The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Hot City (1974 scotland hard, blues and glam rock - unreleased album - MP3 320K and FLAC)

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band "Hot City - The 1974 Unreleased Album"
Full previously unreleased studio album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band recorded in 1974 finally gets released 34 years later!

In early 1974, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band were planning to record their upcoming third album. The band, had been constantly touring and were well rehearsed when in late Janauary, they went into Advision studios in London with legendary US producer: Shel Talmy to record their biggest album to date.

By April, the sessions were finished and the album was mixed. However, after completion the band and management had some reservations about the overall sound and amazingly they decided to scrap the entire album. Shel Talmy the returned to Los Angeles with his tapes.

Most of the song titles eventually showed up on the official album ´The Impossible Dream´ later that year with a different producer on board and the songs changed dramatically.

You can now hear how the album sounded with the original versions of these songs. SAHB fans will be totally surprised and amazed at the different styles, delivery and lyric arrangements of well known SAHB songs such as Vambo & Man In The Jar.

There are also two versions of both Anthem and Tomahawk Kid and an previously unreleased song `Ace In The Hole´ which has not been heard even by the band since those sessions in 1974.

As SAHB became the biggest band of 1975, these recordings were quickly forgotten about. Now after 34 years, MLP have re-discovered the fully mixed unreleased album by a rock group on the verge of stardom. The recordings were re-assessed by both Shel and the band and an agreement was reached.

Now re-mastered and with the band´s full approval, you can hear how songs like Vambo, Man In The Jar, Anthem and Sgt Fury originally sounded.

This CD release features 11 tracks and comes in a deluxe package which includes a 20 page booklet with rare photos and extensive liner notes from the band with track/track comments and opinions (by Kaj Roth from http://www.melodic.net/?page=news&id=11313).


Man In The Jar (Hot City album version):


Track List:
01.Vambo
02.Man In The Jar
03.Hey You
04.Long Haired Music
05.Sergeant Fury
06.Tomahawk Kid Version 1
07.Ace In The Hole
08.Weights Made Of Lead
09.Last Train Version 1 (Aka - Anthem)
10.Tomahawk Kid Version 2
11.Last Train Version 2

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band:
*Alex Harvey - lead vocals
*Zal Cleminson - lead guitar
*Chris Glen - bass
*Hugh McKenna - keyboards
*Ted McKenna - drums

Guests:
*Big Buds Brass - sax, trombone, trumpet (02,05,08)
*Vicky Silva - vocals (09)
*The London Scottish Pipers - pipes (09)


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The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Impossible Dream / Tomorrow Belongs To Me (1974-1975 scotland hard, blues and glam rock - MP3 320K and FLAC)

Combining the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's third and fourth albums, The Impossible Dream and Tomorrow Belongs To Me, offers perhaps the archetypal vision of Alex Harvey, as his long-nurtured alter-ego, the comic book hero Vambo, finally burst out of imagination to take on a life of his own on stages across the world. Yet what would become the group's most successful albums also stand as their patchiest.

From The Impossible Dream, "River Of Love," "Long Hair Music," and "Weights Made Of Lead" seem particularly throwaway; casualties, perhaps, of the sheer volume of live work which the band was putting in.

Certainly there was nothing to rival its predecessors' "Faith Healer," "Next," or "Isabel Goudie," although when the album was good, it was great.

The sparkling "Sergeant Fury" and "Tomahawk Kid," a dramatic (if slightly off-kilter) tribute to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island were already live staples, while the impossibly moving, and so aptly-titled "Anthem" would allow Harvey to live out all his Scottish pride -- when SAHB toured the US in early 1975, he even arranged for a couple of bagpipers to join them on stage for the closing minutes of the song.

Tomorrow Belongs To Me is weaker still, despite the uniform excellence of its contents onstage.

Indeed, like Impossible Dream's "Hot City Symphony," the epic "Give My Compliments To The Chef" and "Tale Of The Giant Stone-Eater" were surely designed with live, as opposed to studio, dynamics in mind, while the bulk of the shorter pieces once more tend to be throwaways.

