Fun at the SAHB Fan Convention 2007

Saturday 24 August was the second Sensational Alex Harvey Band Fan Convention which was bit of a mixed bag but worth the effort in the end. These were my highlights and lowlights:

• Leaving Dallas at 5pm on Thursday and arriving at Wolverhampton at 6pm on Friday, and losing six hours in the process.
• Eventually finding a rather good Balti house after walking past dozens of fast food joints that you would not have felt safe in, let alone risked trying any of the food.
• Meeting many fans and a few of the band at the meet and greet at the hotel on Friday evening. Despite the jet lag and the intention of catching-up with an early night, I stayed in the hotel bar until after 2am. Max was very sociable all evening and I also had a good chat with Hugh. Most of the other fans seem to be nutters. Lucky that I am sane then!
• The hotel breakfast making a good foundation for the day's large intake of beer.
• Taking the tram to Bilston.
• Drinking Banks's bitter. At £2.75 a pint I thought that it was not unreasonable (I regularly pay over £3 a pint now) but apparently beer is somewhat cheaper in Scotland so some of the fans were less happy.
• Waiting most of the afternoon for something to happen when little did. Hugh's solo spot was a welcome break from the lack of things happening but I would have liked it to have been a little longer.
• Buying yet another SAHB t-shirt and having the presence of mind to get in signed later on in the day when the band did a signing session.
• Zal starting the evening off with an acoustic set which I thought was rather good. But then I like acoustic Neil Young too. Sadly when I asked Zal about his new songs later he said he had no plans to record them.
• Meeting more old friends during the day, particularly Bob and Chris who always go to the Southampton show too.
• SAHB kicking the evening set off with a whole string of songs that they have not played live for a whole. Dolphins was particularly well received. Other rare songs played were Rock n Roll, Who murdered sex, Snakebite, Pick it up and kick it and Out of boogie.
• Some of the more enthusiastic and vocal ladies getting up on stage to sing along to Anthem. Not my favourite song but then I'm not Scottish.
• Max having the lyrics to Jailhouse Rock written out by hand (Zal had used a laptop earlier for his lyrics). Jailhouse Rock was included because Alex and Elvis were born in the same year and Tear Gas used to play it.
• Hugh, Ted and Zal taking vocal turns for a while and Max joining the audience for this part.
• SAHB ending with a section of requests that included Faith Healer, St Anthony, Gang Bang (again, not a favourite of mine but enthusiastically greeted by most of the crowd) and Runaway, complete with dance routine.

OK, so it was a bit slow in the afternoon but the evening session did what is says on the tin, sensational, and it bodes well for the tour. I'll be at the Southampton and London gigs as usual and the Glasgow Xmas show sounds tempting too!