Once Again by Barclay James Harvest

Oh, what it is to be young

I remember seeing Barclay James Harvest at Reading Town Hall in the early seventies. It was shortly after the release off this, their second album: Once Again. I was still a school kid and I went with my sister and a couple of mates.

What I remember distinctly from the evening was the opening, keening chords from the Mellotron for the start of She Said, also the opening track on the album. The sound reverberated through the whole of my being, swelling to its full dynamic height as it coursed through me. It was a sound that seemed to reach down to my soul and brought tears to my eyes. I had never been affected so deeply by music before, with just this one powerful chord, rising from the depths of unease to a shattering crescendo. It affected me both physically and emotionally, and it is something I have never forgotten. Every since this moment, music has been all about trying to return to that feeling of sublime and intense bliss, where mind and body become one. Although I forever try to return to the heights of this experience, it is seldom reached.

What was most baffling was that the band left without doing any of the usual encores. They explained that the early curtailment was due to an issue over poor sound quality that was frustrating their performance. Considering what my untutored…