Remember trying to persuade my Mum to let me stay up and watch the Whistle Test, there were so many fantastic singers and bands who did not go on Top of the Pops… Happy Happy days…
I remember Whistle Test. But not OGWT. I was 3 when this was broadcast so I've never quite got why SAHB was just so revered. I've friends born late 1950s and they said that the reaction to Alex Harvey was similar to Bowie a few years earlier. Its fascinating. There's definitely something, actually More than something, of Bon Scott about Alex. That unchained Scotsman. But what a wonderful snapshot in time this episode is.
@@OlafProt aye. Alex was indeed a rare talent, he had everything in his repertoire, more than likely his ear was tuned to the very early evolution of blues, soul, Honky Tonk & the other sounds coming across the Atlantic, as well as his Scottish heritage. Finding Tear Gas & cleverly moulding them into his SAHB was in itself a stroke of genius. But above all the Stage presence of Alex mesmerised everyone who saw him live. He somehow conected, personally, with his audience. The Soldier on the Wall & The Mafia Stole My Guitar, Alex's albums without SAHB are also equally, artistically & musically brilliant,,, in my, very, very, partisan, opinion. RIP Alex.
@@sicks6six the equivalents of swifties in the 70s were listening to the bay city rollers and the new seekers and buying those TOTP albums with re-recorded versions of hits on. Nothing changes. Some people want disposable pop and don't want or need music to make them thing. And that's ok. Horses for courses. Sam Smith means nothing to me, but that's because he's not meant to. I'm 52. But if he makes some people happy, then great.
I recently saw somebody state online, that Liam Gallagher is the greatest frontman of all time..bloody hilarious….in my humble opinion, there’s only one candidate….and that is the incomparable Alex Harvey…and how brilliant to see SAHB in their pomp with two amazing performances!
@kjm5155.........that's so funny. SAHB were just Brilliant. AH was the tommy Steele of Scotland. He put theatre into Rock music. He was a proper front man
@@davidpost6902 Before SAHB, Alex had done the hard yards…through Skiffle, Jazz, and then the Soul Band….he opened for the Beatles on their first ever tour(in Alloa)…he did the whole Hamburg thing just like the Fab Four….he played in Hair….he lived with Bowie….Mike Oldfield played in his band before SAHB….he deserved every piece of success that came his way…..he paid his dues and more! In my mind, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band are…and we’re… the finest band that Scotland has ever produced…if it wasn’t for those pesky Liverpudlians….I would say these Islands!😆
@@johnmcnulty9070 It's all down to personal taste...but I would suggest the majority of people that saw Alex 'live'...would be hard pushed to name anyone better.
Amen tae that brother im still getting answers n wisdom fae Mr Alex Harvey luv the way music appears at times of lkn answers peace ❤ Roderick Harvey 🏴
@@ThePhototroon to wear my SAHB Tshirt, day or night, is to invite fellow Sensationalists to come share their memories of when they saw Alex & witnessed his SAHB. Even now, after all this time, his fans remain slightly puzzled about what they saw but all agree with you ... Sensational!
Saw them in Slough about this time. One of the great nights of my youth. When you could watch a great band close up without having to take out a mortgage. Pity those Oasis fans having to pay a fortune to see them in the far distance
Unfortunately never saw them live. However, I saw the reincarnation of Sahb in 2000 with all of the band in Tottenham Court Road. Wow! Love this band. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band!
Got to see Alex Harvey Band on a number of occasions they were great to watch Live what as happened to the music where did it all go wrong the 60S and 70s was a great time to be on the scene I loved it then and still do..
Hands down TOGWT was the greatest music show ever, just got to look at the line up each week, the live performances and the fact you saw acts you otherwise would not have seen. It was my highlight of the week and I still miss it a lot. Just like I miss the Wardour Street Marquee Club as one of the greatest music venues ever.
And that children, is what proper rock music was all about. The guitar player in Stone The Crows was Les Harvey, Alex's younger brother, who died having been electrocuted on stage during a pre-show soundcheck in Swansea in May 1972.
@@apollomemories7399 Alex recorded an extremely cathartic version of 'He ain't Heavy He's my Brother'. The pain of Alex is clear to hear, & to those don't know the story, the way Alex sings, it just sounds awful. It's to be found in the deeper recesses of RU-vid somewhere.
