THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND - THE COLLECTION 1986

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band was formed when Scottish rock veteran Alex Harvey recruited members of hard rock group Tear Gas at the beginning of the 70's. Although most people associate them with their big hit 'Delilah', the band were already well established on the rock circuit, due to their theatrical show, and their destinctive style of music. The band split up at the end of 1977 just after a tour had been announced, with Alex resurrecting his solo career and the rest of the group forming the short-lived Zal band with guitarist Billy Rankin & ex-Tubes member Leroi.

Alex did a show at the London Palladium 1978 which got mixed reviews, then formed the 'Alex Harvey Band', which recorded 'The Mafia Stole My Guitar', They did a tour in 1978, but then dissapeared. After several years out of the limelight, Alex seemed ready to return in 1982 with a new album 'Soldier On The Wall' ready for release, and a tour in Europe. Sadly the album was to be his requiem, as he died whilst waiting for a ferry in Belgium that same year.

The remaining members of SAHB re-formed for a number of one-off gigs in the 90's, with various vocalists, but in 2004 decided to re-form on a permanent basis. Although no new material has been released, the band are touring regularly, and have brought out a live CD and DVD.

1 The Tale Of The Giant Stone Eater
2 Action Strasse
3 Gang Bang
4 Next
5 Give My Compliments To The Chef
6 Framed
Brass - Big Bud's Brass
Engineer - Mike Bobak
Saxophone [Tenor] - Phil Kenzie
7 Tomorrow Belongs To Me
8 Sergeant Fury
Engineer - Cyrano , Martin Rushent
Vocals - Vicky Silva*
9 Delilah (Live)
Engineer - John Punter
Steel Guitar - BJ Cole
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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ALEX HARVEY - MAFIA STOLE MY GUITAR 1979

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. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Tracks :

1. "Don's Delight" (Don Weller)
2. "Back in The Depot" (Harvey, Matthew Cang)
3. "Wait For Me Mama" (Harvey, Don Weller, Matthew Cang, Hugh McKenna)
4. "The Mafia Stole My Guitar" (Harvey)
5. "Shakin' All Over" (Johnny Kidd)
6. "The Whalers (Thar She Blows)" (Harvey, Matthew Cang, Hugh McKenna)
7. "Oh Spartacus!" (Harvey, Matthew Cang)
8. "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" (Irving Caesar, Julius Brammer)

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BLOODROCK - BLOODROCK 1970

Bloodrock may not be as well remembered today as the aforementioned groups, but their first release remains a cult favorite amongst fans of hard rock. Their sound is reminiscent to Deep Purple, with electric guitar and organ dueling over a throbbing beat. However, Jim Rutledge's gruff, whisky-throated vocals lend a rural tinge to the group's music that sets them apart. As expected for a heavy metal band, the songwriting themes tend to be pretty ominous: "Double Cross" is a gleeful hymn to revenge, and "Timepiece" recounts the final thoughts of a death row prisoner about to be sent to the gallows. The band doesn't always know when to edit their jams ("Timepiece"), and some of the songs feel more like a collection of riffs than fully thought out compositions ("Wicked Truth"), but the group's powerful attack helps smooth over the rough spots to make an engaging slab of proto-metal. The album's highlights are the final two songs: "Fantastic Piece of Architecture" uses an a combination of Doors-like funereal organ and piano to create a creepy atmosphere, and "Melvin Laid an Egg" blends pile-driving riffs with gentle bridges of piano and harmony vocals to bring its surreal lyric about a freak show dwelling capitalist to life.

Tracks :

1. Gotta Find a Way
2. Castle of Thought
3. Fatback
4. Double Cross
5. Timepiece
6. Wicked Truth
7. Gimme Your Head
8. Fantastic Piece of Architecture
9. Melvin Laid an Egg

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CAEDMON - CAEDMON'S HYMN 1978

In 1978, a small christian folk rock band in Edinburgh released a farewell album to celebrate six years of making music together. The album was made on a shoestring budget and only 500 copies were pressed. The musicians went their separate ways.

Thirty years later, the record has become a collectors item. A CD version is available on Amazon and it has been described as one of the best folk rock albums of the seventies.

The Studio

The album was recorded in a tiny home studio in Edinburgh - known to aficionados as ‘Barclay Towers’. No idea what kind of technology was involved, save the incessant fiddling with EQ to try and filter out the buzz of a fluorescent light strip over the cooker that was inadvertently left on during one take.

