The Sensational Alex Harvey

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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby Bridie » Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:18 pm

Thanks maxruby brilliant pics - love that website :D
Yes HH,I know
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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby RDR » Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:38 pm

Fantastic site maxruby! Thanks very much.
I remember the Parkhead gig but couldn't go as I didn't have the money!
He advocated for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich and labour against capital.
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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby JumpingAtTheWoodside » Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:09 pm

There was a display at the People's Palace a few years ago about Alex Harvey. I was really looking forward to it, but when I got there I was disappointed. All there was on display was a few glass cases with ticket stubs and programmes of SAHB gigs, with a tape of "Next" on a loop. Alex Harvey deserved better than that!
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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby peasy23 » Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:38 pm

My Uncle is long time colleague of Alex Harvey, Bill Patrick, who is still living in Glasgow and still going strong. I walked into Waterstone's earlier this year and spotted a book (Are Ye Dancin), which has Alex Harvey and his Soul Band on the cover, with Bill playing the saxophone.

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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:16 pm

I would suggest you take a digicorder next time you see your unle bill as he was a key player in Scotland's contribution to rock music
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.


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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby RDR » Mon Aug 08, 2011 5:29 am

I wonder if the Jimmy Dewar mentioned above is the same one that went on to be vocalist and bass player with Robin Trower?
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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:40 am

Yes. Check here and other bits of the forum.
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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby RDR » Mon Aug 08, 2011 7:33 am

Dexter St. Clair wrote:Yes. Check here and other bits of the forum.


Thanks.
A great singer, who died relatively young and in obscurity, following a long disabiling illness.
A sad end to a great talent. :(
He advocated for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich and labour against capital.
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Re: The Sensational Alex Harvey

Postby Quality Mince » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:13 pm

And the band played on…. I remember seeing the sensational Alex Harvey band without Alex !! at Strathclyde University in the early 80s. The band were totally brilliant. God only knows what they would have been like with him!!

Thanks for the great links in this thread
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