Fiona Hibbert

Fiona Hibbert is a classicly trained harpist who played on the re-recorded single version of Roxy Music's Angel Eyes. She was never credited on any Roxy product but her brother contacted VivaRoxyMusic.com to share the following information.

Here's a little bit of info. for you.

The session harpist on the Roxy Music single 'Angel Eyes' was my sister, Fiona Hibbert. I was present at the recording session at the Island Studios off Portobello Road when she recorded her part. I was able to attend under the guise of being her harp transportation assistant as the studios at Island are downstairs in the basement. Fiona is a classically trained musician and was booked to attend a recording session at 8.00pm which is outside of the normal studio session hours. They told her that it was a 'pop' booking rather than a classical music booking and, as I was staying at her flat at the time, she asked me if I wanted to come along. Hence my role as the harp transportation assistant to help get the harp from her car and down the stairs to the studio. When we went into the recording studio I instantly recognised Bryan Ferry and Phil Manzanera whereas my sister had absolutely no idea who they were. Whilst Fiona set up the harp in the studio, I was plonked down on a sofa in front of the glass screen between the studio and the sound desk, given a cup of coffee and kept well out of harms way. The harp track was all 'off the cuff' utilising the tracks already laid down (no bass or sax tracks as they had not yet been recorded) and recorded over approximately 2 hours with direction from the producer, Bryan and Phil. After the session was over I went into the recording part of the studio to help Fiona pack up the harp and Bryan came in for a quick chat - he was absolutely charming and it was a great pleasure to have met him. John Martin was recording in the adjacent studio and popped in to listen for 5 minutes, liked what he heard and then left. Also worth noting that Fiona, though asked, was unavailable, due to prior work commitments, to play the harp in the video recording to go with the single and 2 beautiful young models were used instead - not wishing to bitch but watch the video of Angel Eyes and listen carefully to the music because you will see that the models play the glissando in the middle of the song totally and utterly the wrong way around.

(See 2.19 mins  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mu4mSy4_Z8 Official Roxy Music Video: Angel Eyes).

The high notes on a harp are at the top (short strings) and the low notes are at the bottom (long strings) of the harp - listen and watch!