SAHB stage shows were amazing, dramatic and so hilarious at times. ‘Dancing Cheek to Cheek’ live was just so funny. But the musicianship was always first class, and perfectly delivered.
Saw Nazareth live around this time. So great! Hair of the Dog is a phenomenal song! However, my number one Scottish love will always be Gerry Rafferty ❤
Farewell by Rod Stewart just floored🫢 me, brought back so many memories growing up a teenager in Fiji in the 70s🥺🥲where'd all them years go🤔Thanks for the upload 🌴🇫🇯🌹🇦🇺😎👍👊
Just love TSHAB! The beautifully comical choreographed gyrations of Zal and Chris in Delilah were simply - DELIGHTFUL. Zal is one of coolest guys in the industry and a great performer and was the perfect foil to 'raving-mad-pal' Alex Harvey.
I might have seen this when it first aired, but I certainly haven't seen it since. I saw SAHB twice, once with the Who at Charlton Athletic and again at the Liverpool Empire on the tour when the live album was recorded. They were, what's the word? Oh yeah, sensational. I have never enjoyed a gig more than their Liverpool performance. Alex had the whole audience in the palm of his hand. Utterly brilliant. Alex had a touch of the psychopath about him. He could charm you and scare the sh!t out of you at the same time. I wasn't a huge fan of Nazareth, though I loved their covers of My White Bicycle, and especially This Flight Tonight. The only album I bought was Rampant.
Well said. We definitely need more peace & love in these troubled times. Still, in 75 the Vietnam war ended but the Lebanese war started. I was 10 in 75 bit too young to appreciate the bands here but later on I caught up.
31:21 They're actually from fife - a strange, weird and backward place across the water from edinburgh. That said, Naz were a cracking good Rock band. R.I.P. Dan.
@@apollomemories7399 Glasgow, where they`re so posh the club you with a perrier water bottle before stabbing you. They at least then phone you an ambulance.
@@andicampbell8621 You might be surprised just how few the number of stabbing incidents are these days. And they tend to be a scheme problem. You could in theory walk around the west-end for years non-stop and never get accosted.
Brilliant show. Dan McCafferty's patter is magic, it was nice to see Blue and Rab Noakes again but in the end Alex totally stole the show. It's just a pity that Gerry Rafferty didn't also feature.
Used to go to the Sunday folk nights in the Salutation Hotel in Kinross ..pretty sure Rab Noaks Archie Fish and Barbra Dickson all played there,,,great nights
They started having dire rubbish like Mick Hucknall and the obligatory equally dire animated cartoon (the equivalent to Pans People on Top of the Pops. Nightingale would later reinvent herself as some kind of dark, edgy club DJ who played effing-and-blinding Rap but that choker she always seemed to wear was a sure sign of her undoubted middle-classness). Benny Hill, of all people, did a wicked pi** take of Bob Harris with the whisper, the beard, the loose waistcoat, the shirt mostly undone, the chest hair and the medallion. John Peel used to hate some of the Prog Rock types on OGWT but the physical resemblance between Harris and Peel, at that time, was striking. Did they know each other or even meet at all I wonder.
@@leeder92 not as horrendously south as the woke BBC having women commenting on the football who can't seem to help engaging their nasal passages whenever possible!
@@martydav9475 Much to do with the rubbish bands who couldn't play properly. Much of post-punk was perhaps interesting as a record, but woefully inadequate when attempted to be performed live. Obviously Harris and Peel knew each other from Radio 1, where they both broadcast sessions from many of the same bands from 1972 onwards. Since you don't seem to know that aspect of their history, I'd also say I'm not so sure the prog rock types that Peel did dislike ever appeared on OGWT and think you only have half the story on that. And Peel too, was also undoubtedly middle-class.
@@apollomemories7399Peel was indeed middle-class as his Radio 4 programme Home Truths tended to demonstrate (I recall an item on a middle-aged, middle-class academic woman whose family were aghast when she got a tattoo on her thigh). I recall also being in soulless, bleak B&Q once when Peel's voice could be heard loudly advertising Fisons fertilizer. Peel's apparent devotion to Liverpool FC tended to wear thin as he rarely attended matches and started watching Ipswich instead as it was nearer. Peel always looked dismayed and uncomfortable at Glastonbury as he had to introduce various rubbish on the main stages as Jo Whiley, a musical vacuity, looked on. ( In later years Whiley was joined by another musical vacuity, Lauren Laverne).