We recorded over two successive Sundays and mixed at a third session. It was four track reel to reel recording ……. live with occasional overdubs.

Instrumentation

For us as musicians, highlights included using a cup and teaspoon to create the latin style percussion on ‘Maker Man’.

For the recording we borrowed Ever After’s Fender Rhodes but still depended upon my own Crumar Compac Piano which had three sounds: piano, clavichord and harpsichord. I bought it for £100 second hand. There was no touch sensitivity, but it seemed very modern at the time. All organ type sounds were played using the piano setting whilst sliding the volume control from 0 (when hitting the key) to the appropriate volume, to avoid the attack at the start of the note.

I played an Ibanez classical guitar on Maker Man that was bought in 1969. I sold my ‘Smiley Joe’ banjolele to raise money for the transaction. I’ve recently been buying ukuleles again to use in primary school work in my region!

The cello was a German instrument from around 1890.

Info taken from http://www.caedmonsreturn.com

Tracks :

1. Ten Maidens Fair (4:17)
2. Maker Man (3:15)
3. Death of a Fox (4:18)
4. Sea Song (5:35)
5. Aslan (4:15)
6. Beyond the Second Mile (6:45) *
7. Living in the Sunshine (4:27)
8. Storm (6:06)
9. Columbus’ Song (2:21)
10. Smile on Your Face (4:35)
11. Caedmon’s Hymn (4:15)
12. Give Me Jesus (4:15) *

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Artwork Included

BLACKFOOT SUE - NOTHING TO HIDE 1973

Blackfoot Sue was a British pop/rock group of the 1970s whose members were Tom Farmer (b.1952 03 02, Birmingham, England) (bass, keyboards, vocals), his twin brother Dave Farmer (b.1952 03 02, Birmingham, England) (drums), Eddie Galga (b.1951 09 04, Birmingham, England) (guitar, keyboards), and Alan Jones (b.1950 01 05, Birmingham, England) (guitar, vocals). Their "Standing in the Road" was a U.K. Top Ten hit in 1972, but they were written off as a teen sensation and broke up in 1977. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Tracks :

Messiah
Country Home
Cry
My Oh My
Now We're Three
The Spring Of '69
Glittery Obituary
On His Own
Too Soon
Gypsy Jam
Standing in the Road
Celestial Plain
Sing Don't Speak
2 B Free
Summer

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AMAZING BLONDEL - FANTASIA LINDUM 1971

Fantasia Lindum was an album released by the band Amazing Blondel in 1971. It featured the style of music which they described as "pseudo-Elizabethan/Classical acoustic music sung with British accents". The album title is taken from the musical sequence which makes up the first side of the album: a fantasia is a free musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation; Lindum is the latin name for the city of Lincoln.
The music throughout the album features Amazing Blondel's unique blend of their own compositions with folk themes and renaissance music.
The album's cover art (credited to Visualeyes) suggests a historical setting around the Civil War period, but the music has more of the vitality of the Elizabethan period. A variety of instruments were used, but the central sound is of the two lutes, played by Gladwin and Baird, with wind instruments played by Wincott.

The "Fantasia Lindum" sequence, which makes up the first side of the album, is the band's musical tribute to the city of Lincoln, the Lincolnshire countryside and the mediaeval Lincoln Cathedral. It is an ambitious suite of songs and instrumental pieces featuring recurring musical themes.

The second side includes two madrigal-like songs ("To Ye" and "Three Seasons Almaine") and two instrumental dance tunes. There is a hymn-like song ("Safety In God Alone"), which sounds much more based in the twentieth-century than the remainder of the album, having a harmonic structure more like that developed by bands such as The Eagles. The album concludes with the brash "Siege of Yaddlethorpe", a "pipe and drum" instrumental piece featuring Wincott's (presumably multi-tracked) crumhorns and a guest appearance of Jim Capaldi playing (again presumably multi-tracked) military-style snare drums.

