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Though Alex would eventually pay homage to his Hamburg apprenticeship in SAHB's Action Strasse, details of his time there have proved difficult to unearth. Now in his sixties and residing in Glasgow, Bill Patrick politely declined to be interviewed for this piece, maintaining that he "just wanted to put those days behind him". Scots' singer Maggie Bell isn't surprised. "Hamburg was just music, strip bars and craziness 24 hours a day, and I think it took its toll on everybody, " she says. "That's why it's become a closed shop. I mean, imagine going from early '60s Glasgow or Liverpool to that, then adding Preludin to the equation. "
In the early '50s in Great Britain there was a resurgence of '20s-style jazz, soon to be eclipsed by the imports of rural southern American music. By 1955, Alex had played with a number of different Dixieland and jazz ensembles, particularly honing his musical skills in two bands with saxophonist Bill Patrick. (The Clyde River Jazz Band played "trad" jazz, while the Kansas City Skiffle Group banged out the country/folk-flavored "youth music" of the time.)
At the Dennistoun Palais he shared a brief residency with ex-Poets singer George Gallagher. Their unnamed band also featured Leslie Harvey, Bill Patrick, his brother Bobby on bass and third-lead vocalist Isabel Bond. Izzy had recorded the rare Everything's Alright With Isabella Bond for Decca in Hamburg, Alex guesting under two different aliases.
"We did Tamla's poppier stuff, the Stones, anything that was current," says Gallagher of the Palais gigs. "I can still picture Isabel singing Sweet Talkin' Guy with Alex 'oohing' and 'ahhing' behind her. It was a beautiful theatre, too. Big revolving stage. "
SOCK 'EM JB
This was 1967. Jim Dewar teams with another superb vocalist, the great Frankie Miller:
Frankie Miller (vocals)
Jim Dewar (bass, vocals)
John McGinnis (keyboards)
Bill Patrick (sax)
By 1967 he could be found in a new band, Sock 'Em JB, an exciting unit fuelled on material by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Wilson Pickett. The vocalist was ex-Del-Jack Frankie Miller and the pianist John McGinnis, formerly of the Blues Council. (The latter act was one of the
finest Scotland produced, revolving around one-time Alex Harvey saxophonist Bill Patrick and Harvey's younger brother, Leslie. Sadly, two members were killed when their van crashed returning home to Glasgow from Edinburgh, and the despondent survivors split up.) Sock 'Em JB
were together for only a matter of months, ending when Miller formed a new group, Westfarm Cottage, en route to the Stoics.
Dexter St. Clair wrote:Yes. Check here and other bits of the forum.
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