@@martydav9475 Whiley and Laverne, what a duo. Loathed in equal measure. My better half commented that she thought Laverne was going for the "earth mother" look having piled on the weight and wearing one size fits all this size cover-up clothing. But, it's the other two on Glastobury, the ginger knob and the other woman with dark hair, who do my head in.
Great episode. Seeing SAHB and Naz made me think of all the amazing vocalists Scotland has produced, i.e. Bon Scott, Dan McCafferty, Alex Harvey, James Dewar (Robin Trower, Stone The Crows), Davey Pattison (Gamma, Robin Trower), Brian Connolly (Sweet), Frankie Miller, Kal Swan (Tytan, Lion), Alex Ligertwood (Santana), Maggie Bell, a.o.
And some more: John Martyn, Al Stewart, Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), Mark Knopfler, Shirley Manson (Garbage), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Gerry Rafferty, Jim Kerr (Simple Minds), Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile), Billy MacKenzie (The Associates), Jack Bruce (Cream), Pye Hastings (Caravan), Ivor Cutler, Donovan, Robin Williamson (Incredible String Band), Bert Jansch (Pentangle), Mike Scott (The Waterboys).
Once seen never ever forgotten! Alex had a mesmerising & menacing stage presence & His SAHB were fantastic musicians that made all that noise look fun & effortless.
I saw them at Clifton College of Education, Nottingham. Support 'band' a middle aged stripper. Got fondled by a guy behind me who mistook me for his girlfriend. Awkward moment for both of us...
This looks and sounds a lot better than it did when I watched OGWT on a B&W telly in the 70s. Was the show filmed or recorded on videotape? The image quality here is excellent.
They were very good, but they did not blow The Who off the stage. They made the mistake of doing that Hugh and Zal spot where Alex stole Zal's guitar, which went on far too long and killed the momentum because half the audience couldn't see what was going on. When The Who hit the stage and Moon did that cartwheel right across the front of the stage (from Townshend's spot over to Entwistle's on the left) before getting behind his kit, then Townshend's opening chords for Can't Explain, the place went 10 feet up in the air. And the volume was beyond belief, well it would be being the most powerful pa system in the world.
Much of the OGWT studio appearances were mimed or at least sang to a backing track, but SAHB, seen here twice are absolutely live and they lived up to their Sensational name.
No .. that is what happened in Top of the pops . I watched probably every episode of Whistle test. Don’t remember any mining. I play guitar. Union rules on Top of the Pops… if they didn’t play it live they had to record the backing track again and that tape was used to back the .. often .. live singer.
@@seabud6408 I'm afraid you are mistaken. Some bands did play with backing tapes - for instance, see The Who as broadcast 30 January 1973, where they played Relay and Long Live Rock. Daltrey sang live vocals but the band mimed. However, some bands were live such as Little Feat and every performance by John Martyn. You might also check out SAHB's earlier appearance on 18 December 1973, where they mimed to Next and The Faith Healer. Alex's vocals were live for Next, but bolstered with a backing track for TFH. The violins also looked a bit dodgy on Next.
@@apollomemories7399 someplace on RU-vid there's a musician/producer saying that he arranged the violins on NEXT, (spliced to the video playing ?) He also claimed that he wanted Anthem to be much more, bigger & grander, but, typically Alex didn't want it. My guess, Alex only wanted what SAHB & co. could comfortably, & afford, to take on the road & play live. Alex forever & always left his audience drooling for more.
@@SpireUtd Well, there were two different geezers involved. Pip Williams did the arrangements for Next and David Batchelor did the production on Anthem. Makes sense that Alex didn't want to be dragging around half an orchestra on tour to play on one song or two.
Pure nostalgia forme when Dan was talking about playing the Burns Howf, we played there and in the Dial Inn, the Maggie & the Amphora around ‘77 &’78. I recall the pay in the Howf was £12……but no free beer! Great times!👍🎶🎶😂
SAHB lucky to catch them live in 74 and 75 lancaster uni and stoke city football ground on a bill headed by Yes faith healer intro still gives me a lft of mood halcyon days as a 16 yr old Ogwt forever!
