THE throaty cackle is both mischievous and murderous.

Behind it is the rock'n'roll equivalent of a runaway express train.

Guitars squall, drums thunder and keyboard lines jostle with a driving bassline so low-slung it should probably be illegal.

Then the signature voice - its Glasgow brogue unmistakeable - rasps: "Hawwt . . . City."

It sounds like it was recorded yesterday. But in fact it dates back exactly 35 years ago this week.

This is the Sensational Alex Harvey Band as you've never heard them before - on a long-lost album that's lain hidden in a vault in Los Angeles for more than three decades. And it captures the legendary Glasgow rockers at the peak of their powers.

Bassist Chris Glen told A-Listed: "We thought these recordings had vanished without a trace. We'd no idea the master tapes still existed so we're delighted this album has finally come to light."

SAHB's powerhouse drummer Ted McKenna added: "The fans are going to love it to death . . . and people who never heard us will finally get to hear what all the fuss was about."

Hot City, out tomorrow, is a dazzling tour de force that - for the first time - conveys the full range of the raucous, edgy sound the band were famed for.

It was recorded at London's Advision Studios between March 26 and April 6 1974, with acclaimed producer Shel Talmy at the controls.

Chris recalled: "We were moving really fast in those days. We'd just come off a 32-date UK tour and we were about to kick off another 50 dates just a few weeks later.

"We'd had a lot of success with our first album Framed and the follow-up Next had sold really well - it won us a gold disc. But we didn't feel either had quite got the fire that the band had onstage."

By then Shel had carved out a reputation as a producer with a flair for capturing the power and energy of great live acts like The Who, The Kinks and Small Faces.

One of his first clients after arriving in London from his native Los Angeles in the early 1960s had been David Bowie who made some of his first recordings - with the group The Lower Third - under Shel's direction.

Ted explained: "Around that same time Alex and David had shared a flat in Highgate, London.

"Alex used to tell us the place was famous for UFO sightings because it was at the highest point of Highgate."

With personal connections like that and a proven talent for recording hard-as-nails rock'n'roll, it was clear Shel was the perfect choice to oversee work on the third SAHB LP.

Chris recalled: "We got on very well once we were in the studio with him. He was very professional, very straightforward - the only thing was that, for the first week or so, he had a lot of trouble with our Scottish accents. He kept threatening to hire in a translator."

Road-hardened by constant touring, SAHB laid down the explosive basics of Hot City by playing live in the studio.

Talmy, who'd served his apprenticeship in LA's famous Conway Studios, was a recording whizz-kid who'd pioneered a string of new techniques to improve the sound of drums and guitars.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed

He pulled out all the stops for SAHB, giving the performances a brilliantly crisp sheen before they settled down to overdub horn parts - courtesy of Big Bud's Brass, who'd worked on Next and Framed - and extra keyboards.

But at the centre of it all was Alex's incredible voice. Often described as the greatest rock'n'roll star Scotland has ever produced, he'd begun his career back in the 1950s, before making his debut album with Alex Harvey's Soul Band in 1964.

A string of solo albums followed but it wasn't until he hooked up with Glasgow-based heavy rockers Tear Gas and transformed them into the Sensational Alex Harvey Band that his true genius surfaced.

Ted explained: "He had this incredible charisma. There was something magical, but dangerous about him."

SAHB guitarist Zal Cleminson added: "I think that's what intrigued people - that combination of mischief and murder.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next

"Alex had this monumental presence that you couldn't ignore. There was a bit of a generation gap between us - he'd be in his late 30s and we were in our early 20s - but he was as energetic and up-for-it as anyone.

"He'd force us to expand our musical horizons, inflict Hank Williams or Louis Prima records on us, stuff that would make our toes curl, and push us to explore different things.

"He had a kind of anthropological approach to music, taking bits from a variety of different sources and marrying it all together. And he also made sure that, when we went on stage, we had the attitude that we weren't going to take any prisoners.