Again, however, there are exceptions -- one can readily imagine "Sgt. Fury" swaggering carelessly down through menacing shadows of "Action Strasse," while the almost religious intensity with which Harvey emotes the title track (from the stage show Cabaret) is virtually worth the price of admission alone.

One can also safely say that, linked on one CD, the two albums work better as a whole than they ever did alone -- again, testament to the sheer dynamic of SAHB-period live shows.

That the best of that show is preserved only on the criminally short album Live on the Test only adds to this set's vitality.

Live on the Test showcases the best, but you should hear the rest. (All Music Guide review by Dave Thompson).


Give My Compliments To The Chef:


CD1 - The Impossible Dream:
01."Hot City Symphony Part 1: Vambo"
02."Hot City Symphony Part 2: Man in the Jar"
03."River of Love"
04."Long Hair Music"
05."Hey"
06."Sergeant Fury"
07."Weights Made of Lead"
08."Money Honey"/"The Impossible Dream" (Jesse Stone, Mitch Leigh, Joe Darion)
09."Tomahawk Kid"
10."Anthem"

CD2 - Tomorrow Belongs To Me:
01."Action Strasse"
02."Snake Bite"
03."Soul In Chains"
04."The Tale of The Giant Stoneater"
05."Ribs and Balls"
06."Give My Compliments To The Chef"
07."Shark's Teeth"
08."Shake That Thing"
09."Tomorrow Belongs To Me" (Fred Ebb, John Kander)
10."To Be Continued...(Hail Vibrania!)"


The Impossible Dream:
*Alex Harvey - Lead vocals, rhythm guitar
*Zal Cleminson - Guitar
*Chris Glen - Bass guitar
*Hugh McKenna - Keyboards, synthesizer
*Ted McKenna - Drums
*Vicky Silva - Vocals on "Anthem"

Tomorrow Belongs To Me:
*Alex Harvey - Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica
*Zal Cleminson - Guitar, backing vocals
*Chris Glen - Bass guitar, backing vocals
*Hugh McKenna - Keyboards, synthesizer, backing vocals
*Ted McKenna - Drums, percussion, backing vocals
*Barry St. John, Liza Strike, Vicki Brown - Backing vocals on "Action Strasse" & "Soul In Chains"


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The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed / Next (1972-1973 scotland mix of hard, blues and glam rock - 2002 remaster edition - MP3 320K and FLAC )

N.E.X.T. Next. What a way to start a song. As Alex Harvey spells out the letters of the title, before leering the word into the microphone, the band breaks into a tango beat to support him, which is perhaps one of the defining moments in the career of "The Sensational Alex Harvey Band" and its inspirational leader.

In 1972 Alex Harvey had reached the grand old age of 38, way too old in those hedonistic days of music to consider becoming a Pop Star.

But tragically, Alex's younger brother by some ten years, Leslie, had been killed in an electrical accident during a sound check with his group "Stone the Crows" at the Top Rank in Swansea. The cause was an unearthed microphone.

This tragic event spurred Alex on to have one more go at cracking the big time.

At the time Alex was earning a crust in the orchestra of James Rado's iconoclastic musical 'Hair', but was persuaded by his manager, friend, and mentor Bill Fehilly, to go up to his native Glasgow, Scotland, to check out a gritty Progressive outfit called Tear Gas.

The band was in the throws of giving up all dreams of stardom and going back to 'normal jobs'. They were so broke that in true Scottish tradition they had resorted to haggis hunting up the side of mountains to find sufficient nutrition to survive.

However, Alex, recognizing talent when he saw it, coerced the band to stick together and plant him in as lead singer and inspirational genius. Putting "Sensational" into the title of the band, they went into the studio and in six days had recorded their first album, released in early 1973, before starting to play live anywhere that would have them.

Not surprisingly, they quickly built up a reputation of one of the hottest acts on the live circuit.

