What can I say…legend. Rollo invited him down to the studio after he sung Happy Birthday to Rollo’s party in the restaurant he was working at. When I heard Harry sing for the first time, I instantly thought, this guy’s voice would work great with the Hempolics sound. We clicked and naturally he came round to write some songs.
First we wrote Same Song. I love this simple 60s song with it’s odd arrangement. We also wrote It Was Not Me. Then he sung a version of The Place is Here the Time is Now, a song I had written years before with a good friend of mine Pauline Taylor.
This was before he got signed; before he went off with his band Kubb and their big daddy record deal with Mercury. It wasn’t until he was writing his second album that he came round again to write some more with the Hempolics. I wanted to do a funky, sexy-pop song with Harry, so that’s what we did with Moving That Body. The latest Harry/Hempolics singing adventure was written by me and One Eskimo, Early in the Morning. I knew Harry could smash this one and he did, live and on the record.
Late 2009 I booked a rehearsal studio and invited the two brothers Harry and Dandelion to sing lead with the Hempolics band. At our fourth gig early in 2010 we played at the Cobden Club. I had invited Maxi and Blissy from Faithless, having in mind this gig as a possible showcase for their upcoming tour support. After out set Maxi said that it was the best gig he had seen in a long time. We got the support slot hands down, but having seen Harry perform with us, they wanted him for their whole one-year world tour as a backing singer, giving him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Meanwhile we can only have him on-and-off when he’s back in between tour dates.