THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY EXPERIENCE
LOCAL FOLKLORE is an interesting topic, especially when music is involved, as decades ago The Sensational Alex Harvey Band hit the stage at The Northwood Club, Darly Dale near Matlock, along with others from that era. Fast-forward, and today many acts now have tribute bands that do the rounds, yet bizarrely these can command strong crowds.
Photography By: Roy Goodall
Formed back in 2016, after a spoken word intro, The Sensational Alex Harvey Experience kicked off with some big-hitters, namely Faith Healer, Midnight Moses, with Next a few songs later. This Glasgow based gang knew their craft well with the faithful firmly in their grasp. Front man Andy Massie led his troops through the great man’s back catalogue and never swore once, which was pleasant change. Along with Rabbie Jones on guitar, Davie Cowan on keys and backing vocals, as were most of the others, bassist Nelson McFarlane and hitting the tubs Chris Killen who never missed a beat, the tunes flowed nicely. Give My Compliments To The Chef, whilst a slow burner, soon picked up its feet developing into a crowd pleaser, as did many in this eighteen song set.
Intermission over, more fan favourites followed, with another choice cut for me, Last Of The Teenage Idols hitting the mark. Another steady starter, it soon developed into a riffing monster, with the popular hit Boston Tea Party taking us towards set closer, a great rendition of Delilah, made popular by Welshman Tom Jones. Whilst more inclined to see bands doing covers and original stuff, I do see growing markets for tribute bands. Plus, they do keep venues ticking over, which is good. Back in the seventies, Alex Harvey had cult following and today this talented lot certainly filled the Sheffield venue as happy smiling faces headed homeward.
Hand on heart, I came to the gig open minded as I’ve never been a huge expert on The Sensational Alex Harvey, but after this experience, they were verging very close to being just that.