Out front was Alex himself, skin tight jeans, dirty red handkerchief hanging from his back pocket, black and white looped T-shirt, with Alex's huge head sticking out the neck (with all the creativity going on in this head, it needed to be a big one), topped off by an unruly mop of unruly jet black hair, the perfect leader.

Next to him was Zal Cleminson in a green rubber jumpsuit with cake white clown's make-up, which exaggerated his gurning face as he cut loose during the solos, and becoming a complete maniac, the perfect foil.

On the other side of the stage on bass was a man who could of made a living as an Elvis impersonator, or at least one of Elvis' bouncers Mr. Chris Glen, the perfect man to have on your side if the chips were down.

On Keyboards, as befitting this lot, was Hugh McKenna, who looked more like a university music teacher than a Rock 'n' Roll star, the perfect musical director.

And keeping it in the family, on drums you had Hugh's brother, Ted, the perfect rock onto which to hoist your Rock 'n' Roll flag.

The first album was a reasonable commercial success, but for once the record company saw the potential in this group.

Later that year they booked a full month for the band to record their follow up album and brought in top Glam Rock producer Phil Wainman.


The results were 'Sensational'. Alex sung with such pathos you cannot help but love him. Nobody else at the time could of gotten away with singing the title track, the J. Brel tribute to European Brothels, or `Gang Bang' poking fun, of an unmentionable subject.

Zal Cleminson's guitar playing throughout is nothing short of brilliant, and the band supports them note for note.

All of the songs here were to stay in the band's stage act in one way or another until the end, especially 'The Faith Healer' with its throbbing Tooltelbug drone opening, which was to become the band's standard bearer and opening song. (The sight of Alex staggering to the front of the stage screaming "can I put my hands on you" used to send the audience into raptures.)

`Vambo Marble Eye' became a saga that Alex was going to take to higher plains on the live stage. Final number 'The Last Of The Teenage Idols' was inspired by an event way back in 1957, when Alex Harvey won a Daily Record organized competition to find the Scottish Tommy Steele (true - I promise!), which brings the album to a fitting rocking climax before we are lulled away by a final burst of do-wop.

In another year, "The Sensational Alex Harvey Band" was the biggest touring band in Europe, quite a turn around from Haggis chasing. Unfortunately, the work load was just too much and after suffering declining health, Alex left the band in 1978, after which the band imploded.

Later in 1982, Alex would die of a heart attack while on tour in Europe, a day before his 47th Birthday. Although Alex's career did not really catch fire until late, but when it finally did, it sure burned bright. If "The Sensational Alex Harvey Band" is a mystery to you, pay attention.

Alex Harvey was one of the greatest ring masters to have ever strode across the field of Rock 'n' Roll.

The first two "Sensational Alex Harvey Band" albums, "Framed" and "Next", have just been released as a special 2-for-1 box set, a bargain not to be missed (by Kim Fletcher).

Midnight Moses:


Faith Healer:


Faith Healer lyrics:
If your body's feelin' bad
And it's the only one you have
You want to take away the pain
Go out walkin' in the rain
You watch the flowers go to bed
Ask the man inside yah head
Your spirit never has to grieve
All yah got to do's believe

The faith healer
The faith healer

All yah got to do is feel
Your body's going to start to heal
Fingertips and holy fire
Everlasting sweet desire
It don't matter what the doctor said
The healer man will sail away
Immortality for two
The miracles, can come to you

The faith healer
The faith healer

Can I put my hands on you?
Can I put my hands on you?

