Alex Harvey was not only one of Scotland’s most legendary rockers, he was also steeped in showbiz. This album, his third with SAHB, came out in ’74 but Alex had been around in music and theatre since the late 50s. He formed his “Sensational” band, with members of prog rockers Tear Gas, in the early 70s and often referred to them in terms of movies and the stage: he was their director. And The Impossible Dream is their most theatrical and cinematic album, the culmination of Harvey’s decades of experience. It’s comparable to Alice Cooper’s School’s Out: an adventurous extravaganza. From the tribal, comic book stomp of Vambo and Man in the Jar‘s gonzo noir to the dancehall Sergeant Fury, the skittery blues of Weights Made of Lead and the riffing pirate yarn Tomahawk Kid this album is a total romp. Yo ho ho! And as Anthem closes the album out, it’s extremely moving too. It’ll make ye greet.
HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD 
First time I ever heard the name Senasational AHB was Gary Barden introducing Chris Glenn on MSG’s One Night At The Budokan album….
Nice little history lesson here Fella…
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Thanks Deke! Yeah, these guys have popped up in various places… Gillan played with Chris and drummer Ted McKenna for a while too. The guitarist Zal was in Nazareth for a while. Such a great band, their live stuff is phenomenal!
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Mckenna was on Msgs Assault Attack as well..these guys all got around
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They totally did. A lot of bands were impressed by them back then so not surprised they popped up a lot in other bands. I know Saxon really rated them!
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Tomahawk Kid is great Scott! This is very much what I like! Add one more to the list!
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I’ve actually got some old, but decent, versions of their albums (including this one). I’ll post them your way!
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Say whaaa? Seriously? Man!!
I hear the Alice comparisons, I know Alice is a fan.
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And these guys definitely had an Alice influence too. They did a cover of School’s Out for one!
Their 1st four, and best, albums heading your way soon!
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Alice covered Fire right back! I think I may have emailed that to you ages ago. Alex Harvey guested on it.
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I think that was Arthur Brown?
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F***! LOL. LeOldAge.
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Hahaha. Never mind, you’ll like this stuff a lot, trust HMO!
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You know what my doubt level is of that? 0%. 0.0000000% even.
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Too kind!
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OH — Scott, forgot to tell you. I found my How We Live CD, it has 12 tracks. Bonus tracks are You Don’t Need Anyone and Simon’s Car. I also have a 12″ remix from a download-only Marillion EP that had some How We Live stuff on it.
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Sounds like you don’t need this then!
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Whew!!!
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You’ll know the Fish cover of ‘Faith Healer’ already.
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I’ve got that! Saxon have done a few Faith Healer type openings in their time too.
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Next is my all-time fave SAHB track though.
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That’s a great album too… Last of the Teenage Idols is my favorite SAHB track.
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The OGWT clip of them doing Next is brilliant!
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It’s where I first heard of them.
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Which album is that on?
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B-side on the Big Wedge single (from memory).
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Not having the single itself, I must check the deluxe. Hmmm, not on the deluxe!!!!
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Give me a couple days and I’ll sort you out.
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I think he must have done it twice then! My version was done much later on.
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I’ve got it on ‘Raingods with Zippos’
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Strange, that’s a lot later on. What’s the story there?
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I had a look into it. He just did it twice for some reason! The Big Wedge version was recorded at a soundcheck and then he did a studio version again years later for the Raingods album.
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That explains it. Joe’s kindness aside, I’m sure Raingods is the easier find. I have heard good things too.
The ones I didn’t like were the covers albums…Yin and Yang?
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I’ve not heard the covers albums… Songs From the Mirror? Was that not a covers album too?
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I think so! My goodness he’s done a lot of covers. I can’t remember which one we listened to at work, but he covered “Jeepster” on it, and it wasn’t good.
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Such a great, idiosyncratic genius type dude.
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HMO, how would you say this one compares to ‘next’?
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Both equally great in different ways. Next is more immediate and has some individually better songs. But this is more of a grower: takes longer to get into it but there’s deep joys if you stick with it!
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‘next’ is on the 1001, this is not alas, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, I tend to really like the growers. So even if this will not be a required listen for me, a recreational listen sounds good!
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Next is a total classic though, don’t get me wrong!
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Genius. I honestly don’t have much more to say. Some kind of special, huh. A special kind of special, even.
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Very special! I honestly really struggled with this… tried to do a full review loads of times and just couldn’t do it justice. This’ll have to do!
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Sometimes there’s just not much you can, or have to, say. But I reckon what you have is all you need – plus, you mention how awesome the cover is. That’s all you needed. “Look at this”. The US drew the short straw though, huh?
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Aargh that US cover! Who thought that was a good idea? The original cover is immense.
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The folks in the US couldn’t handle the awesomeness.
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Was it the US that objected to the pubes on ‘Amorica’ too?
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You bet. Clearly unable to handle awesomeness.
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I just love the audacity of naming your band after yourself and adding Sensational to it. The Sensational Heavy Metal Overlord Band. It gives you something to live up to, doesn’t it!
That said, I have never heard of these people, or this record, but I hope my saying that I do like the sounds of it lets me at least keep a little bit of cred.
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Cred achieved! When they split up there was an album made by ‘The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (Without Alex)’. Catchy name!
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Hahaha I hope you’re not serious.
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OMG that’s crazy.
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Thanks for jogging my memory – another one in the ‘Got to check out some more stuff by this guy’ file. Francis Dunnery played ‘Next’ on his radio show the other day and I thought: What the f**k is this, this is brilliant!
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They are well worth checking out Matt, I don’t think you’d regret it.
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Utter bloody genius. The ultimate showman, still hugely underrated and gone too soon. Lucky enough to have seen SAHB with and without Alex. Zal had a short lived project that as far as I’m aware never recorded, called Tandoori Cassette, with Barrie Barlow from Tull and Charlie Tumahai from BeBop deluxe. Always loved his guitar sound.
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That sounds like a killer band! Totally agree with you on Zal’s sound. It’s incredible… especially live. If I could have anyone’s tone, that’s the one I’d pick.
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