Calvin Harris didn't lose his laptop

Calvin Harris: told a porky.
Calvin Harris: told a porky.

When we reported last year that Calvin Harris's laptop - which supposedly contained seven months' of musical work for his next album - had been lost by Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 baggage handlers, we had to marvel at his stupidity.

Seriously - who checks in a computer containing previous data when they know that it's not backed up?

Well, it turns out that Harris wasn't as stupid as we thought - just a little devious. In an interview with Popjustice, he's revealed that the whole 'lost laptop' story was cooked up in order to buy himself some time.

"The first tactic of delaying the album was pretending that I lost it at Heathrow, he says. "That [story] was concocted between me and my sound engineer, Jimmy."

As Calvin explains, the whole episode wasn't a total fabrication, though: "I should make it clear that they did in fact lose our bags - that is fact - but it was not true that the album was in them.

"I would never check a hard drive in luggage. So the thing about Heathrow wasn't so much a lie, as… well… an untruth."

Ah, of course: not a lie, an untruth. Harris can take comfort in the knowledge that, should his second album bomb (if it ever appears, that is), a career in politics surely awaits.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.