Alex Harvey-The New Band - The Mafia Stole My Guitar (1979 scotland mix of blue-eyed soul, hard, glam and theatrical rock - Wave audio format)

This 1979 outing saw Alex Harvey returning to the rock music world for what would be his final album.

It's no big surprise that The Mafia Stole My Guitar sounds a lot like the Sensational Alex Harvey Band: the music remains the same unusual but intriguing blend of prog ambition and punk energy and it also contains a few of Harvey's trademark oddball cover versions (example: his surprisingly straight-faced cabaret version of "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody").

What is a surprise is how consistent The Mafia Stole My Guitar is, especially in light of the uneven final albums of his last band.
While the album never coheres the way classic Alex Harvey outings like Next did, each of the songs feels inspired and benefits from a carefully-crafted sound:"Wait For Me Mama" contrasts a wailing, impassioned vocal from Harvey with a tightly-controlled, gypsy-flavored groove from the band while "Oh, Spartacus" is a Roman adventure tale that takes the story of its title character and gives it a glam rock beat.

The Mafia Stole My Guitar also adds finds Harvey shifting his sound in a new direction, with the saxophone taking an upfront role in the arrangements and adding a jazzy flair to the proceedings.
A good example of this new jazziness is the cover of "Shakin' All Over", which alters this classic Johnny Kidd and the Pirates hard-rock nugget by raising the tempo to an amphetamine level and adding all sorts of jazz-fusion inspired riffing over the top.

This album also contains one of the loveliest songs in the Harvey canon in "The Whalers (Thar She Blows)", a surprisingly gentle and lyrical song layered with plenty of gentle synthesizer and saxophone shadings. The end result is a rocking yet stately-sounding slab of music that is unmistakably the work of Alex Harvey.

While it's tragic that Harvey would never record again after this album (he died of health problems in 1981), the Mafia Stole My Guitar remains a fine addition to his legacy. (by Donald Guarisco from amg)

Track List :
01.Don's Delight
02.Back In The Depot
03.Wait For Me Mama
04.The Mafia Stole My Guitar
05.Shakin' All Over
06.The Whalers (Thar She Blows)
07.Oh Spartacus!
08.Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody

Personnel :
*Alex Harvey - guitar, vocals
*Matthew Cang - lead guitar, keyboards, vocals
*Simon Chatterton - drums, percussion, vocals
*Tommy Eyre - main keyboards, vocals
*Gordon Sellar - bass, vocals
*Don Weller - sax, bolo horn, vocals

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Alex Harvey - Considering The Situation (scotland mix of blue-eyed soul, hard, glam and theatrical rock, 2CDs - Wave audio format)

Prepare to cruise down Action Strasse again with this comprehensive retrospective of the career of Alex Harvey prior to and including the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, one of the most original and innovative hard rock/glam/proto-punk bands of the 1970s.

Disc One is devoted to Harvey's pre-SAHB efforts from the 1960s, containing only one SAHB track at the end - "The Harp" (originally the B-side of "There's No Lights on the Christmas Tree Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight!," SAHB's first single), showing the band at their most Celtic-mediaeval.

It begins with Alex Harvey's Soul Band recordings from the early Sixties, mostly covers of American blues/R&B standards done in a much more authentic manner than most early UK blues acts (Davies, Korner, etc.).

Interestingly enough, two of these songs were later done by SAHB - "Framed" and "I Just Want to Make Love To You".

Harvey's early recordings show little trace of his Glaswegian accent, sounding much more Afro-American (his early singing was along the lines of Chuck Berry or Guitar Slim).

"Penicillin Blues" features one of the most outrageous sex/drugs triple entendres ever.
The version of "St. James Infirmary" recorded with Alex' brother Leslie of Stone the Crows fame sounds like it could have been recorded late at night in a cheap hotel in Memphis' red light district in the 1920s - as fine a recreation of early acoustic blues as ever done by white men. "Ain't That Just Too Bad" shows Harvey adapting to Merseybeat; unfortunately, this did not bring success.

Other standouts on the first disc are "Roman Wall Blues" (an adaptation of a poem by W.H. Auden), and the original versions of "Midnight Moses" and "Hole in Her Stocking" (think Captain Beefheart meets Austin Powers).

However, save the chilling acoustic original version of "Isobel Goudie," the tracks which SAHB later redid are inferior to the later versions.

Fine as the originals are, Zal Cleminson's guitar playing (up there with ANY rock guitarist of his time) and Chris Glen's superb bass playing made a big difference when the songs were redone on "Framed," the first SAHB album.

The second disc covers SAHB's career, taking material from seven of the eight albums (there is nothing from "The Penthouse Tapes").

Certainly this is material that everyone should own, and if one does not have the original albums this is a fine introduction to one of the most seminal, underrated and unique rock bands of its era.

However, if I had compiled the album, I would have included the original studio version of "Faith Healer," with its eerie guitar/synth interplay, controlled menace and Alex' eerie, dark vocals which in so many ways set the tone for the post punk death rockers and goths of later times, from "Next" rather than the more celebratory live version.

To represent "Rock Drill," SAHB's final and least consistent album from 1978, I would have included "Nightmare City," an apocalyptic punkish tale of zombies and cannibalism with a shredding Cleminson guitar solo which showed how much contemporary cutting edge bands like the Damned, Stranglers and Radio Birdman owed to SAHB, rather than "Water Beastie" (an example of Harvey's fascination with the Loch Ness Monster).

It is remarkable how timeless and lasting SAHB's oeuvre is today, so many years later, and how so much in the interim owes a direct debt to Glasgow's finest.

One wonders what Alex would have done if he had lived; he was possessed of an immense, unique talent spanning a huge stylistic range, and would probably have been a poster boy for bad boy rockers growing old along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards and Neil Young (all of whom are younger than Alex, for what it's worth).

