Colin Harper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colin Harper (born 1968) is an Irish music journalist. He was born in Belfast and graduated in 1989 from Queen's University, Belfast. As a writer for the Belfast "Irish News" he wrote unsiged features on local bands and famous bands on tour. During the mid-nineties he was able to have pieces published by Q and Mojo. The Irish times also printed theatre reviews by him, and Belfast music events. The record labels Windsong, Demon, Castle, Hux and Snapper have used him as a writer of liner notes for compilations of folk, acoustic and prog-rock artists. His book "Dazzling Stranger" (a biography of Bert Jansch) was launched at the Edinburgh Book Festival. He also masterminded the tribute album "People On The Highway:A Bert Jansch Encomium" (2000). He interviewed Jansch for "Dreamweaver" on Channel 4 in 2000.

In 2003 he took a post as librarian at Belfast music college, but continues to work as a journalist, mainly for Mojo and "Record Collector". In support of the charity World Wide Fund for Nature he organised two benefit compilation albums - "The Wildlife Album" (2004) and "Live In Hope: The Wildlife Album 2" (2005). His other annotated CD compilations include the collected works of Atomic Rooster and Andy Roberts.