When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

Bold textInfobox Single
Name = When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease


Caption =
Artist = Roy Harper
from Album =
A-side =
B-side = "Hallucinating Light" (Live)
Released = 1975
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1975
Genre = Ballad
Length = 7:13
Label = Harvest Records
Writer =
Producer = Peter Jenner
Certification =
Chart position = (pending)
Last single = "Home (Live)" / "Home (Studio)"
(1974)
This single = "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease" / "Hallucinating Light (Live)"
(1975)
Next single = "Grown-Ups Are Just Silly Children" / "Referendum (Legend)"
(1975)
Misc =

"When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease" is a track on the Roy Harper album "HQ". Released as a single twice, in 1975 and 1978, it is possibly Roy's best-known song. The song captures the atmosphere of a village cricket match and is an elegy to a previous age.

On his website, Harper talks of the track as being one of the highlights of the "HQ" album;

Track listing

#"When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease" - (7:13)
#"Hallucinating Light" (Live)

Trivia

British DJ John Peel made an agreement with his producer, John Walters, that in the event of Peel's death, Walters would play the song on air. Walters died in 2001, three years before Peel, so the request could not be fulfilled. Instead, the song was played by fellow DJ Andy Kershaw at the end of his tribute to Peel on BBC Radio 3 (broadcast on 31 October 2004).

Peel's stand-in on his Radio 1 slot, Rob da Bank, also played the song, at the start of the final show before Peel's funeral.

References

External links

* [http://www.royharper.com/ Roy Harper Official Site]
* [http://www.iki.fi/musicnaut/royharper.html Excellent Roy Harper resource]
* [http://www.iki.fi/musicnaut/royharper/guitar/when_an_old_cricketer.html Song Lyrics and Chords]