#queen crew

[astroowl1103]

From: Billboard - December 9, 1978

[dork-in-charge]

Who is crystal taylor?? I’m new to the fandom!

Hello! Chris ‘Crystal’ Taylor  was Roger’s drum technician and later personal manager. I think we can say he was good friends with the band, especially with Roger as they seemed to get into ridiculous situations together a lot. Also the nickname Crystal was probably was given him, because he was really close friends with the band or at least some of them. ( You can see, that those crew members and roadies who were close to the boys got a nickname [usually a female name] e.g.: Joe ‘Liza’ Fanelli,  Peter 'Phoebe’ Freestone etc.)

[justlike-awoman]

"To be honest, in the nicest possible way, they were always too big for their boots. They always had very grandiose schemes in terms of the lighting rigs and the sound equipment they wanted, which were generally too big for the venues we had to try and put them in."

Ex- Queen roadie, head of road crew & FOH sound engineer John Harris in Queen: Magic Years - A Visual Anthology, vol. 2 (1987) (X)

[justlike-awoman]

Photo: Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images

Freddie Mercury playing billiards at Ridge Farm with John Harris watching in the background, 1975.

[queen-hospitality]

why does the queen tour crew everyones pics just looks like they just took it very quickly while john reid looks like a teacher in a yearbook

Ha! Yeah he really kind of does 😆

→pictures in this post←

He seems to be a 'well turned out' man in terms of clothing, I would say -- and I guess his business-wear matches his more business-y role? it's certainly quite the contrast with the on-stage and backstage crew 😆 in fact, Reid and the rest of them are all styling themselves like stereotypes of their own roles would loool

[quirkysubject]

Queen's Roadies: Johnathan (John) Harris

(Image credit: x; Brian May, Q3D)

