Hot City: Introduction
BY 1974 the SAHB steamroller was working at full power. Their first album, Framed, had promised great things; their follow-up, Next, delivered them; and now the gigs were getting bigger and bigger, the reviews brighter and brighter, the legend stronger and stronger.
It was time for a third album. Alex Harvey (vocals), Zal Cleminson (guitar), Chis Glen (bass), Hugh McKenna (keyboards) and Ted McKenna (drums) were set to rise to the challenge.
But the nature of the challenge turned out to be more complex than it first appeared. While first album Framed had been principally an LP of Alex songs, with the former Tear Gas musicians adding their character to the arrangements, and while Next had been carefully written, rehearsed and arranged in advance of studio bookings, volume three was closer to a half baked notion of the idea of a rough concept of a spark in someone's eye.
There are always stresses when art meets business. The management had invested a great wad of cash, and it was now time for some kind of payback. Businesses must expand to survive, and so SAHB's new album had to explode from the diehard fanbase and appeal to a wider audience.
Enter Shel Talmy, a big name with a big history. Shel was the UK's first independent record producer, as opposed to being someone who worked for a label. He'd helped build the recorded sound of The Who and The Kinks, and was respected for his versatility, technique and genius.
It was great on paper and in person - but it was less so in practice. While there was never a question of animosity between the parties, Shel and the band simply didn't share the same vision. Coupled with the band's incomplete programme of material, the stage was set for a galactic disappointment.
CHRIS GLEN: The fans would normally be able hear some of our new stuff before we recorded it, and you could take something from those gigs to think about. But at this point our workload was so big, this was the first tryout for these songs. And it shows!
TED McKenna: I remember going to the pub round the corner after the playback, for a celebratory drink with Shel and everybody else. So we had a drink, shook hands, he left, and we just looked at each other and said, "This doesn't sound like us at all."
CHRIS: We went to the manager's office, because he'd got another mix done. We always took him seriously, but if the time came to say, "That's not working," we said it. This time he took it off after two tracks and said, "We'll get it recorded again".
TED: It just didn't sound raw enough for us. Perhaps if we'd put it out things would have gone in another direction for the band, but we felt it was important to have that feeling, and it just wasn't there.
The project was cancelled, the tapes were destroyed and the band went on another hectic summer season before recording The Impossible Dream, which made it into the wild. And that's how the story ended - until MLP's Mike Dixon discovered that Shel owned a copy of the unreleased album.
The result is Hot City, released this week.
Part 2 coming soon!
