The Hidden Glasgow Forums

I was 19 years old, was still going to high school and had been playing guitar for about a year. I knew of one other guitar player in the whole of Glasgow, and guitars were really just good looking instruments that cowboys played in the movies. I was playing an "Arch-Top" "Hofner Senator Guitar," acoustic.

A Glasgow newspaper was running a competition to find "Scotland's Tommy Steele" and the number of people who entered the competition was quite amazing. There must have been 50 people there, all playing guitars, all playing at the same time. Over in a corner is a guy with an amplifier. An AMPLIFIER !! And I have a pickup ! I am five feet away from Wonderland. The guy with the amp. is playing a battered old acoustic with a "Besson" pickup attached, like me, and He's strumming nicely and singing an old Ballad . "St. James Infirmary" or something. When he finished I introduced myself and he told Me his name was Alex Harvey.

The auditions are taking place in another room adjacent to the one we are in. The plan is to eventually end up with just three contestants and they will perform the following night at a local ballroom in the final heat of the competition. After a couple of hours of chaos the list is down to the final three -Alex, Myself, and another guy - Pat somebody. We three eventually end up in the room together and we have to give a bit of a performance for the Press. My big number is "You're Right; I'm Left, She's gone" an old Elvis song. Alex goes heavy into Little Richard, and the other guy does Be Bop-a-Lula . So, that over, We are ready for the final the next night, and Alex wins and I join him on guitar in his band.

Now I'm lead guitar with Alex Harvey and the "Kansas City Band." We were a strange mixture that Alex picked up from all over. We eventually ended up with eight guys in the band and a Driver/Manager, so we acquired a big car called an " " a nine seater with a chauffeur's window and we were in business. We lived in that car. Slept in that car. We were marooned in various towns and that car was our home. We used to pick up chicks, mainly for one reason, to wash our clothes, iron our shirts for the next gig.

We got stuck for a week in the Market Square in Carlisle on the Scotland/ England border. Now the wonderful thing about that square was it had public toilets and was next to a railway station. Every morning one of us would go and use the facilities, washing,shaving etc. This cost a penny which you inserted into a box on the door. And as one guy came out he'd hold the door open and the next guy would go in until all of us were fresh and ready to meet the day,for one penny.


Anyway, here's Alex Harvey and the Kansas City Band stuck in the Square at Carlisle Station. The Driver/manager was a rip off artist and said He had to go back to Glasgow by train to see his family for a couple of days. He handed us a couple of bucks each and said "Adios" and Alex and the we had to look out for ourselves. First thing we do is go to a hardware store and buy a frying pan, then we buy some "Oxo" cubes, a loaf of bread and we drive out to the countryside. Some guys are bullshitting about how to build a fire and they've been in the army, the boy scouts etc. Oh yes, and we had a few tins of beans. So now Sidney Devine and I go over to a field and dig up some potatoes and turnips and stuff, and we go back to the fire to cook them. Alex Harvey and the Kansas City Band on their way to the big time. We're drinking hot "Oxo," eating beans and burned potatoes,and our bed that night would be the old car. Want to know something ? It was magic

Dexter St. Clair wrote:Joe Moretti writes.....