Feature by ANDREW PIXLEY
The cover for Silva Screen’s forthcoming release of Don Harper’s score for The Invasion (1968) includes the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Brigadier Lethbridge- Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) and Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney). Art by Clayton Hickman.
The Australian who must surely rank among the best cabaret-violinists in the game today.” This was how Tommy Kane described the Australian jazz swing violinist Don Harper, reviewing a visit to Hackney’s New Lansdowne working men’s club in The Stage on 12 March 1970. And there was more. “His look at Waltzing Matilda as it may be played in various countries and circumstances was a pure classic; his treatment of more serious works on his 1703 David Tecchler violin, superb. A remarkable musician indeed.” Kane also posed a question: “How many know that he composed the theme music for TV’s Champion House, Sexton Blake, World of Sport [and] Dr Who and the Invasion of the Cybermen (to name only a few!).”