Formerly Fat Harry

Formerly Fat Harry was formed in London in 1969 by ex-Country Joe and the Fish bassist Bruce Barthol and two friends from the Berkeley, California folk music scene, Gary Petersen and Phil Greenberg. Fat Harry was soon signed up by Blackhill Enterprises, the "underground" management company who handled the early Pink Floyd, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Kevin Ayers and Roy Harper. Saxophonist George Khan (formerly of Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments) and Laurie Allen (drums) completed the featured line-up on their eponymous album for Harvest Records.

Their style was described as a "highly idiosyncratic brand of Americana", combining country-rock and good-time music with jazz time signatures. Formerly Fat Harry played at two of the now legendary free concerts in Hyde Park, the 1970 Bath Festival, the anarchic Phun City festival and many of the clubs of the era such as The Marquee in London. However the band had no commercial success and they split up in 1972 when the core members returned to the USA.

Links to Peel
Among Peel's favourite bands of the hippy era was Country Joe and the Fish, so a band featuring Bruce Barthol, bassist on their fist three LPs, would attract his attention. Formerly Fat Harry turned out to be a one-session wonder, though, with their session tracks featured on the show of 5 September 1970

Sessions

 * Number of sessions? Any commercial release of sessions?

1. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY 2. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY etc
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title

(Please correct mistakes and add any missing info)

Other Shows Played
(Please add any missing info)
 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label