Alex Harvey

Yesterday was the anniversary of Alex Harvey's passing and today is his 75th birthday. It's gotta be a drag to die the day before your birthday so I'm just going to celebrate his birthday. Happy 75th, Alex!

Alex Harvey

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This is fun...







You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Alex Harvey and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Alex Harvey

Alex Harvey again...it's not deja vu. Yesterday was the gloomy post honoring the day the sensational one passed on, and doubly gloomy because he died the day before today...his birthday.

But let's forget about the gloomy bit and start the party 'cause that's the way Alex would want it. And in celebration of what would have been Alex's 74th birthday (wow, he didn't seem anywhere near my mother's age when I shot him at the Whisky), I'm posting a photo that hasn't been seen before...one that didn't make it into the book.

Alex Harvey

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Happy Birthday, Alex! And Vambo still Rools!!


You can learn more about Alex Harvey and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

The Sensational Alex Harvey

Twenty-seven years ago today Alex Harvey had a massive heart attack while waiting for a ferry at the Zeebrugge port (a subdivision of Bruges).

Alex Harvey

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Ladies and gentlemen...the Sensational Alex Harvey...

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday is the day he died.

Today is the day he was born.

Celebrate the sensational Alex Harvey!

He was a crazy guy...but in such a good way.

Some Are Harder Than Others

Yesterday and this morning I worked on the photo layout for Alex Harvey. It was difficult. He's not as famous as many of the musicians I am honoring but I have so many great photos of him. It's hard to leave any out. His show was very theatrical and he was an expressive guy. A photographer's dream. I finally finished it up at somewhere around 10 pictures in 6 pages.

I'm running out of pages again. I've done the layouts for 27 musicians. Nothing set in stone. Just a loose idea of what I want where. Still deciding whether to bleed some of the pages or frame all the photos in white. What I like about bleeding is the photo will be as large as possible. But then I have to crop top and/or bottom and some of them can't be cropped. Another downside is those pages may not look as 'clean.' It's weird. Some days I like the bleed. Some days I don't. Guess I'll figure it out when I print out some of the pages.

My plan is to finish all the layouts by the end of the month. What's that? Six days? I have 22 musicians left and 4 dedicatees (is that even a word?). 26 divided by 6 = 4.33333 per day. Gotta get it done. No time to linger on my photo decisions, like I did with Alex Harvey. 'Cause I'm going to need every minute of April and May to finish the written portions.

Alex Harvey Returns

On January 26, 2007, I scanned my 17 Alex Harvey slides. I knew his D-day and B-Day were coming up and I wanted to have a photo prepared. Then yesterday I put the tribute together for him to honor both days with one post.

Well, I guess he was feeling short-changed with only one post. He wanted both.

Here's what happened after yesterday's post...

When I watched the youtube video I posted I wondered (just briefly in passing) why I didn't have a shot of him in front of the Vambo wall. I distinctly remembered the show - all his theatrics but then I thought I must have missed it because I was shooting the guitar player. Oh well. At least I have pictures of him. In some cases I have few or none. (You have no idea how depressed I am about that).

This morning, I hit the office and decide to do some scanning while working on my script rewrite. I like it when I can multi-task. I check my list to see who I haven't scanned yet. Ah, Stanley Turrentine. I'm pretty sure there is a box of slides with his name on it in THE BOX. I look in THE BOX. There it is...a little slide case with a masking tape label that reads STANLEY TURRENTINE. Wait a second. What's this? Right next to Stanley? A bigger slide box that's labeled ALEX HARVEY. How can that be? I already scanned Alex's slides.

I pull the box out. Check the contents. Lo and behold, it's Alex Harvey. 19 more slides. How did those get there? And why did I happen to check THE BOX today? I haven't been in THE BOX for several weeks. I scan them. Here is one of the shots I thought I should have...


It's Alex Harvey's birthday today. And in true Alex Harvey fashion, he gave me a present. Thank you, Alex. I hope they're throwing you one helluva party up there.

The Sensational Alex Harvey

I'm guessing most of you have never heard of Alex Harvey. Can I see a show of hands?

And I'm wondering if anyone who reads this blog ever saw The Sensational Alex Harvey Band play live.

Anyone?

Well, he was sensational. Like nothing I'd seen before. The guy knew how to put on a show and he was sweet as can be to boot.

Like so many of the musicians I am paying tribute to in my book, Alex Harvey died in close proximity to his date of birth. Actually, I think his deathday and birthday are the closest. Today marks the 15th anniversary of his death, and had he lived, tomorrow would have been his 72nd birthday.

This is what he was doing at the Troubadour in late 1975...

February 5, 1935 - February 4, 1982

And since you probably haven't seen him live, here's a taste:



This is from the same tour I shot. I think he's even wearing the same shirt.