Brian Harris profile picture

Brian Harris

Immensely popular guy

About Me


FIRSTLY, I'D LIKE TO SAY HOW MUCH IT PAINS ME THAT RUPERT MORLOCH* OWNS THIS SITE. MY LOATHING FOR HIM, HIS POLITICS, HIS BUSINESS EMPIRE AND HIS 'NEWS' CORPORATION KNOWS NO BOUNDS. HE IS THE SPAWN OF SATAN, SENT TO RUIN ALL THAT'S GOOD. My name's Brian, I'm 40 years old and I live with my wife, Moira, and our 2 dogs in the town of Dumfries. I'll be recording an album (at home, using GarageBand) with my friends later this year. It's taking longer than planned due to geographical differences. We'll probably go under the name of Icy Finger (the name of a Kirk Adams song), although does that mean I'll have to do another page, one for me and one for the album? I'm an ex-member of The Desirables, The Unfaithful Servants and The Unconscious Collective. I currently do a monthly night ('Brian Harris and Friends') at The Coach & Horses as well as playing covers in The Go-Figures and The Homewreckers.
If you live in Dumfries or Edinburgh then pop along to one of our gigs and introduce yourself. We usually play in pubs that don't charge you to get in. Usually.
* This is an amalgam of the names, Murdoch, Morlock and Moloch. Will the defenders of the Dirty Digger please stop sending me messages telling me "if ur gona slag sum1 u shud get his name rite lol!!!" etc.? I also do a show on radioASBO called 'Life of Brian'. Click on the banner below...A snippet of The Homewreckers (one of the covers bands that I'm in) with Paula McNally playing The Band's 'It Makes No Difference' at The Coach & Horses, Dumfries 12th Oct '07. Dave on bass and lead vocal, Iain on lead guitar, Paula and I on harmonies.

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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 4/26/2006
Band Website: Someone want to set one up for us? " Someone want to set one up for us?
Band Members: This is who's playing on the stuff that's on the page at the moment: PERFECT SUNLIT SONG - FOR GRANT MCLENNAN (HARRIS/GLEN) N.B. Contains trace elements of The Go-Betweens songs, Cattle & Cane and Bye Bye Pride
Brian - vocals, acoustic guitar and shaker/ Iain Barbour - electric guitar and acoustic solo(s)/ Geoff Glen (Kwaff) - vocals/ Dave McKee - bass, organ, drum programming

DARKNESS (GALE TRIPPSMITH)*
GaleTrippsmith - vocal, guitar/ Brian - vocal/ Kirk Adams - the rest

JUST LIKE IJAHMAN SAID (HARRIS)
Brian - vocals, guitar/ Al Richardson - harmonica/ Joe Wilkes - keys, effects

LETTER FROM MR CLUSKEY (THE UNCONSCIOUS COLLECTIVE)
I can't remember who did what, but the band at this point were Gary Brady, Toby Carter, Guy Whitby and myself. I think that's my dog, Louise, whining at the beginning.

RECORDED AT ESCAPADE MUSIC STUDIO, GREENWICH, LONDON
EXCEPT 'PERFECT SUNLIT SONG' RECORDED IN DAVE & PAULA'S FLAT IN LONDON AND BRIAN & MOIRA'S FLAT IN DUMFRIES & 'DARKNESS' RECORDED AT PISSANT STUDIO, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

