Though I did once have a pee on the top deck of a bus.

This conversation has taken a very strange turn…

Happy Days!

Tom - Sorry if my remarks came across as astringent to you. My defence?

“Don’t blame it on the sunshine,
Don’t blame it on the moonlight,
Don’t blame it on the good times,
Blame it on the Bunny!”

But yes, in retrospect a mistake to poll so early. Luckily everyone talked about Chart Runs and Alex Harvey instead!

I always think of my dad when I think of AH - they were more or less the same age, died more or less at the same time for the same reason - and he was a real inspiration to me in the sense that if you had the aura, the ability, the magic, age really was nothing but a number in the music business, and also that he could cite Marvel Comics and film noir and Christ knows what else, put it all together and make it work, botb visually and musically. I always thought to myself that if I wanted to form a band when I grew up I would make it like SAHB…a total experience (it hasn’t happened yet, but who knows?)…

He’d be 73 now and I would have loved to see him doing “Framed” dressed as bin Laden, as he would surely have done…

Maybe we are a little biased as we could always call Alex one of our own.

I often wondered WTF possessed the label (Vertigo) to record their live album in London instead of Glasgow, where he sold out several nights at the Apollo on the same (brief) Christmas tour. It was only about my fifth or sixth time at the Apollo and it remains one of the best gigs I’ve every attended - I presume it was all down to the cost - a false economy I would have thought.

For SAHB, stick with the first three albums, “Framed”, “Next” and “The Impossible Dream”. Listen out for Zal’s playing - he wasn’t just a strutting pierrot, he was also a damn fine rock guitarist.

The band have periodically reformed, and released a live album in 2006 entitled “Zalvation”. It was unfortunately rather poor, suffering from abysmal production and a weak front man.

Zal himself recently announced his retirement from the music business, and the band’s future is once again uncertain.

Earlier Alex solo stuff is worth a listen, and there have been a couple of decent compilations released over the last couple of years.

There’s a good 2CD compilation called “Considering the Situation” which covers both solo and SAHB stuff - if you’re only going to get one, get this one. It serves both as a good overview and a starting point if you decide to look further.

Best of luck!

Putting ‘Sensational’ in front of their name was a bit of a giveaway too, like The Brilliant Corners, Fabulous Poodles and other no-hopers (Incredible Bongo Band being an honourable exception). The only time I’ve revisited Harvey’s gang was on a tour bus where the (intimidating surf-dude) driver insisted on playing them. Just as well it wasn’t a DVD.

I wonder if picture discs or picture sleeves would have influenced SAHB’s chart positions?

Re double sided: The failure usually was that they’d pick two tracks with differing duration, so if you had played “M Factor”, you had to wait 2 mins before it got to the runout groove.

There was one track, by Mum and Dad, about daredevil bikers: One version he makes the jump to general cheering, the other version he crashes, taken to hospital, the pulse meter ‘dies’…. Freakiest thing on record sing “Disturbance” by The Move.