THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND

Groupe obscur des années 70 , ce combo produisit des albums essentiels tels que Next , Framed , Live , The Impossible dream , The Penthouse tapes et se fit notamment connaître grace la reprise de Tom Jones , Delilah . Il comprit en son sein Ted Mc Kenna (drums) qui partit ensuite chez Rory Gallagher ( topic?) et Chris Glen ( basse) qui rejoignit le MSG . Ted fut aussi de cette aventure . Notre ami Alex est décédé en 1982 suite aux nombreux abus éthyliques auxquels il fut chroniquement habitués . Depuis de nombreux live sont sortis (BBC Radio 1 live in concert, British Tour 76 et US Tour 74) . Le groupe s' est reformé récemment , a sorti récemmment un double album live Zalvation accompagné d' un DVD . Long live Alex !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deux sorties à l'actif du groupe . Dans un premier temps , un Live At The BBC , composé de shows déjà connus enregistrés par la BBC allant de 72 à 76 et dans un second temps , un album studio totalement inédit intitulé Hot City . Ce qui devait être le 3ème album du groupe (après Framed et Next) , vient de sortir aujourd'hui . Les titres présents sont les premières versions de ce qui sera , en partie , le tracklisting de The Impossible Dream .

Disponible dans les bacs

Dans une interview inédite, Alex Harvey avoue qu'il aurait bien joué dans un film d'horreur et dans une comédie en compagnie de Mel Brooks. lol!

Glasgow rock icon Alex Harvey could have led the way for Zakk Wylde
and Slash into making horror movies if he hadn’t passed away in 1982.
And in a long-lost interview one of the most theatrical rock frontmen of
all time revealed hopes of working with comedy director Mel Brooks,
creator of Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety. Come on in to find out more.

The acclaimed leader of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band died of a
heart attack on tour on February 4, 1982, a day short of his 47th
birthday.

US-based photographer Janet Macoska, a long-time friend of Harvey’s
who received her first professional commission from SAHB in 1974,
discovered her interview transcripts while she researched a photo book
which has been published to mark the 30th anniversary of Harvey’s death.

The conversation reveals an artist approaching the absolute height of
his powers. SAHB had already impressed critics with 1973 album Next and were doing the same with latest release The Impossible Dream.
They’d built a reputation for inspiring, energetic live shows. In the
coming year they’d score their biggest hit single with a comedy-drama
interpretation of Tom Jones’ Delilah and spend several quarters as the biggest-grossing live act in the UK.

In Cleveland, Ohio, in 1974, Harvey told Macoska: “You could call this stardom – I don’t know if it’s that, yet.

“I’ve done all kinds of different things, and I’ve had a lot of time not being out in front. This is something new. Up until The Impossible Dream we had nothing – and yet we were managing to outdraw people who had several hits in actual drawing power.”

He described his approach to capturing a crowd as a, “Love-hate
relationship”, saying: “Sometimes we rub ‘em a bit rough, and then give
them more trouble. And what happens then is, usually, we get a reaction
and they remember us. And then they come back to see us. And then we get
to love one another. I always look at it like that – it’s a bit like a
woman, you know: they say you always hurt the one you love.”

He said SAHB was “Without a doubt” the most satisfying thing he’d
ever done, and he’d be “Selighted” if bandmates Zal Cleminson, Chris
Glen, Hugh McKenna and Ted McKenna went on to find stardom in their own
right.

The gravel-voiced son of the infamous Glasgow Gorbals often said in
interviews that he wanted to make movies. When Macoska asked him to
elaborate Harvey said he’d even considered making a horror film.

“I have and we have no aspirations to make another rock ‘n’ roll movie, even a movie like Tommy or anything. It would have to be a new way of doing it – and I think there is a new way of doing it.

“I think a horror movie would be good. Not necessarily a rock horror
movie; a gothic horror movie, but real. Not one like Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.

“I think Mel is fantastic. I think he’s brilliant. If we made a
movie, Mel should direct it. Somebody told me he’d go crazy over us and
that would be marvellous. I respect his work very much.”

