21 live Alex Harvey discs still leave fan wanting more
introduce “Tomahawk Kid.” It’s a moment of sheer musical theater, deeply moving, and perfectly captures what made the Sensational Alex Harvey Band so special.
The final disk takes us back to Scotland. Recorded in Glasgow on January 22, 1975, In Full Live At The Legendary Glasgow Apollo features another strong performance that is, unfortunately, also in less than stellar quality, albeit a different kind of less than stellar than what we’ve heard on earlier discs. It’s not distortion or muddiness that affects the sound here; rather, it’s an almost monochromatic flatness that suggests that, while the tape was protected against early 1980s bootleggers, it was kept in a rather warm, sunlit position for a while. There are minor glitches, too, enough to be distracting, but not fatal.
That said, the Apollo remains a fascinating show, packed with the kind of minor bits and bobs that dedicated listeners live for. There are covers aplenty here, too, and even another guest soloist, playing bagpipes on the closing “Framed,” a tale that made Harvey’s name back in 1969 when he recorded it as a single.
It would be three more years before it finally gave him chart success. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s 1975
Next came 1975’s Tomorrow Belongs To Me, the album that finally hit the charts, thanks largely to the single “Delilah,” a radical reworking that shocked Tom Jones fans to our very core. It’s not included in this package, of course; that would have been a box set too far. But what is on here makes it perfectly clear why it was finally in ’75 that Harvrey and his Sensational band were crowned.
Twenty-one discs isn’t enough to quench a fan’s hunger for all things Harvey, of course, but it does quash any doubts as to whether the Sensational Alex Harvey Band were one of the most unique, most exciting entities ever to stalk the British isles. And you can bet your bottom dollar that what’s on these discs is but a fraction of what remains in the vaults. Enjoy the show.