* Taken from the album 'Chasing The Rabbit' by Gale Trippsmith
Influences: Pretty much anything from New Orleans from the first three quarters of the last century works for me. Same goes for Jamaica in the 1960s and '70s. I also really like Michael Marra, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Mose Allison, The Go-Betweens, The Band (especially Richard Manuel), Robert Wyatt, The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Stephen Yerkey, Curtis Mayfield, The Staple Singers, The Velvet Underground, Alex Chilton (yes, even the solo stuff), Judee Sill, Roscoe Holcomb, Chic, Sly and the Family Stone, Jane Siberry, Ray Charles, Schubert's String Quintet in C Major, Ronnie Lane, Small Faces, Miles Davis, Gil Scott Heron, David Ward Maclean, Cathal Coughlan, Randy Newman, John Cale, John Renbourn, Nic Jones, Tim Buckley, The Beach Boys, Skip James, Al Green, Thelonious Monk, Roy Harper, Ann Peebles, Nat 'King' Cole, Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Hank Williams, Nick Lowe, Charles Mingus, Quannum Projects, Goffin and King, Neil Young, Bach's Cello Concertos, Bill Fay, Roddy Frame, The Flamin' Groovies, Slim Harpo, Merle Haggard, Snooks Eaglin, Vic Chesnutt, Siobhan Parr (a profound effect considering I've only heard half a dozen songs - it's the phrasing, I think), Doris Duke, The Kinks, Tom Waits, Squeeze, Bettye Lavette, Joe Wilkes, Lowell George, The Chills, Bill Evans, The Lovin' Spoonful, Fred Neil, Al Bowlly, Billie Holiday, Doc and Merle, Sarah Vaughn, Orange Juice, The Clash, Robyn Hitchcock, The Beatles, The Bottle Rockets, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Green Peppers, Lal and Mike Waterson (a new discovery for me), Richard (and Linda) Thompson, A Tribe Called Quest, Loomer, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Reed, Mandrill, Cymande, Steely Dan, Dick Gaughan, Van Morrison, Dusty Springfield, The Beach Boys, Shelby Lynne, Buzzcocks, Felt, AC/DC (with Bon Scott), Terry Allen, Laura Nyro, The Smiths, Tim Hardin, The Desperate Bicycles, Uncle Tupelo, Joni Mitchell, Motown, Stax, Philly, early hip hop, '80s indiepop (I especially miss The Bodines) and shedloads of other folk. Oh, and The 'West Side Story' film soundtrack.
The people who've really influenced me musically are the ones I've played or sung with over the years. The ones who taught me without knowing they were doing so - Gus Glen, Toby Carter, Geoff Glen, Gary Brady, Gale Trippsmith, Steven Pearson, Martin Brown, Guy Whitby, Iain Barbour, Dave McKee, Paula McNally, Karen Craig, Matt Percival, Al Richardson, Kirsten Hammond, George Stott, Dave McManus, Bill Clift, Mike Moran, Melanie Woods, Donald MacInnes, Bob Gregory, Nick Offer and Stella Clifford, to name a few.
As far as my outlook on life goes... that was principally formed by Charles M. Schulz. Another white American male, Kurt Vonnegut, had a profound effect in later, teenage years. Most recently, it's been my wife Moira who's been the biggest influence in the way I see things.
Special mention goes to my talented songwriting friend, the prolific bastard Roy Henderson, who has recently given me the confidence to write again. Thank you Roy.
And last, but by no means least, this guy's a constant source of inspiration as well as being the best pal you could ask for. His name is Kirk Adams..."Undertone" by Kirk Adams

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Sounds Like: A drunk with a cold.
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My Blog

A Tale of Three Titties

I added a few photos on Tuesday night. Yesterday I received this -"We had to remove an image (or images) from your account because they violated our Terms of Use. Our site is for people as young as 14...
Posted by Brian Harris on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:03:00 PST

Twelve exciting examples of recorded song

After reading the article in this month's Word magazine about today's records all sounding the same I thought about some of the tracks that always float my boat when they come on. Here's a random doze...
Posted by Brian Harris on Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:46:00 PST

Someone elses blog

This blog comes from my pal, Barney Mains 2. If you want to read my verbose response, then look at his page. I'd like to know everyone's thoughts..."We are all well aware of the extremely thin ice we ...
Posted by Brian Harris on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:25:00 PST

Acts of Faith

I've been lucky enough to receive some great albums through the post because of this site. From Andrea Perry, Lisa Mychols, Roy Henderson and many others. Some I've paid for and some were gifts. Over ...
Posted by Brian Harris on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:22:00 PST

Bright Phoebus

I gave up smoking at the weekend and immediately got ill. I've spent the last few days covered in snot and sweat, feeling miserable as fuck. I've not had the energy or inclination to be able to use th...
Posted by Brian Harris on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:46:00 PST

Lyrics

There'll be a new album's worth of songs recorded by the end of April, I reckon. For those who've been asking about it, I'm sorry there's no tunes up yet. In lieu of actual music, here's a small selec...
Posted by Brian Harris on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:08:00 PST

’A song is singin’ in her eyes...’

About 19 years ago, when I lived in London, I wrote a song called 'Dave Maclean' as a tribute to this great singer and player I knew in Stirling in my late teens. He was the first 'proper' musician I ...
Posted by Brian Harris on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:32:00 PST

I’m finding myself disengaging...

... from this MySpace thing recently.My new job consists of sitting in front of a computer all day, so it's the last thing I want to do when I get home. I'll keep checking in now and again but if you ...
Posted by Brian Harris on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:48:00 PST

Naomi Cut My Hair

I was at a songwriters' workshop today. Scots music stalwarts Carol Laula, Jim McCulloch and Daniel Wylie were running it. They all gave me a massive boost of encouragement. So much so that I thought ...
Posted by Brian Harris on Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:51:00 PST

Karen Craig

I met Karen Craig a few weeks ago when she was at one of our gigs.We got to chatting and she expressed an interest in doing some singing.I finally got round to meeting up with her tonight and, boy, ca...
Posted by Brian Harris on Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:07:00 PST