(Gibson) On this day in 1972, Les Harvey, guitarist with Stone the Crows, died after being electrocuted on stage during a gig at Swansea University, Wales. He was the brother of Scottish singer Alex Harvey and a member of the Alex Harvey Soul Band. Gibson takes a look back: Stone the Crows could have been one of the biggest British bands of the '70s. They had powerhouse blues vocalist Maggie Bell, regarded by many as an equal of Janis Joplin. They had a manager with more than a few connections in the business (a certain Mr. Peter Grant, who also managed Led Zeppelin), and they had one of the finest young guitarists on the blues and rock scene, Les Harvey, younger brother of Scottish rock legend Alex Harvey.
Alex Harvey, of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band fame, played a key role in the development of the group that would morph into Stone the Crows. He put his younger guitar-whiz brother in touch with Maggie Bell and she joined his band, the Kinning Park Ramblers. When that band split, Bell and Harvey formed Power and toured Europe 's army bases extensively. Talking to Chris Welch for a Stone the Crows album reissue, Maggie Bell recalled meeting Les Harvey: "He had a group called the Kenning Park Ramblers. That was in the days when his older brother Alex was doing the Star Club in Hamburg. Leslie was just a youngster like myself and we used to go to all these far away, obscure gigs around Scotland. Anyway, we all went to Germany and earned enough to buy ourselves a reel-to-reel Revox tape recorder!" more on this story
