IT was a sure-fire way of drawing attention to a newly-established beat group. In 1965 Gordon Buchanan, a pop writer on the Evening Times, declared that the Bo-Weavles, even though it had yet to make a record, was taking over from The Beatstalkers, whose own fame was then at its peak. The assertion, said an article in the Radio Scotland 242 magazine in October the following year, “riled the teenage female population of the then Mod-minded metropolis,” and resulted in a 2,000-signature protest petition being sent to Buchanan. “The Bo-Weavles got a heck of a lot of publicity,” the article added, noting that they had maintained their fan following, “whereas The Beatstalkers’ barrage has lessened.”
The band - Alistair ‘Zal’ Cleminson, Ricky Archibald, George Gilmour, Jimmy Brand and David Batchelor - built up a steady following by playing the Dennistoun Palais (above, in 1965) and from there went on to entertain audiences in dancehalls all over the country. The magazine noted that the musicians particularly liked Tamla Motown music and old-time rhythm and blues.
The Bo-Weavles saw numerous changes in personnel and gradually evolved into a group known as Tear Gas, a heavy-rock outfit that recorded two albums. In 1972 they were introduced to one Alex Harvey, a noted local singer. They gelled, and thus was born the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, one of Scotland’s biggest and most colourful acts in the seventies.
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