Video and words by JAMES HALL
Image 1: Harry Nilsson and a group of school children, featured on the album cover of For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson (1994), released a year after his passing
On Thursday 8th October, the Nilsson-mania that continues to sweep the nation reached fever pitch with NILSSON NIGHT: a collaboration between Normal Cinema Club, Reverie Cineclub & Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival: Now Press Play 2026.
Harry Nilsson is not an obscure figure. “Without You”, “Everybody’s Talkin’” & “Jump Into The Fire” are bona fide hits, burned into the popular culture through iconic needle drops. His life and career were undoubtedly changed when the Beatles named him as their favourite American recording artist, but did he ever escape this huge and looming shadow?
Nilsson remains an ephemeral figure, and certainly when promoting the event, a lot of people told me they hadn’t heard of him. This only furthers our cause, to raise Nilsson awareness and to spread cheer and goodwill to all. Beyond his iconic albums, Nilsson left behind a large body of work which ran the gamut of human emotions: beautiful, heart-wrenching, funny, bawdy, cheeky, zany… The adulatory adjectives could go on and on.
When approaching a pre-show video to accompany Fred Wolf’s psychedelic children’s fable The Point (1971), we wanted to reflect our own experience of discovering Harry, which largely happened under cover of night down YouTube rabbit holes. His eclectic and varied tastes were reflected in his style, always playful and diverse and richly layered. We wanted to keep this video as playful and as unexpected as Nilsson was, considering his influence on other artists and on other art forms (his film work alone could have sustained another video).
We hope you enjoy Nilsson Night, and we hope you too can spread the word…
‘Nilsson Night: The Point + Performances’ screened on October 8th, 2026 at the Beanbag Cinema in Belfast. Further information on the event can be found via the CQAF website.
