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There was never another band like The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. They didn’t just play shows – they made every venue feel like their territory, told stories, cracked jokes, and then tore the roof off the place. Scotland has produced its share of musical legends, but SAHB remain something rarer still: a band whose myth came from the stage, night after night, sweat and swagger and steel-toe precision.
Good Evening Boys & Girls is the most comprehensive attempt yet to bottle that lightning. Gathering 16 previously unreleased live performances, this 21-CD set traces the group from the Marquee in ’73 through the band’s final run with the original lineup. It’s a tour through ballrooms, city halls, theatres and festivals – London, Newcastle, Glasgow, New York, Berlin, Reading – and the famous Glasgow Apollo Christmas Show of 1975, long spoken of in fan circles, now finally unearthed.
To be released on April 10 and is available to pre-order now from here.
Much of what’s here comes straight from the source: soundboard and radio recordings, remastered with care by Pete Reynolds (Mott The Hoople, Fleetwood Mac, Wishbone Ash) to preserve their bite and atmosphere. You hear the band as the crew and punters heard them – gritty, elastic, unpredictable, and completely themselves. This is SAHB without varnish, and that’s exactly how it should be.
The box also digs into the story behind the noise. A 144-page hardback book tells the tale with unseen and rare photographs from Ian Dickson, Barry Plummer, Janet Macoska, Steve Emberton, Dick Barnatt, Michael Putland, Kevin Cummins and more, accompanied by new notes from longtime Harvey historian Martin Kielty. Much of the memorabilia – posters, passes, scraps, treasures – comes from Ted McKenna’s private archive and the remarkable collection of Martin Davies, offering a glimpse into the working life of a band that lived as hard as it played.
A replica Glasgow Apollo programme and a signed photograph from Zal Cleminson and Chris Glen complete the set – fittingly, since the box was made with the full cooperation of Zal Cleminson, Chris Glen and sonic architect Dave Batchelor and the estates of Alex, Ted and Hugh McKenna.
For longtime fans, Good Evening Boys & Girls is a chance to step back inside the halls where SAHB became SAHB. For anyone new, it’s an invitation into a world where theatre met street-corner grit, where humour sat beside heartbreak, and where a band of players followed a singular frontman into the wild every single night.
Disc breakdown –
1. Marquee Club London 1973
2. Rainbow London 1974
3. Mayfair Newcastle 1974
4. Syracuse, NY Autumn 1974
5. Electric Ladyland NY 1974
6. Mayfair Ballroom Newcastle 1975
7. Guildhall, Preston 1975
8/9. Free Trade Hall, Manchester 1975
10/11. City Hall Sheffield 1975
12/13. ‘Yes’ Open Air Concert Stoke-On-Trent 1975
14/15. Apollo, Glasgow 1975
16. New Victoria London 1975
17/18. New Victoria London 1975
19. Free Trade Hall Manchester 1976
20. Neue Welt Berlin 1976
21. Reading Festival 1977
