The Sensational Alex Harvey Band in concert from Syracuse, New York – recorded during their U.S. tour of 1974.
Certainly up there on the list of bands you should have seen live when you had the chance. Unquestionably a band whose influence and Alex Harvey’s kinetic stage persona cast deep and lasting impressions on so many people who remember those nights of almost complete madness. Alex Harvey wasn’t your average singer – he tore songs apart with his bare hands, rang every turn of phrase and gesture into an epic exploration of emotional tension and turmoil – turned elation into an orgasmic display of ringing truth.
I think it was his mission to lay bare emotions in a stage setting that didn’t ring well with American audiences for the most part. Many thought he was just crazy – turning the achingly ironic and sinister “Next” by Jacques Brel and making it his own just freaked a lot of people out.
In retrospect, it was their loss – and decades later they have come to admit it. Although always wildly popular the UK and Europe, American critics have assessed Alex Harvey as “vastly overlooked and hideously underrated”. Famous last words.
That Alex Harvey died in 1982, the result of a massive heart attack at the age of 46 did not come as much of a surprise to those who knew him and saw him perform, night after night. Maintaining the same full-throttle energy with no stop, no let up. It’s possible the heart just said “enough is enough” and insisted in an extended rest.
What we’re left with is this legacy – sadly, few concerts that truly capture the terrifyingly urgent spirit with which Alex Harvey sang just about everything give a real feel for what you would have experienced sitting in the audience. Even this concert; rare as it is, suffers from wildly fluctuating levels. Evening it out was no easy task.
But listening back to this concert, I was reminded of all the nights I saw The Sensational Alex Harvey Band perform, including their full week of shows at The Roxy in Hollywood. If you saw them all, you would leave with the impression that every one was different in one aspect or another – that was the gift of spontaneity Alex Harvey had – every concert held a different bag of surprises.
So, to get some idea what The Sensational Alex Harvey Band was like during this pivotal period of time in their history, have a seat – press play and crank this one up.
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