20.09 In. The singer can't pretend to hide his frustration with the guitar player!! Funny!! The thing is the guitar player is trying to pretend he gives a fuck, but clearly he doesn't, he seems to be a half step behind everyone.
May 30, 1975 Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Give My Compliments To The Chef, Delilah Rab Noakes - Stepping Stone, Turn A Deaf Ear Dan McCafferty - interview Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces (film) Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog, Guilty (live film) Blue - Red Light Song (promo)
If they came to dear auld Glasgae toon now they couldnt find even one band to match these folk back then. Maybe one if they were deid lucky...Though they could have found lots of good bands in the 80s and even early 90s..... and there are a LOT less bands now..yer man from Nazareth was saying how there were millions of bands in Glasgow then. Not quite, but there WERE 100s, in just Glasgow alone. A study found that there was more than 250 active playing bands in Birmingham alone in the mid 1960s...How many now? ....3 and a half decent ones maybe! Music has gone way down hill in the last 20 years...and will it ever get good again?
1975, it really was a much simpler time. Just listen to the talent. Delilah was AHB biggest chart hit reaching the top 10 in 75. My mum was a big Tom Jones fan and this version had her clutching her pearls... as kids we never ever considered it was a song about domestic abuse and murder! Great clip of AWB at the end. Seeing all these guys in their prime- awesome!
my most precious thing ever, is my Alex Harvey autograph , on the back of my concert ticket. He signed it "Vambo Roolz Alex Harvey". their live album is one of the best live albums of all time. Live they were an unstoppable force of nature. Alex was the best frontman ever . i was incredibly sad when he passed, but keeping the faith{healer} by regularly playing SAHBs albums
Back when I was a kid, I was seventeen when this episode went out, the OGWT was absolutely essential viewing. Now it was a long time ago, although it seems like bloody yesterday, but I really had no recollection at all of this episode, but what a show. Thanks for posting and thank you Scotland, some great music and The Sensational Alex Harvey band were mesmerising.
Roderick David Stewart was born at 507 Archway Road, Highgate, North London, on 10 January 1945, the youngest of five children of Robert Joseph Stewart (1904-1990)[13][14] and Elsie Rebecca Gilbart (1905-1996).[15][16] His father was Scottish and had been a master builder in Leith, Edinburgh, while Elsie was English and had grown up in Upper Holloway in North London. Married in 1928, the couple had two sons and two daughters while living in Scotland, and then they moved to Highgate. Nearly Scottish Rod but not quite😀
@@williamwallace5857 Eric Idle sent up Whispering Bob and the OGWT in an episode of 'Rutland Weekend Television'. Patchy, like a lot of Eric's stuff, but some of it is genuinely funny. I think Neil Innes is in there somewhere.
Keep expecting the Taggart crew to appear to 'have a word' with the lads! Can we use some of that music just before there's a 'murdur' scheduled to happen...especially for the chef-poisoner episode?
Here any Glaswegian from the SAHDB ero and wee bit on ,Most won’t know the comparison I’m about to make,Alex Harvey looks like that too slow Joe psychopath Ronnie Neeson ,I had the pleasure of meeting and …. But Even if you’ve no put the two together,Just google Ronnie Neeson murdering shitebag,aye not the shitebag part. I love the theatre of that legendary band
First time seeing the video of Delilah LoL, 😁bloody brilliant. AWB, adding more to picking up the pieces of my teenage years in Fiji before moving to Australia😊🌴🇫🇯🌹🇳🇿😎👍👊
Could the BBC not have put on subtitles for the Nazareth singer? Nice to see an entire episode of TOGWT with the visuald cobbled together to accompany bands not playing live - there were often really creative
The OGWT got me into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I was also 'fortunate' enough to see the legendary Paul Kossof interview when he was so jagged up on heroin I doubt he could remember his name. Other great performances (in my mind,) were Lynard Skynard and Supertramp. And yes, I also had to convince my parents to let me stay up and watch the OGWT in the early 70's. PS I wonder how many people know where the title of the programme came from?
I do..... I believe that if the old fellas that worked as stage hands whistled tunes that they heard in rehearsal... you passed the old, grey whistle test... Am I right ? or was that just fanciful legend.. ?