The faith healer
The faith healer

Faith, and hope and charity
It's simple relativity
He can make you understand
All make up to take his hand
Remember when somebody said
Ask the man inside yah head
The fingertips of holy fire
Everlasting sweet desire

The faith healer
The faith healer
Can I put my hands on you? Ahhh...(6 times)
The faith healer....(3 times)

CD-1:
01.Framed
02.Hammer Song
03.Midnight Moses
04.Isobel Goudie (My lady of the night/Coitus interruptus/Virgin and the hunter)
05.Buff's Bar Blues
06.I Just Want To Make Love To You
07.Hole In Her Stocking
08.There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree Mother
09.St Anthony

CD-2:
01.Swampshake
02.Gang Bang
03.Faith Healer
04.Giddy Up A Ding Dong
05.Next
06.Vambo Marble Eye
07.Last Of The Teenage Idols (parts 1-3)



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The Senstational Alex Harvey Band - Framed (1972 scotland mix of hard rock, blues and glam rock - MP3 320K and FLAC )

Framed is basically blues-rock. On one track ('Isabel Goudie') Harvey goes for a mock-"epic" sort of presentation, probably with prog-rockers of the time as the object of his ridicule, and a couple of tunes venture alternatively into folk-rock and/or heavy metal territory, but the core of this album is blues-rock.

Four four beats, twelve bar structure, you know the drill. But it's blues-rock done like never before - or after. Positioning themselves in the middle of the glam epoch, Harvey and the band transform blues-rock into glam theater.

They go for a BIG sound, and if I didn't hate to break up the perfect alignment of the review, I'd have made that BIG several sizes larger - it's B-I-G, B-I-G, as in really really big.

Enormously loud everything - guitar, drums, pianos, shouted vocals, going at Zeppelinish volume and more than that. The attitude, however, is not Zeppelinish. It's a head-spinning cross between macho posturing and cabaret brawling, yet done extremely tongue in cheek: there's no mistaking Harvey's mock-barroom attitude for the real thing.

Which, of course, firmly places him in the glam camp: everything loud, tacky, and glossy, yet everything self-consciously ironic at the same time, widely grinning at its own destructive decadence. Music that is perfect for satisfying your lowliest urges and ridiculing them at the same time - music you can't do without!

The main attractions of Framed are, of course, (a) the excellent skill of guitarist Zal Cleminson, who rarely uses his instrument to show off but always uses it to make the music powerful and attractive, and (b) Harvey's own vocal stylizations, replete with exaggerated Cockney-isms and/or bluesmaster howling where it is necessary.

It doesn't always work, but it works more often than not, and anyway the very fact that it works at least sometimes already speaks volumes - this is, after all, an extremely unimaginative kind of music-making, and it takes real inspiration to make it outstanding.

And it's outstanding on the very first track - the title one, a cover of the old Leiber/Stoller original, slightly lyrically shifted to suit Harvey's own lyrical needs.

The very intro is classic: the sound of a cell door slammed shut opens it, and then you have that slow, unnerving cymbal chuckling, at times interrupted by the five-note guitar riff - slow, slow, slow, as if it were taking full time to enjoy itself and give the listener a pre-taste of the POWER that will follow.

The combination of this goofy slowness (and it is goofy!), Harvey's Cockney accent ('they asked if my name was Alexander 'n ah sed wwwwwhhhyyy sssshaaaaaaaauuuww'), Cleminson's short but effective guitar solo and the ecstatic chorus simply makes 'Framed' one of the best "comic" blues-rockers of the Seventies.

Then the insults begin coming. I take 'Hammer Song' to be a venomous parody on the "folk rock" thing - a nonsensic 'epic ballad' ('don't let the sun go down, said the man with the fire firing the furnace... I've been buried in the snow, and I keep on firing, keep on firing, keep on firing... firing the furnace!' is a typical lyrical quote from the song) that sends me rolling every time I hear it; and, like I already said, 'Isabel Goudie' with its three parts, one of them called 'Coitus Interruptus', by the way (I presume you know what that means, right?), most certainly mocks the progressive strain of the time. It's not very memorable, but it's extremely funny at the least - which is less than I can say for a lot of prog, of course.

These tracks don't kick ass, though. What does kick ass is the terrific rocker 'Midnight Moses', with an unforgettable riff the kinds of which were only being written back when Black Sabbath, Budgie, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple ruled the heavy premises - a spoof on 'Midnight Rambler' or what? Whatever the answer is, it's just one of those classic glam-rockers which totally shake your behind off and at the same time revel in the realization of their own idiocy.

