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, “Delighted” 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.”

Full details and book purchase information is at www.alexharveybook.com

To celebrate this landmark, Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Matt, Mike and others take you through the 20 songs that built the band. Watch the trailer for the new Cameron Crowe doc Pearl Jam Twenty here: http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/pearl-jam-twenty/trailer

Also in thjs packed issue:

Lou Reed/Metallica

“It’s not a party album.” Lou Reed and Metallica tell us all about their collaboration album, Lulu. Listen to the first taster here: http://soundcloud.com/loureedmetallica/the-view

Rod Stewart

Every Picture Tells A Story. The in-depth, eye-witness tale of Rod’s classic album that arrived by accident. Watch Rod’s classic TOTP Maggie May appearance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcoWUt51zaU&feature=fvwrel

Sham 69

Too punk for punk? Too working-class for a fashion-led London media? As they prepare to re-form, frontman Jimmy Pursey and guitarist Dave Parsons look back. See Sham play Borstal Breakout at Reading 1978 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6utdlMvuD74&feature=related

Opeth

Goodbye death metal beginnings, hello new, metal-free album Heritage. We sneak a peek inside the Scandinavian progsters’ strange world and weird head-space. See their creey video for new track The Devil’s Orchard here: http://pitchfork.com/news/44090-video-opeth-the-devils-orchard/

The Answer

To celebrate the release of their third album, Classic Rock takes the Northern Irish boys for a night on the tiles in their hometown. You should hear the tales they told… See videos on the making of the album here: http://www.theanswer.ie/

Tony Iommi

Knife-carrying gang member, heavy metal pioneer, rock icon, classic-riff architect… Life has had its moments of both heaven and hell for the Black Sabbath guitarist. Watch CR’s Malcolm Dome interview him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLoJ92y8Zk0

Jani Lane

He wanted to be more than ‘The Cherry Pie guy’. But alcohol, demons and ridicule led to his demise. Watch him talk about why he hates that song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR1xpknCHCQ

The Dirt

Jeff Beck hints at teaming up with Robert Plant; Blackmore, Paice, Frampton, Schenker and Wylde among the guests on William ‘Captain Kirk’ Shatner’s new album of classic rock covers; Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan to rejoin Quo? Welcome back Lindsey Buckingham, Slim Chance and Girlschool…

The New Blues Rock Super-Duos

We speak to Beth Hart about her new album with Joe Bonamassa, and Susan Tedeschi about the Tedeschi Trucks Band (a collaboration with her husband and Allmans guitarist Derek Trucks):

Watch Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa being interviewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3nwMRXxZg Hear them playing Tom Waits’ Chocolate Jesus at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TkitGRoGM8&feature=related

See the Tedeschi Trucks Band interviews here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-_EYXYR8RY. Watch them performing Midnight In Harlem here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7czlanjaObs&feature=related

Photo Pass

Brian May

“I had this image of Brian as this sort of ‘time lord of fruit’.” Patrice De Villiers recalls photographing the grapefruit-loving Queen guitarist at his home in Surrey.

The Stories Behind The Songs

Anthrax & Public Enemy

Between the paint-guns, the cross-dressing and the late-night philosophy, it’s a wonder this 1991 crossover thrash-hop masterpiece even got made.

Q&A

Peter Gabriel

“The first time I got a phone call from space, I was out.” The former Genesis man on technology, cracking movies, pop stardom (briefly), and almost riding the Space Shuttle.

Fly On The Wall

Rolling Stones

When the Stones staged their spectacular Rock And Roll Circus comeback in 1968, they ended up being upstaged by The Who and looking like clowns. Watch The Who blowing everyone away here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ku7QNRudg

Heavy Load

Gene Simmons

The Kiss man on Gene Simmons, making money, wasting money, and how if he was in charge the police would have baseball bats and drug dealers would be dead.

Plus there’s a massive reviews section. With new albums from Lou Reed & Metallica, The Union, Foreigner, Megadeth, Johnny Winter… Reissues from The Who, Dream Theater, Yes, Nazareth, Whitesnake, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix… Books on Frank Zappa, The Kinks, progressive rock, Captain Beefheart… DVD on Mott The Hoople… Live reviews of Pearl Jam, Jane’s Addiction.

There’s also a great free DVD, featuring live  performances from Roy Harper, Van Der Graaf Generator, Caravan, The Zombies and others. That’s in the UK. Overseas it will be a 14-track free CD, featuring such artists as Donnie Vie, Vain, Shy and Amebix. The covers for both are below.

