Alex Harvey
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- This article is about the Scottish rock singer Alex Harvey, not to be confused with American songwriter Alex Harvey, who wrote for Kenny Rogers or Canadian drummer Alex Harvey, member of Psychosis and Polk and the Dots.
Alex Harvey (February 5, 1935 - February 4, 1982) was a Scottish rock and roll recording artist. With his Sensational Alex Harvey Band, he built a strong reputation as a live performer during the 1970s glam rock era. The band was renowned for its eclecticism and energetic live performance, Harvey for his charismatic persona and daredevil stage antics.
Alex's younger brother Leslie Harvey was also a musician and became guitarist for Glasgow band Stone the Crows.
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[edit] Early life
Harvey was born at 49 Govan Road, Kinning Park, Glasgow. His musical roots were in Dixieland jazz and skiffle music, which enjoyed considerable popularity in England and Scotland during the late 1950s. During this period, he won a competition that sought "Scotland's answer to Tommy Steele". Alex Harvey was literally the "last of the teenage idols," a distinction he made much of during his subsequent career - practically worshipped by his fans.
In 1959, Harvey formed "Alex Harvey's Soul Band," and recorded blues and rock and roll material, to modest success. In 1966, Harvey found more success as a member of the cast in the London stage production of the musical Hair.
[edit] SAHB
In 1972, Harvey formed the Sensational Alex Harvey Band with guitarist Zal Cleminson, bassist Chris Glen, and cousins Ted and Hugh McKenna on drums and keyboards respectively, all previous members of progressive rock act "Tear Gas".
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (often shortened to SAHB) produced a succession of highly regarded albums and tours throughout the 1970s, and would give Harvey his greatest successes, both musically and commercially.
Initially considered a part of the burdgeoning glam-rock movement, Harvey's wild imagination and unusual skiffle background led the band to explore an extremely diverse range of topics and styles in the course of their career, from film-noir ("The Man In The Jar") to surf music-tinted tales of shark attacks ("Shark's Teeth") to ominous odes to demented faith healers ("The Faith Healer") and epic symphonies about prostitution ("Isobel Goudie").
Perhaps most unusual for the time were the band's forays into Broadway and 1930s Pop songs, evidenced on tracks such as "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" and "Sergeant Fury". Other musical styles explored included the the folk music of both Harvey's native Scotland ("Anthem") and countries such as Turkey ("Action Strasse").
The impression is one of an unhinged circus of free-flowing events and emotions and moods, Harvey as its semi-demented, ironic ring master,something captured brilliantly by the cover art of 1974 album "The Impossible Dream" (attach picture?).
A strong sense of irony permeates much of the band's work, however Harvey often juxtaposed his absurdist imagery and wild-eyed imagination with sincere moral messages and affectionate unashamed sentiment and emotion.
His live act also usually featured a tale of "Vambo", an urban superhero who was the subject of some of his more energetic numbers. His performances combined a musical and verbal flair with both humour and sincerity and his songs often contained messages and morals.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band scored chart hits in Britain with the single "Delilah", a re-make of the Tom Jones hit, and also with "The Boston Tea Party".
Alex Harvey was also instrumental in the formation of Stone the Crows, by introducing his younger brother Leslie to singer, Maggie Bell [1].
On February 4, 1982 while waiting to take a ferry back to shore after performing his last concert with his new band, the Electric Cowboys, Harvey suffered a massive heart attack. In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, he suffered a second heart attack, this one fatal. It occurred on the day before his 47th birthday, in Zeebrugge, Belgium.
[edit] The re-grouping
Since Alex Harvey died in 1982 the band have re-grouped a number of times, but to little success. It appeared that the band that was one of the greatest live acts in the 1970s had lost its touch. That is until they decided to call it quits in 2004 with a farewell tour in the UK with "Mad" Max Maxwell (formerly of the Shamen) as lead singer. The tour was all sell-out and SAHB had become sensational once again (they also released a live album from the tour), having such unexpected success and their popularity reflecting more what it was like in the 70s, the band decided they could not quit and continued touring. In 2006 they played in front of 20,000 fans at the Sweden Rock Festival (that included other legends such as Alice Cooper, Deep Purple and Whitesnake), and opened for Def Leppard and Cheap Trick at the Apollo in London. In July 2006 they released their first international release in twenty years, the album entitled Zalvation. From the final gig of the 2005 tour in Glasgow, a DVD was produced - also named Zalvation, however it was primarily distributed amongst insiders. In contrast, the final gig of the 2006 tour (also in Glasgow) is rumoured to have been recorded in order to produce an official DVD to be on sale in 2007.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were voted the fifth greatest Scottish band of all time in a 2005 survey [2], that had 15,000 participants, reaching higher up the list than Scottish legends such as Runrig, Nazareth, Lulu, Texas and Primal Scream.
[edit] Current band
Max Maxwell, Zal Cleminson, Hugh McKenna, Ted McKenna and Chris Glen.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Logan, Nick &Woffinden, Bob (eds.) „The New Musical Express Book of Rock”, W.H. Allen &Co. Ltd (Star), 1973, p. 450. ISBN 0-352-39715-2.
- ^ BBC report on Jan 2005 survey
[edit] Alex Harvey's Soul Band discography
[edit] Sensational Alex Harvey Band discography
- Framed, 1972
- Next, 1973
- The Impossible Dream, 1974
- Live, 1975
- Tomorrow Belongs to Me, 1975
- Penthouse Tapes, 1976
- SAHB Stories, 1976
- Fourplay (By SAHB without Alex), 1977
- Big Hits and Close Shaves, 1977
- Rock Drill, 1978
- Zalvation, 2006
[edit] Alex Harvey
- Alex Harvey presents the Loch Ness monster, 1977
- The Mafia stole my guitar, (post SAHB) 1979
- Soldier on the wall, (post SAHB) 1982