A true marvel. I'm also a sucker for 'Buff's Bar Blues', which is just what it bills itself as, but how can you resist a bar blues with lyrics like "Drinking Aspumanti, reading John McLain/His sister in the grubber and his brother was the same, he's got the Buff's Bar Blues"? It's one of the goddarn funniest bar blues I've heard in my life, and no, I'm not inclydyng Skynyrd yn thys catygory.

The cover of 'I Just Wanna Make Love To You' seems somewhat overlong to me (although the slow mastodontic arrangement is immaculate by itself); but it's fully redeemed by the fast-paced 'Hole In Her Stocking', the eerie half-hard rock, half-carnival number 'There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree, Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight' (which tells the story of exactly that subject, if you're curious), and the blasphemous 'St Anthony' (which, if I'm not mistaken, uses the metaphor of St Anthony's temptations as an excuse to tell a particularly seedy S&M story), which is as red-hot funky as anything in the epoch and finishes the album with a whole shotgun blast (I mean, METAPHORIC shotgun!).

And throughout, Alex is being sly, funny, intelligent, and powerful. There's really not a bad track included, although, like I hinted, some might be overlong; I'd personally like to have him lambast some other musical sub-genre to shreds than to waste such an awful lot of time on 'Isabel Goudie'.

It's kinda funny, though, that once Harvey adopted the tongue-in-cheek glammy attitude instead of the more sincere approach to music-making that he used to have, that he actually started to find some real popularity. Kinda speaks volumes of the epoch, doesn't it? (George Starotin's).





Track List:
01.Framed
02.Hammer Song
03.Midnight Moses
04.Isabel Goudie
05.Buff's Bar Blues
06.I Just Want To Make Love To You
07.Hole In Her Stocking
08.There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree
09.St Anthony


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Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Collection (1972-1978 scotland creative mix of blues rock, hard rock and glam rock - MP3 320K and FLAC)

Alex Harvey was a British journeyman rocker who enjoyed a brief period of widespread popularity in the mid-'70s after decades of struggle.

Growing up in Scotland, he turned to music in his late teens and was in a skiffle band by 1955.

By 1959, it had evolved into the Alex Harvey Big Soul Band. Harvey took the group to Hamburg, West Germany in the early '60s, there recording his first LP, Alex Harvey and His Soul Band, in the fall of 1963, which did not feature the band.

He and his group made their London debut in February 1964, and the same year he recorded The Blues, which essentially was a solo record.

In 1965, Harvey dissolved the Big Soul Band and later returned to Glasgow. But he was back in London in 1967, assembling Giant Moth, a psychedelic group that existed only for a short time.

He then accepted a job working in the pit band of the musical Hair and while doing so recorded Having a Hair Rave up Live from the Shaftsbury Theatre.

In 1969, he released Roman Wall Blues, his first solo effort in five years. Up to this point, none of his musical efforts had attracted much attention. But in the early '70s, he recruited the Scottish band Tear Gas -- consisting of Zal Cleminson, Chris Glen, Hugh McKenna, and Ted McKenna -- christening the resulting quintet the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

Their first two albums, Framed (1972) and Next (1973), didn't sell, but in the fall of 1974 The Impossible Dream became Harvey's first chart record in the U.K. (It briefly made the American charts in March 1975.)

Tomorrow Belongs to Me followed in the spring of 1975, hitting the Top Ten along with the Top Ten singles placing of Harvey's flamboyant cover of the Tom Jones hit "Delilah."

With that, Next belatedly made the charts, and in September Sensational Alex Harvey Band Live came out and reached the Top 20 (also making the Top 100 in the U.S), as "Gamblin' Bar Room Blues" became a Top 40 single.

This commercial success continued into 1976, with Penthouse Tapes entering the LP charts in April and becoming a Top 20 hit, "Boston Tea Party" making the singles charts in June and making a Top 20 showing, and SAHB Stories following in July and just missing the Top Ten.

