THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND

As his stint with late 60s psychedelic act Giant Moth and his largely spoken-word documentary/concept LP Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster attest, Alex Harvey's long, eclectic career was studded with prog-friendly episodes. It was in 1972, though, that the singer recruited the group that were his passport to all kinds of versatility. With The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, prog, hard rock, and a slightly sinister strain of mime and Weimar Republic-inspired theatricality were go.

- JAMES MCNAIR

When Alex first met them at the Burns Howff pub in Glasgow, guitarist Zal Cleminson, keyboardist Hugh McKenna, his drummer cousin Ted and bassist Chris Glen were playing in Tear Gas, a thunderous and virtuosic prog fusion act whose set included a super-charged take on Jethro Tull's Love Story. Cleminson loved Jeff Beck and Frank Zappa, and Hugh McKenna could match Zal's solos on Moog synthesiser or electric piano. When Alex dubbed his youthful new bandmates "sensational", it gave them a broad and ambitious remit to aspire to.