Tracks :

1. "Fantasia Lindum":
1. Prelude and Theme
2. Song: Swifts, Swains, Leafy Lanes
3. Dance: Jig Upon Jig; Theme (lutes and recorder)
4. Dance (Galliard): God Must Doubt
5. Song: Lincolnshire Lullaby
6. Dance: Basse Dance; Theme (lute duet)
7. Dance: Quatre Dance Pavan
8. Song: Celestial Light (for Lincoln Cathedral)
9. Dance: Coranto; Theme (lutes and recorders)
10. End.
2. "To Ye"
3. "Safety In God Alone"
4. "Two Dances":
1. Almaine
2. Bransle For My Ladys' Delight
5. "Three Seasons Almaine"
6. "Siege of Yaddlethorpe"

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FROLK HEAVEN - AT THE APEX OF HIGH 1972

Frolk Haven - At The Apex of High LP. Original rare 70s progressive psychedelic acid trip record with plenty of free-from insanity ala Captain Beefheart, Zappa and the twilight zone. Features a young Stuart "Barfalonious" Copeland on drums a while before he would join the Police and strike it rich.
Repro of super rare early '70s off the wall acid Madness often compared to Ya Ho Wa.... Varied instumentation... psych jams with melody and chaotic strangeness... featuring Stewart Copeland (Curved Air/The Police) when he was at College!!

Startlingly heavy progressive group, sounding more like a modern group such as Absolute Zero than one from '72. Most likely the album was a one-off project, as the boys recorded and released it themselves while in college in England. The group consisted of just two people: Charles "the Zilch" Ostman (Guitars, Clarinets, Bass, Vocals, electronics) and Stewart Copeland (Drums, additional percussion). Charles Ostman wrote all of the songs and is the only performer on 3 of the album's 7 tracks. Anyone know what happened to him? Stewart of course went on to Curved Air, the Police, Animal Logic, and a fruitful solo career. His performance here is similar to his work on Curved Air's Midnight Wire, but less restrained.

The sound on this album is different, frequently comparable to Absolute Zero or the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but generally it is their own. Very Eastern sounding, and pretty complex despite being very nearly a one-man show. The vocal sections are often interspersed with long dreamy, clarinet-laden instrumental passages. No, I kid you not: the clarinet is one of the most prominent instruments on this album, second only to the guitar. The vocals are soft, USA-accented, and subtly emotional - in fact they sound a lot like Stewart Copeland's, for those of you who have heard his vocals. Fuzz, Acid, and Flowers describes the album as being tedious, but in fact much of the album is quite exciting, and really the "tedious" parts are the most interesting. Still, this is a record which requires diligent listening, and if you're not willing to give that you should stay away because this record will bore you.

The album opens with the 12-minute "Oracle of Delphi". It starts with an apocalyptic outburst: a harrowing bass line leading the way for a serious of vicious assaults on percussion and guitar. This gives way to post-apocalyptic, eerily quiet meanderings on guitar and clarinet, with soft-spoken vocal passages. All in all, a fascinating epic. "Idiomatic Interlude" is actually a pretty well-developed instrumental with odd rhythms and quirky clarinet playing, very soulful in fact. "Cyclation" rounds out side A, starting on another haunting and dreamy instrumental passage before the more traditional song form steps forward, with Charles and Stewart delivering a Hendrix Experience-styled powerhouse performance.

Side B of Apex is less impressive than A but still very good. "Zonation of Galactic Cosmodial Entities" is an effect-oriented but imaginative instrumental, while "Back Up!" is a soft of electric folk tune with the usual gracings of clarinet and decidedly weird lyrical subject matter (getting drugged, kidnapped, and hurled into a time warp). "Quest" is perhaps the most enjoyable tune on the album, opening with a guitar solo done to such high tones that it sounds like weeping. A somewhat symphonic and very emotional song. The wittily titled "7th Shakra" is a 10-minute instrumental, starting with a sinister verse/chorus before Charles Ostman abandons form and goes completely loopy on guitar and clarinet. Very introspective stuff. The one minus is that Charles throws too many solos on top of the verse/chorus.

I really have to rate At the Apex of High as one of the most interesting albums I've ever heard, despite the weak sound quality. It's clear the album had to be recorded on home equipment, with Charles singing very softly so as not to drown out the other instruments. Aside from that, I think the demo quality sound is in fact quite appropriate. This is heavily experimental stuff, and anyone who likes bizarre excursions should check it out: guitar freak-outs, mesmerizing clarinet, percussion romping, timorous bass, disturbingly odd lyrics -- Frolk Haven's sole album has it all, and all of it with clear plan and purpose at that. The only drawback is its rarity, so my first move would be to pester all the record companies to get this thing re-released; it's a classic! -- Robert Orme

Tracks :

Oracle of Delphi
Idiomatic Interlude
Cyclation
Zonation of Galactic Cosmodial Entities
Back Up!
Quest
7th Chakra

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NOMADIA - RANGE OF VISION 1971

Recorded on acid in a cave and divided into "smoke" and "acid" sides, this sincerely fried album is a zonated cavernous assemblage of hissing and groaning electronic generators, bongos, flutes and overlapping electric/acoustic guitar layers that sounds like it would have been equally at home in Conrad Schnitzler's Zodiac Free Arts Lab.

