The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Faith Healer

ORIGINATION Next
LAST LISTENED TO october
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT low, low, low
RATING

I don't have time for this today, so it'll have to be quick.

Alex Harvey is one of the forgotten gems of not only Scottish music but rock in general. He was in from the start, playing skiffle in the '50s and RNB in the '60s, before moving on to his particular brand of theatrical rock that brought him modest fame in the 70s. After a few albums at the start of that decade nearly sank without trace, he finally scored chart success with a cover of Tom Jones' Delilah. He sadly passed away at the age of 47 from a heart attack whilst on tour in '82.

The Faith Healer is from Next one of his nearly forgotten (and best) albums, this one from '73. It is something of an minor epic. It begins with a bare synth pulsing, before the rest of the band slowly join in. The tension and sounds slowly build through the song's seven minutes to reach a satisfying crescendo. Note must be made of the fantastic guitar sounds and, of course, Harvey's Scots accent which is a joy to hear.

I could go on and i already have far more than i meant to. Time, however, conspires. Just go and get hold of a copy of this album. You won't regret it.

(mixed signals)

This morning my head is a biscuit tin, with the broken remains of an assortment rattling around inside.

The first biscuit is vodka-flavoured shortbread, a rather unusual Scottish biscuit from the 70s that was made for a time by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Sadly, all that remains of this biscuit is the phrase "Isobel Goudie". The rest of it seems to have vanished and i don't feel like looking for it.

The second biscuit was nasty and jarring and entirely distracted me from the first one. It was a cheap supermarket own-brand chocolately one, wrapped in foil. The foil was patterned to make it look like the mobile phone that rang in the communal hallway not a moment after my return from nod. This biscuit comes with a nasty version of something classical and if you try to eat it, the will foil squeak on your teeth.

Then there was the inevitable crumbly old digestive. This old biscuit was called Humph and had something to say about a 'Mid-Atlantic Variation'. Whether this really had anything to do with Mornington Crescent or not is anyone's guess. I'm not even sure this biscuit ever existed outside my head.

Lastly, a classic biscuit: the two-fingered chocolate wafer. This delicious treat was brought to us by more than one maker and from the bits that are left of it, it's hard to tell who made this particular one. Safe to say, however, that it was made with tainted love.

That is all.