John Kirkpatrick, Sue Harris, Tufty Swift and Derek Pearce.

He played with Umps and Dumps for some years and then occasionally with the John Kirkpatrick Bumper Ceilidh Band (or whatever it was called on the night!) One of the bands Al played in more recently, Five Go Off In A Caravan, has changed seamlessly from a comedy group doing Glenn Miller medleys on kazoo to an ear-bruising folk-rock band gigging regularly in the Midlands and now known as simply Five Go Off.

Since then, Al has depped with anyone who has 'phoned needing a bass player, including This Way Up and All Blacked Up and he occasionally plays in Cwm Dancing with Paul Hutchinson and Flos Headford.

Now he has settled very happily into the life of Jigabit, and lives with Fiona and a zillion cats.

Photography by Colin Brooks

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