All this and so much more in the new issue of Clsssic Rock. On sale right now!

This features Zakk Wylde on guitar and will be on Shatner’s upcoming album Seeking Major Tom, released by Cleopatra Records on October 11.

Says Wylde of working with Captain James T. Kirk: “He’s super cool. We had an awesome time working together”.

Check out the footage here.

The full track listing for the album is:

1. Space Trucking – featuring Ian Paice and Johnny Winter
2. She Blinded Me With Science – Bootsy Collins, Patrick Moraz
3. In A While
4. Empty Glass – Michael Schenker
5. Lost In The Stars
6. Twilight Zone – Warren Haynes
7. Space Cowboy
8. Rocket Man – Steve Hillage
9. Space Oddity – Ritchie Blackmore, Alan Parsons
10. Spirit In The Sky – Peter Frampton
11. Bohemian Rhapsody – John Wetton
12. Silver Machine – Wayne Kramer, Carmine Appice
13. Major Tom – Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez
14. Learning To Fly – Edgar Froese
15. Mr Spaceman – Dave Davies
16. Iron Man – Zakk Wylde
17. Planet Earth – Steve Howe
18. Walking On The Moon
19. Mrs Major Tom

Words: Malcolm Dome

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the Hit And Run album, Girlschool have re-recorded it for the Wacken label. Now titled Hit And Run Revisited, there’s little doubt they’ve done a fine job. And studio technology being so much better in 2011, the whole thing has a more powerful sound. But, you know what? The original is still better. They’ve even changed the silly banter in Yeah Right. Sure, it wouldn’t now make sense to have a mum laying down the law for her daughters, but the new dialogue lacks the daft panto humour of the 81 version.

White Wizzard don’t appear to have much luck with vocalists. No sooner had Wyatt Anderson returned for Flying Tigers (Earache) than he’s quit the band again. However, he certainly enhances the new album. In fact, this is White Wizzard stepping up a notch or two. The songs have a confident stride, and the clear NWOBHM influences of yore are slightly downplayed now, in favour of a more modern metal strut. Let’s hope the loss of Anderson can be overcome.

Touchstone have been one of those British prog bands standing on the edge of something special for a while. Well, they’ve got a lot closer with The City Sleeps (SPV/Steamhammer). Vocalist Kim Seviour has never sounded better; she radiates personality, while around her the band veer across the spectrum, from an almost heavy sound to something more introspective. This does showcase Touchstone’s strengths.

Now, Opeth have long been regarded as one of the very best at balancing metal and progressive tendencies, sometimes favouring one or the other. But Heritage (Roadrunner) is unquestionably an album where they jump full into the latter camp. This is measured musical alchemy, with each song shining thrillingly with momentous ideas. Whether Opeth have now taken a firm and irreversible decision to leave their overt heaviness behind remains to be seen. But there’s no denying Heritage is pure class.

What the thrash world now needs is one of the younger bands to step forward and lead the pack into a new era. There are plenty of candidates, but Evile might just have taken a march or two on everyone with Five Serpent’s Teeth (Earache). One hesitates to compare it to Master Of Puppets (that would be something to live up to), but like the latter, this album has diversity without diluting its metal commitment. It’s thrash with a brain, and that could be what takes Evile into the big time.

Leslie West is a master guitarist who’s regarded as a hero and inspiration by many of his peers. Which is why he can call on so many to guest on an album like Unusual Suspects (Mascot). The list is remarkable, taking in Slash, Billy Gibbons, Zakk Wylde, Joe Bonamassa and Steve Lukather. But why this could easily have ended up as a widdle fest, what ultimately matters, as it should, are the songs. This is a great collection that allows West to show off not only his pure guitar chemistry, but also that unmistakable voice. It’s one of his best albums in years, and not just because of the guests lined up to salute him.

Finally, to a band who’ve rediscovered themselves. The portents for Anthrax and new album Worship Music (Nuclear Blast) didn’t appear too promising, Having recorded the whole thing with vocalist Dan Nelson, they then had to totally rethink it when he was replaced by Joey Belladonna. But it’s worked. Belladonna has never sounded so tough and unyielding, while he still retains that essential melodic quality. And the album comes across as having the spirit of Among The Living but also boasting the physicality of The Sound Of White Noise. A new era beckons for Anthrax, who prove here they don’t have to rely on the 80s to be regarded as one of the Big Four of thrash.