"It was a bit of a revelation, as the band picked up pace and became more successful, to see what an influence he'd had on the whole situation."

In a series of bravura performances that veered from sweetly soulful one minute to raucous and threatening the next, the frontman laid down some of his best vocals. Chris explained: "Alex was a unique character. People remember him as a great performer. What they forget is that he was a fabulous singer too. He might talk or growl or shout over the music but when he wanted to ring that bell . . . look out!"

Zal added: "His voice was immediately identifiable. First of all he was using his own accent - that was very rare in those days - but he could make it do anything.

"I knew he could sing because I'd seen him play with the Soul Band but with SAHB sometimes what he was doing was closer to narration. Other times he'd just shout his head off. But his abilities gave us the musical freedom to just go wild."

Nowhere was that more evident than in the songs they assembled for the sessions with Talmy.

From the opening track Vambo - the epic, riff-heavy tribute to SAHB's own superhero, described by Alex as "a cross between Spiderman and Santa Claus" - to the swaggering Weights Made Of Lead, the group were on fire.

"I think my band is one of the greatest bands in the world," Alex said at the time. "I really do. I mean they can play."

That's blindingly obvious on the funk epic-cum-detective thriller Man In The Jar which shifts gears through three - count 'em - different time signatures from 3/4 to 7/8 to slow swing.

Chris confided: "We'd been to see the movie Shaft and we were really knocked out by the soundtrack. That was the basic inspiration. Alex had this Mickey Spillane-style storyline, which unfolded over the top. It was pretty ambitious but we never, ever played safe."

The track, written by Alex and keyboards player Hugh McKenna, gave guitarist Zal - dubbed "Scotland's answer to Jimi Hendrix" - the chance to cut loose with a solo that nods to the jazz wizardry of his teenage heroes Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell and John McLaughlin.

Incredibly the sessions were wrapped up in just 12 days with Shel providing a final mix double-quick.

"The final playback on the last night of recording in April 1974 was the last time we heard the album in its entirety for 30-odd years," explained Ted. "Our management listened to just two tracks and decided that it wasn't what they'd envisioned. They told us we'd have to re-record everything and booked us into another studio a few months later." But by the time SAHB entered London's Scorpio Studios with their old Tear Gas comrade David Batchelor in the producer's chair, the songs had metamorphosed.

Chris explained: "We used to tinker with arrangements constantly. By the time we got into the studio with Dave, a lot of the songs sounded quite different. We were so busy - in the 1970s we released nine albums in just five years - we just forgot about the earlier sessions."

The Scorpio recordings became SAHB's de facto third album The Impossible Dream, released in October 1974. It was another big seller for the band but even the musicians themselves had reservations that it didn't reflect their incredible live sound.

Zal said: "Looking back, I don't think we were 100 per cent happy. But it was a moment in time, a little piece of history."

The master tapes from the Advision sessions, meanwhile, accompanied Shel when he returned to the US. And they might have lain in his archive, forgotten forever, except for a chance circumstance.

Alex Harvey interviewed:

Record label boss Mike Dixon - whose firm MLP have already issued SAHB'S US Tour '74 and British Tour '76 live LPs - was leafing through a 1974 copy of Sounds music mag that mentioned the sessions with Talmy.

He tracked the producer down and was thrilled to find the masters had been kept in a climate-controlled vault, meaning they were as fresh as the day they were made. Mike told us: "I was amazed. I'd been playing The Impossible Dream since I was a schoolboy - it was my favourite SAHB album - but the quality of these recordings was immediately apparent."

With the exception of some mastering work to prepare the tapes for release, what fans will be able to hear from tomorrow is exactly what SAHB heard at the final playback with Talmy, 35 years ago.

And it's a reminder that Alex - who died in 1982 aged just 47 - still has the power to enthrall.

Mike added: "The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were the best live act I ever saw and without doubt Alex was the best frontman in rock'n'roll.

"I'm really delighted that we've been able to recover these amazing recordings and add something really special to their catalogue."

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