He was Roger's car mate and definitely not considered the fifth member of the band. That would go to someone like Spike Edney who played keys and backing guitar at many of their live shows in the 80s.
The thing about royalties on the Bo Rhap single is true though!
PTRACER wrote: ↑4 months ago
He was Roger's car mate and definitely not considered the fifth member of the band. That would go to someone like Spike Edney who played keys and backing guitar at many of their live shows in the 80s.
I just took comments and quotes from the Harris article linked above,. He was clearly close to Roger from what was said but the 5th member thing was actually a comment by Brian May, albeit many years later. Brian was particularly complimentary about Harris and mentioned regret at not having looked after Harris as well as they should have when the band grew, became more than a club band and by need involved many specialists, with no need for the John Harris type 'Jack of all trades' person.
He was our first roadie, and very involved with everything at the beginning of our careers - we used to call him the fifth member. We owe him a lot, actually. (Brian May, October 2009 )
I just read some of the other roadie comments at the end of the article and some did not speak so highly of Harris.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always