In 1977, Harvey and the band recorded separately, SAHB without Alex (as it was billed) issuing Fourplay, while the leader made Alex Harvey Presents the Loch Ness Monster. A final album together, Rock Drill, was followed by the group's breakup.

Harvey was back with his New Band in 1979 and an album called The Mafia Stole My Guitar, but his moment, so long in coming, had passed.

Nevertheless, he kept on rocking and was on tour in Belgium when he succumbed to a heart attack in 1982 just before his 47th birthday (by William Ruhlmann).


Next:


Track List:
01.The Tale Of The Giant Stone Eater
02.Action Strasse
03.Gang Bang
04.Next
05.Give My Compliments To The Chef
06.Framed
07.Tomorrow Belongs To Me
08.Sergeant Fury
09.Delilah (Live)
10.Faith Healer
11.Boston Tea Party
12.Vambo Part 1
13.Dogs Of War
14.Giddy Up A Ding Dong


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Ariel - A Strange Fantastic Dream (1973 australia, progressive rock with glam flashes, remastered with bonus tracks - MP3 320k and FLAC)

Ariel formed in mid-1973, after the breakup of Spectrum. When Spectrum drummer Ray Arnott announced he was leaving to join Ross Wilson's new band Mighty Kong, Putt and Rudd commendably decided to end the band rather than try to recruit a new member, feeling that it wouldn't be possible to recreate the special spirit of that group.

Within a few months of Spectrums's farewell performance their new band (whose name was taken from the character in Shakespeare's "The Tempest") was up and running.

Ironically, the two new members, Tim and Nigel, had originally come to Melbourne to work with Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford on their new project (which became Mighty Kong) and it was after they departed that Wilson asked Ray Arnott to join, thus precipitating the split of Spectrum!

Strong record company interest in Ariel quickly led to a contract with EMI's progressive Harvest imprint. Their superb debut single "Jamaican Farewell" looked set to repeat the early success of Spectrum but it only managed to reach No.34, its success hampered by lack of airplay, especially in Sydney, although it impressed the industry enough to win the FACB 'Single Of The Year'.

They toured as support to Gary Glitter November 1973 and released their excellent first LP A Strange Fantastic Dream in December, with writing credits split fairly evenly between Gaze and Rudd.

According to Noel McGrath, the album was also the first use of Moog synthesizer on an Australian rock record (though it's possible Tully may have been the first Australian band to recod with one) and producer Peter Dawkins still names it as one of his favourite productions.

It fared well commercially and critically, reaching #12 in the LP charts in February 1974, although there was a minor controversy about Stephen Nelson's brilliant, hallucinatory cover painting, which included (shock! horror!) a hypodermic syringe.

Airplay for the LP was further hindered by the banning of three songs ("Confessions Of A Psychotic Cowpoke", "Medicine Man" and "Chicken Shit") by the commercial radio industry's self-regulatory body, the FACB.

One particularly important outcome for the group was that EMI International's President, Allan Davies, fell in love with the album: "You know, Peter," he enthused to Dawkins, "I can't recall ever hearing a song about necrophilia!" Renowned British DJ John Peel also picked up both album and single and "said some really nice things about both of them".

These and other factors led to Ariel being invited to tour the UK and record their next album at Abbey Road.

Tracks
1. Jamaican Farewell - 2:50
2. No Encores - 3:47
3. Confessions of a Psychotic Cowpoke - 4:43
4. And I'm Blue - 2:52
5. Garden of the Frenzied Cortinas - 7:46
6. Miracle Man - 5:29
7. Chicken Shit - 4:23
8. Worm Turning Blues - 2:56
9. Wheezer Grunter Module Threadaboy/Harry v. Dirchy (God the Man) - 4:20
10.Hard Way to Go - 3:49
11.And if it Wasn't for You - 2:32
12.Red Hot Momma - 2:38 (Bonus Track on CD Version)

Ariel
*Mike Rudd -Lead Vocals, Guitars, Backing Vocals, Harmonica
*Bill Putt - Bass
*Tim Gaze - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*John Mills - Keyboards
*Nigel Macara - Drums


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