Harvey Matusow

Harvey Matusow (aka Harvey Job Matusow) (October 3, 1926 – January 17, 2002) was an American Communist who became an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and subsequently a paid witness for a variety of anti-subversion bodies, including the House Un-American Activities Committee, before eventually recanting the bulk of his testimony. These activities led to his own perjury conviction and a prison sentence. His McCarthy era activities overshadowed his later work as an artist, actor and producer. (read more on wikipedia)
== Links to Peel ==
Harvey Matusow came to London from the USA in 1966 and became active in the city's underground scene, writing for underground papers such as Friends and involving himself in political campaigns, avant-garde music and art events, He also did a session for Peel's Night Ride show in December 1968, where he headed Harvey Matusow's Jews Harp Band. It included amongst others, New Zealand-born composer and bells player, Anna Lockwood (whom he married - he was said to have married twelve times) and 78 year old Claude Lintott, who played the altar Jews Harp. In the session, Harvey explained the history of the Jews Harp and the story behind the "18 Nuns" track. The session was split between Peel and Jon Curle's parts of Night Ride, when on the first hour, Peel was the host and the second hosted by Jon Curle.
On another Night Ride show, broadcast on 15 January 1969, Harvey was a studio guest and was interviewed by Peel. Harvey Matusow's Jews Harp Band member Anna Lockwood had a reputation in her own right as an avant-garde composer and also recorded a session for Peel's Night Ride, in February 1969. Matusow was mentioned by studio guest Guy Thornton on the "son of Night Ride" show of 23 July 1969, as one of the underground and avant-garde artists who would appear at the forthcoming "Pavilions In The Park" festival - not in a fashionable part of London but on a housing estate in south Croydon. The Jews Harp Band recorded an album (released in 1969) for Head Records, a label whose name indicated its hippy orientation, but Matusow and Lockwood were closer to the classical avant-garde and performance art worlds - in one 1968 concert they burned a grand piano onstage - than to the rock scene, so it remained a one-off project.
Harvey Matusow moved back to America in 1973, where he eventually became a Mormon and tragically died in 2002 from complications following a car accident. He remained a controversial figure all his life, as shown by the online material on his life and times.
== Sessions ==
1. Recorded: 1968-12-18. Broadcast: 18 December 1968
*Conversation Peel calls it an untitled instrumental, Ken Garner's book, The Peel Sessions, calls it Talk And Instrumental, whilst Harvey calls it Conversation. / 18 Nuns / Walking Toenail Blues / War Between Fats And Thins
== Other Shows Played ==
thumb|330x330px
;1969
*11 June 1969: Wetsocks (LP - War Between Fats And Thins) Head
*01 November 1969: Afghan Red (single) Head
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
== References ==
Category:Artists