The UK Magazine, Record Collector (issue December 2011) has an interview with folksinger Roy Harper. Like Paul Simon he started playing in the folk-club circuit in 1964.
When interviewer Jonathan Wingate asks him ‘Was Paul Simon on the scene at that point?’ he tells the following:
‘Paul got there about six months before me, but over time I got to know him very well. He was exactly the same as he is now…absolutely punctual and completely professional. We got to the stage after a year or two where I got handed down the £25-a-night gigs he didn’t want to do, because by that point he’d moved up to £40.
I can remember going into the gents in The Three Horseshoes in Hempstead during a gig, and we’re having a pee together. He was very excited, and he turns round to me and and says, “Guess what, man? We’re no 16 in Boston with The Sound of Silence”. A few days later I was doing another gig with him and he made a beeline for me. “Guess what?” I sqaid “You’re No. 15 in Boston”. He said, “No man, we’re No. 1 in Boston”. I thought, “Wow. No. 1 in Boston, eh?” It was almost a joke, because I really had no idea what that sort of stuff meant at all.
Paul Simon - 'Time it was...it was' 