With SAHB's outrageous stage act and surrealist guerrilla theater tactics verging on performance art, one could only imagine what they would have achieved in the video era.
It is a shame that Harvey's planned stage musical, "Vibrania" (based on the Vambo character, "the Robin Hood of the tenements"), never took shape.

Still, even if Alex is no longer with us, the music and legacy of "The Last of the Teenage Idols" live on, and are beginning to reach a whole new generation who may have been "much too young to know the difference".

"Considering the Situation" should accentuate this and at the same time make long time fans take another walk down Action Strasse.
Pick this up and don't piss in the water supply. (by Michale Snider)



Track List :

CD 1
Alex Harvey And His Soul Band
01.Shout
02.Framed
03.I Just Wanna Make Love To You
04.Elevator Rock (previously unreleased)

Alex Harvey
05.St James Infirmary

Alex Harvey And His Soul Band
06.Penicillin Blues
07.Reelin' And Rockin
08.Ain't That Just Too Bad

Alex Harvey
09.Agent 00 Soul
10.Work Song

from "Hair" Rave-Up
11.Hair
12.Birthday

Alex Harvey
13.Roman Wall Blues
14.Midnight Moses
15.Hammer Song

Rock Workshop
16.Hole In Her Stocking
17.Wade In The Water

Alex Harvey
18.Isobel Goudie (previously unreleased)
19.The Harp (previously unreleased)

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
20.The Harp

CD 2
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
01.Midnight Moses
02.Framed
03.There's No Lights On The Tree, Mother - They're Burning Big Louie Tonite!
04.Buff's Bar Blues
05.Swampsnake
06.Next
07.The Last Of The Teenage Idols
08.The Hot City Symphony Part 1: Vambo
09.Sergeant Fury
10.Tomahawk Kid
11.Action Strasse
12.Give My Compliments To The Chef
13.Faith Healer (Live)
14.Delilah
15.Boston Tea Party
16.Water Beastie

Alex Harvey
17.I Love Monsters Too

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The Tubes - What Do You Want From Live (1978 us hard glam proto-punk rock - Flac)

Although their studio albums were often hit-and-miss affairs, the Tubes could always be counted on for a good live show during their mid-'70s heyday.
In fact, they became a legend in the rock & roll world for their glitzy shows, which included half-nude women performing elaborate dance routines and a variety of characters invented by frontman Fee Waybill, like punk rocker "Johnny Bugger" and blissed-out glam rock icon "Quay Lewd".

What Do You Want From Live can't reproduce all this visual stimuli but it does show what many critics forgot to notice about the Tubes, i.e., the fact that they were a really sharp and exciting live band.

Stripped of their outre visual surroundings, songs like "Mondo Bondage" and "I Was a Punk Before You Were a Punk" still pack a visceral punch thanks to their effective combination of gonzo humor and catchy melodies.
Elsewhere, the Tubes get to show off their surprisingly impressive chops on "Overture", a fast-paced medley that transforms the instrumental highlights of six different songs into one head-spinning pomp-rock blitz, and "Crime Medley", a witty tapestry of crime jazz woven from television theme songs like "Theme from Peter Gunn" and "Theme from Dragnet".

The downside of What Do You Want from Live is that some of the numbers are less potent without the choreographed routines surrounding them: "Smoke (La Vie en Fumer)" and "What Do You Want from Life" both feature Fee Waybill talking about the visual chaos surrounding him and this leaves the listener feeling like they're only witnessing part of the joke (if only someone would put out a video of one of the Tubes' shows from this era).

Despite this caveat, What Do You Want From Live remains a witty and entertaining live album.
It may not win any new converts to the Tubes' camp, but fans of the group will definitely want to check out this entertaining souvenir from the group's wildest era. (by by Donald A. Guarisco from amg)

My review (Dr Bell Otus)
The first concert that i saw in my life, it was from this gig, circa 79.
The show was just beyond description.
An amazing and memorable rock performance, with lidership Fee Waybill (a stage animal).

A show very well set up, where everything has been well studied in detail (the stage, lights, and even the clothes of Fee Waybill, were chosen with much detail).
"What Do You Want From Live" is a pretty amazing aural representation of the band at that time.

With two drummers, two keyboardists, two guitarists, a bass player and a singer, the band's sound at the time was as dense, tight and hard-hitting as anything in rock, then and now.

I still have the double vinyl ... if you don't know them, definitely you must check this, you won't be sorry ... these guys were just awesome.

Track List :
01.Overture :
-Up From The Deep
-Young And Rich
-Madam I'm Adam
-Mondo Bondage
-Up From The Deep
-White Punks On Dope
02.Got Yourself A Deal
03.Show Me A Reason
04.What Do You Want From Life ?
05.God-Bird-Change
06.Special Ballet
07.Don't Touch Me There
08.Mondo Bondage
09.Smoke (La Vie En Fumér)
10.Crime Medley :
-Sound Effect-Siren
-Theme from "Dragnet"
-Theme from "Peter Gunn"
-Theme from "Perry Mason"
-Theme from "Untouchables"
11.I Was A Punk Before You Were A Punk
12.I Saw Her Standing There
13.Drum Solo
14.Boy Crazy
15.You're No Fun
16.Stand Up And Shout
17.White Punks On Dope

Personnel :
*Fee Waybill - lead vocals
*Bill 'Sputnik' Spooner - guitar, vocals
*Michael Cotten - synthesizer
*Mingo Lewis - drums, percussion, vocals
*Prairie Prince - drums
*Roger Steen - guitar
*Vince Welnick - keyboards, vocals
*Rick Anderson - bass, vocals
*Re Styles - vocals

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