Tracks :

01 Smoke Side (22:37)
02 Acid Side (24:53)

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SLACK ALICE - SOMEWHERE BETWEEN NASHVILLE AND CHICAGO 2001

''SLACK ALICE'' are a five/six piece blues outfit hailing from the north west of England. Innovative, dynamic and unleashed, they create their own genre of gut busting blues to rock for. Comprising of--- Cliff Stocker-vocals---Malc Crossley-Bass---Chris Preston & Colin Redmond-lead guitars---Chris Tattersall-drums, their flamboyant style surpasses the conventional boundaries and elevates ''SLACK ALICE'' into the 21st century.

''SLACK ALICE''---A BRIEF HISTORY

Although we may seem youthful, we've probably been around since time began. ''SLACK ALICE'' was a[ product and eventually a casualty of the 70's rock era]. Despite major media and record interest, our need to retain artistic control was paramount---and unfortunately fame slipped from our grasp. We like to think that our songs reflect the trials and tribulations of a band that's been on the road for a long, long time, conveying the meaning of a lifetime of performing in pubs, clubs, festivals and even the occasional toilet!!. Though at times we all felt like giving up---the dream kept us going--- as it does now and we hope it always will.

Tracks :

The way women are made
Mississippi
Get your shoes on
Too young to sing the blues
Might as well get drunk
City bred country boy
Street girl blues
The bottle song
Greenfingered blues
Let the rock roll in
There goes another dream
Pick up a heart
Falling
My little girl

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No covers , the last one without covers I hope :)

[ BY REQUEST] DORIS - DID YOU GIVE THE WORLD SOME LOVE TODAY BABY 1970

1970 album from Swedish singer and Petula Clark wanna-be Doris (Svensson), re-issued on CD (with bonus tracks) by EMI in 1996. Includes a cover of Richard Manuel's "Whispering Pines."

This LP marks the highlight in the career of a talented Nordic blond vocalist - Doris Svensson from Gothenburg, Sweden. It seems as though she's finally managed to find and record a set of songs that suit her 100%. Maybe this isn't surprising when you consider the musical genius that went into writing and scoring the album. Most of the material was written and arranged by TV producer, jazz-pianist, composer, "rarely-out-of-the-news-man-about-town" Berndt Egerbladh. Lyrical assistance was generously provided by a 6 foot kiltless Scottish giant, Francis Cowan. Francis also plays the cello on a few tracks which explains why he's kiltless. Anyway, quite a combination which gave a fantastic result, with a little help from the producer Håkan Sterner. Incidentally, Håkan found the job so exciting that he was forced to retreat behind a beard after its completion.

Doris' album provides 36 minutes of qualified musical jou guaranteed to satisfy all tastes. Discotheques will find that two numbers in particular, "Don't" and "Beatmaker" are good box office draws. Jazz die-hards might even start visiting discotheques after digesting "I wish I knew" and "I'm pushing you out". Note too an incredible ballad called "Daisies" and tell me if Sweden hasn't produced a dangerous competitor for Melanie.

Once again, this LP's got something for everybody, the best of underground, jazz, rock and folk - not mixed up in one gigantic hotch-potch, but all in gentle harmony. Listen to Doris - a good time will be has by all.

Tracks :

# Did you give the world some love today, baby (Norman L. Martin)
# I wish I knew (Billy Taylor - Dick Dallas)
# Grey rain of Sweden (Berndt Egerbladh - Pamela Gray)
# Waiting at the station (Berndt Egerbladh - Francis Cowan)
# Don't (Berndt Egerbladh - Francis Cowan)
# Daisies (Berndt Egerbladh - Pamela Gray)
# You never come closer (Berndt Egerbladh - Francis Cowan)
# Whispering pine [sic] (Richard Manuel - Robbie Robertson)
# I'm pushing you out (Berndt Egerbladh - Francis Cowan)
# Won't you take me to the theatre (Berndt Egerbladh - Francis Cowan)
# Beatmaker (Berndt Egerbladh - Francis Cowan)
# Bath (Harry Nilsson)

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