Called The Chosen Few, the full track listing is:

1. Diamonds And Rust – chosen by Joe Elliott
   2. Dissident Aggressor  - chosen by Steve Vai and Geoff Tate (Queensryche)
   3. Exciter  - chosen by Accept
   4. Beyond The Realms Of Death  - chosen by Lars Ulrich
   5. Delivering The Goods  - chosen by Kerry King
   6. The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)  - chosen by David Coverdale and Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God)
   7. The Ripper  - chosen by Ozzy Osbourne
   8. Victim Of Changes  - chosen by James Hetfield (Metallica)
   9. Breaking The Law – chosen by Lemmy
   10. Rapid Fire  - chosen by Vinnie Paul (Hellyeah)
   11. Grinder – chosen by Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society)
   12. Living After Midnight – chosen by Alice Cooper and Geezer Butler
   13. Screaming For Vengeance – chosen by Slash
   14. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming – chosen by Klaus Meine and Corey Taylor
   15. The Sentinel – chosen by Chris Jericho (Fozzy)
   16. Turbo Lover  - chosen by Jonathan Davis (Korn)
   17. Painkiller – chosen by Joe Satriani

Find out more at www.judaspriest.com

West told Billboard from a rehabilitation facility where he’s learning to adjust to his condition:

“I don’t think there is another attitude… I cried a couple fuckin’ times. I look down – ‘Where is it?!’ You still feel the nerves and stuff like that. I had to make a decision – lose my leg or lose my life. What are you gonna do?

“But I’ll tell you. It’s a good thing it wasn’t one of my arms. Then I’d be really fucked.”

The amputation was needed to stop a septic infection that started in West’s foot.

Find out more at www.mountaintherockband.com

Titled Searching For Major Tom, the track listing is:

1. Space Trucking – featuring Ian Paice and Johnny Winter
2. She Blinded Me With Science – Bootsy Collins, Patrick Moraz
3. In A While
4. Empty Glass – Michael Schenker
5. Lost In The Stars
6. Twilight Zone – Warren Haynes
7. Space Cowboy
8. Rocket Man – Steve Hillage
9. Space Oddity – Ritchie Blackmore, Alan Parsons
10. Spirit In The Sky – Peter Frampton
11. Bohemian Rhapsody – John Wetton
12. Silver Machine – Wayne Kramer, Carmine Appice
13. Major Tom – Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez
14. Learning To Fly – Edgar Froese
15. Mr Spaceman – Dave Davies
16. Iron Man – Zakk Wylde
17. Planet Earth – Steve Howe
18. Walking On The Moon
19. Mrs Major Tom

The album will be out later in the year through Cleopatra.

It’s called Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World, which is all about the wah-wah pedal of that name. It includes contributions from the following:

Dweezil Zappa

Eddie Van Halen

Jerry Cantrell

Kirk Hammett

Paul Gilbert

Slash

Steve Lukather

Stevie Salas

Zakk Wylde

See the whole film here.

One lucky person will get a pair of tickets for the gig of their choice on the tour (see dates below), and also a box set of the band’s current album, Order Of The Black. This includes:

A Nail Cross Pendant (1.5” Pendant)
A 5×7” Lithograph autographed by Zakk Wylde
Keg Tap Handle (12” made of wood)
An Order of the Black CD
Exclusive T-Shirt

In addition, one runner-up will win a pair of tickets for the show of their choice.

The dates for the February tour are:

Mon. 14: Birmingham O2 Academy

Tue. 15: Newcastle O2 Academy

Wed. 16: Glasgow O2 Academy

Fri. 18: Cambridge Corn Exchange

Sat. 19: Southampton Guildhall

Mon. 21: London Hammersmith Apollo

Tue. 22: Manchester Apollo

Wed. 23: Bristol Colston Hall

The support act are Godsized.

To enter the competition, go here.

Apparently, the unlikely pair have done a cover of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man for the upcoming Shatner album Seeking Major Tom, due out later this year on Cleopatra Records.

On his Twitter account, Shatner says of Wylde: “Zakk is one of the great guitarists who played with Ozzy Osbourne. A master playing a cover of Iron Man. He’s fantastic. I’m energised”.

Next: The Hoff gets to work with Tony Iommi – upl!