History

The Underground Band circa 1989

The Harper Brothers came together in 1989 when Torchy owned a live music bar in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire called ‘Going Underground’. From 1989 – 1992 they were the resident band in that bar, known then as ‘The Underground Band’, but, when the bar unfortunately accidently burned down, Torchy took the settlement from his recently increased insurance premium and moved swiftly abroad.

For the next six years, the band played occasional gigs whilst Torchy sorted out a few legal problems whilst living in Spain. But that all changed in 1998, a ‘once again skint’ Torchy got caught smuggling his flea ridden dog, Sam into England and the band got together for the ‘Dogathon Tour ‘98’ to raise money for the quarantine fees. This proved to be such a laugh that the band gigged regularly in England until 2002 when once again the authorities began to show more than a passing interest and Torchy and Rick were forced to put rest of the band into cryogenic suspension and scarper to France ASAP.

Bjorn Stupid, Frida Prisoners, Agnetha Feltchcock & Benny Von Crossroads

After hiding out in France for a year masquerading as ‘Abba’, Rick and Torchy found new and better musicians and so gave up on the frozen three, who we believe are due to wake up in 2022 – good luck to them and sorry!!

From 2003 the band played gigs in France, Spain, Denmark, Portugal and Germany etc. In 2007 they managed to persuade a stupid French bank manager to lend them the money for a bar.

‘The Station Bar’ has proved to be a surprising success and is still going strong, much to the surprise of the band who were once again quite prepared to relocate.

So there it is, come to France and come and see The Harper Brothers, It’ll be fun to see you there.