Early 70’s. The time when bands arrived at the venue nice and early, relaxed with a light warm up session courtesy of their yoga teacher, finishing off with a latte before a light snooze ahead of a prompt 8.00pm arrival on stage.
What bit of that wasn’t the case? The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. A convenient juxtaposition of two flailing careers as Alex and a non-too successful band entitled Tear Gas blended the best of their bits together to form a successful, albeit briefly ‘joined at the hip’ glorified, pub band. Alex, previously known for the song ‘Shout’ (which in itself only became famous when Lulu scored a Top 20 hit with it – Lulu, possibly the worst, most arrogant act I’ve ever witnessed at Glastonbury) was a perfect riposte for Tear Gas as it shot them to fame which had previously eluded them for years.
His previous stint on the London stage performing in ‘Hair’, the musical, was a terrific pre runner to fronting a band whose music warranted an extrovert to front it, in order to extract as much out of the clever lyrics as possible. Clearly at home performing Live, this LP gives you a taste as to what the band were all about. I suspect not many wanted their money back after a live performance from this lot. Perhaps lacking one or two of their more famous songs this provides a good insight into rock n roll in the early 70’s ahead of many bands being wiped out by punk.