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 x)

~~~

John Harris is introduced to Brian and Roger in the summer of 1969. He becomes Smile's "road manager, electronics wizard, sound engineer and ‘fifth member’." (ITTRL)

When Smile becomes Queen, John stays with them:

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. He was devoted to sound, and to cars - he used to drive a white Triumph TR 3 (I think) and was the inspiration for Roger's song "I'm in love with my car" (I think!) He drove our Transit van, when we first began doing gigs as Queen, and also set up all the gear, and also mixed the sound. Of course the gear in those days was rudimentary, but John Harris mixed the first few gigs on a tiny mixing board into a hundred watts or so of PA. John stayed with us for many years thereafter, and all the first Queen tours were mixed out front by JH. (Brian May, October 2009 x)

While at the soundboard, he records many of the earliest Queen gigs (though they're mostly locked away at the Queen vaults). (Jim Jenkins, QiC)

Since they regard him as an integral part of the band, when Queen sign with Trident they demand that Johnathan be paid a weekly wage as well (John Anthony, ITTRL).

In turn, he goes all in for Queen: In December '72, Queen play a gig at Pheasantry Club. It's an important gig, since a lot of executives from record companies have been invited, but the PA system isn't ready. John Deacon and John Harris spend the hour before the show frantically wiring everything up - successfully! (QAIB)

When Queen rehearse for their first tour with Mott the Hoople at a repurposed cinema, he does his bit to contribute to the aesthetic:

We may have all been shivering with cold that November in Manticore, but Queen rehearsed wearing their full stage costumes of lightweight silk, lace and flowing satin. Even John Harris, Queen’s original sound engineer, wore a black velvet suit and fancy gloves to do the mixing! (Peter "Ratty" Hince, QU)

He wasn't just a Roadie, but also a friend and sometime-flatmate:

John was studying at Imperial. I think he was studying maths and flunked out after a year or two. We all used to go to a disco in the common room of Queen Elizabeth College up by Kensington library. [...] [He] used to knock up leather wrist bands by the dozen back at Barnes, and they became quite a feature; the wrist accoutrements. He did it as something to do to fill in time. He’d always gone in for belts and leather fringes. (Denise Craddock, QiC)

in February 1970, John Harris, Denise Craddock and Roger Taylor holiday at "[Roger's] Auntie's chalet at Porthtowan" (Denise Craddock, QiC).

a bit later in 1970, he shares a flat with Roger, Jo, Freddie and some others for a while (Pat McConnell, QiC)

when Freddie auditions for Sour Milk Sea, he brings along Roger and John Harris as 'roadies' and makes a stunning impression on the band (QCW): "Once he’d disembarked from the van, Fred strode purposefully into the youth club, Harris a few steps behind, carrying his master’s microphone in a wooden box." (ITTRL)

According to Roger, he was the one who 'found' Ridge Farm for the band x

I'm In Love With My Car is dedicated to JH in the A Night At The Opera liner notes: Dedicated to Johnson Harris, boy racer to the end x

He is so important to the band that he got a financial deal that involved him receiving a percentage of the band’s live shows. (ITTRL)

However, John falls seriously ill in late 1977, and Trip Khalaf takes his place at the sound board (ITTRL). He returns for the European Jazz and Crazy tours in 1979, but ill-health forces him to quit again at the end of the year. He is offered the chance to run Mountain Studios, but declined. (ITTRL, x)

John drove himself very hard, and did not take much care of himself, especially with regard to eating. He succumbed to a mysterious illness, which all but immobilised him, and put an end to his touring days. However he fought back over a long period and I believe he is now doing well. I wish we were still in touch. Perhaps we will be. (BM, October 2009 x)

Quotes

John Harris was an enigma. He really was a perfectionist, and an extremist I suppose. He used to mix the sound for us in the beginning as well. He would drive the Transit van, look after and set up all the on-stage-gear, and then mix the live sound in the show. He was almost a fifth member of the band, when the band was young. He was incredibly dedicated. (Brian May, Q3D)

'He was a lovely guy who drove this long-wheeled transit van and really looked after us,’ says Mitchell. ‘He was always there in rehearsals and he was great at stepping in and saying, “Oh, for fuck’s sake! All this over four bars. Get it together!”' (early Queen bassist Barry Mitchell, ITTRL)

Harris loved Queen. He absolutely loved them. And he knew they were going to be big. He would take a lead from the mixing desk to make the recordings. (Jim Jenkins, QiC)

In the end we parted company, and I guess I still have some regrets. I feel like we didn't take care of him as well as we could have done. But, of course the manner in which we toured changed radically so we no longer had a driver like that, and we no longer had a sound man who would set up the gear. It all became much bigger so, in a sense, we employed specialists to do each job. It was sad to lose John, but he did a great job in the beginning, without a doubt, and deserves praise, respect and... thanks! (BM, Q3D)

~~~

Update: Additional story by Crystal under the cut!

Thanks to @plainxte for the quotes and pics from Queen in 3D!

Crystal's memories aren't quite as fond:

At the time [1976] John Harris was crew boss, and if I was to say he was a moody bastard that would be a compliment to him, and we all thought he was a bit of a nutter and he was renamed the Prophet because in the 'Prophet song’ there’s that line that says “Listen to the mad man.” John and I were never the best of mates cause he didn’t like the fact I stayed up all night having a good time, and he was also a mean bastard.

Between America and Japan we had a week off, so all the crew went to Hawaii for a rest and the Prophet would sit by the pool from sunrise to sunset squeezing lemon juice on his hair, he was blonde and I had dark hair. When I inquired why he was doing this he said, “Because it’ll make my hair blonder so when we get to Japan all the girls will fancy me.” I came back with “Just before we go to Sweden I’m gonna sit in the rain with a bowl of prunes on my head to make my hair darker then all the girls will fancy me.” I thought that was funny, he didn’t and he never spoke to me again for our entire vacation. When we got to Japan a girl said to him “Are you Chris Taylor, Roger Taylors brother?” He barked “No I’m not, and I’m a natural blonde.” What a prat.

~~~

Sources:

ITTRL: Mark Blake, Is This The Real Life

Q3D: Brian May, Queen in 3D

QAIB: Gunn & Jenkins, Queen As It Began

QCW: Georg Purvis, Queen Complete Works

QiC: Rupert White, Queen in Cornwall

QU: Peter Hince, Queen Unseen