Stone The Crows

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Stone The Crows is one of my favourite 70's bands and one of the most forgotten. I was astonished to see that not one thread  was dedicated to the band, who got really bad luck when just prior to a breakthrough to eternal fame and glory, guitarist Lesley Harvey (brother of Alex) was electrocuted on stage. The band plays a sophisticated blues rock with prog elements starting with a long 18 minutes epic "I Saw America" on their first record and other interesting  arrangements on their records. Maggie Bell's voice is great as is Lesley Harvey's guitar play (David Gilmore has listened carefully to LH) 

All their records are great  with a preference for their live records, one on BBC records with exerpts from two London concerts 70 & 71, and a double CD with a extended version of the 71 concert and a stunning 70 concert containing a 15 minutes version of "Big Jim Salter" one of the highlights of 70' s Blues Rock, a desert Island record!!

a Wikipedia bio:

Stone the Crows

Stone The Crows

Origin
Glasgow, Scotland

Years active
1970s

Members

Leslie Harvey
Maggie Bell
Colin Allen
John McGinnis
Jim Dewar

Steve Thompson (Bass, 1971)
Ronnie Leahy (Keyboards 1971)
Jimmy McCulloch (Guitars 1972)
Stone The Crows was a band formed in Glasgow in late 1969.
History
The band was formed after Maggie Bell was introduced to Les Harvey by his elder brother, Alex Harvey. After playing together in the Kinning Park Ramblers, they rejoined in a band Power, later renamed Stone The Crows, after Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, heard them and took them on.

Original line-up

Maggie Bell, vocals (born Margaret Bell, 12 January 1945, in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland. 
Les Harvey, guitar (born Leslie Harvey, in 1945, in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland died 2 May 1972). 
Colin Allen, drums (ex-Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) 
Jim Dewar, bass (born James Dewer, 12 October 1942, in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland). 
John McGinnis, keyboards 
The band's first two albums were produced by the above line-up, with Bell's vocals "reminiscent of Janis Joplin" ^[1].

Second line-up
McGinnis and Dewar left in 1971, to be replaced by Ronnie Leahy and Steve Thompson. The tragic death of Les Harvey (electrocuted by a live microphone on stage at Swansea's Top Rank Suite in May 1972) almost led to the breakup of the band. After trying Peter Green, the band brought in ex-Thunderclap Newman prodigy Jimmy McCulloch as lead guitarist.
Stone the Crows broke up in June 1973. Maggie Bell recorded two albums in the early seventies, Queen Of The Night and Suicide Sal and joined Rod Stewart on Every Picture Tells A Story.

 Discography

Stone The Crows 1969 
Ode To John Law 1970 
Teenage Licks 1971 
Ontinuous Performance 1972 

Notes

^ Logan, Nick &Woffinden, Bob (eds.) The New Musical Express Book of Rock, W.H. Allen &Co. Ltd (Star), 1973, p. 489-490. ISBN 0-352-39715-2. 

[edit] External links
Stone the Crows biography from linernotes by Chris Welch at Alex Gaitlin's web site

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_the_Crows"

Edited by Alucard - March 28 2008 at 14:04