Harvey believed his band would fit well into a movie-making
environment, insisting he had no intention of upstaging them when they
performed.

“The group’s got different personalities and energies. They can be
incredibly bizarre. They’re more bizarre offstage and sometimes we do a
lot of impromptu acts and really get into it.

“Like, Hugh and I, or Zal and I, we’ll meet in a bar as though we
don’t know each other, and speak across somebody and start getting
insulting. You can see people getting restless – they don’t really
understand what’s going on.”

Harvey was more than 15 years older than his bandmates and most of
his fans. His age and overwork is thought to have contributed to his
death as he waited for a ferry home to the UK from Belgium with his new
band, the Electric Cowboys.

But in 1974 he was already reflecting that life on the road could be
too strenuous. He told Macoska: “You’ve got to have a sense of humour
when you do three flights in one day and eat a hamburger that’s made out
of plastic. I think possibly these tours are a thing of the past
because I don’t think the kids go to them as much, and I don’t think
they feel any sense of being ‘with’ the performer.

“Maybe what we’ll do in the future – and it would be much better – is
play two nights in a place that holds three or four thousand.”

Asked if that proved he wasn’t in it for the money, Harvey replied: “No, not really. I want to be happy.

“I don’t know many superstars, but I do know a few, and I don’t know
any that are happy. They get hung up on smashing hotels and get into
heavy drugs and stuff, and their personal lives just don’t seem to be
happy.

“Success, to me, would be to communicate, and maybe discover a new
form of communication, whatever it would be. I don’t know. I might have
been an explorer – I may have been an astronaut. As long as I’m
discovering something.”

SAHB split soon after headlining the Reading Festival in 1977.
Macoska was present and has included a set of pictures from the show in
her photobook, Alex Harvey: Last of the Teenage Idols. It also
includes shots of Harvey, his band and friends on and off stage, with
extended captions where Macoska puts each set in context and explains
her memories of the moments.

She says: “It was wonderful to find the interview transcripts and
relive the moment I met Alex. He became my mentor and my friend.

“It’s a real shame SAHB were around before the MTV era – if they’d
been there when making videos was a must they’d have got the mainstream
recognition they deserved.

“Just thinking about the kind of movie Alex might have made is amazing. He and SAHB are legends.”



Source : Classic Rock

Photo prise le 4 février 2012 à Glasgow. De gauche à droite : Chris Glen, Alex Harvey Junior, Zal Cleminson, Ted McKenna.

Contrairement à certains musiciens renommés, Ted McKenna a la délicatesse de vous répondre sur Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583391369

Une autre version de Delilah

En 2011



Max Maxwell, Chris Glen, Fish, Ted McKenna, Zal Cleminson

Peu de temps après la sortie du Live de 75.

Je trouve qu'il y avait une originalité dans l'art de la composition des titres qui pouvaient parfois être déconcertants genre The Man In The Jar sur l'album The Impossible Dream. Delilah est une cover de Tom Jones que le groupe se plaisait à reprendre à chaque concert, laissant libre court au petit délire visible sur cette vidéo. Il faut quand même savoir qu'Alex Harvey, né en 1935, a débuté sa carrière en 1959, a brassé bon nombre d'influences qui avaient cours à cette époque-là, combinant à la fois des éléments de blues, glam-rock, hard rock (Faith Healer que beaucoup de groupes se plaisent à reprendre régulièrement) et même de valse voire même de tango et ce, jusqu'à sa mort en 1982. Bref, un artiste éclectique au sens large du terme qui dans les 70's a permis également de dévoiler au grand jour des talents tels que Zal Cleminson (guitariste), Chris Glen (bassiste qui partira ensuite dans le MSG) et Ted McKenna (pareil que Chris Glen après avoir fait un crochet chez Rory Gallagher). Ce dernier aujourd'hui tourne en compagnie de Gerry McAvoy alternant en compagnie de Chris Glen les shows du SAHB.

La tombe d'Alex Harvey à Glasgow :

Helloween a repris Faith Healer :

Voilà encore un Band que j'aime,et que j'ai pas vu(sauf en dvd)
Dommage!