The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Good Evening Boys & Girls
The Alex Harvey live box set many fans have waited decades for
There are some box sets that arrive as deluxe archive releases, and there are others that feel more like acts of restoration.
Good Evening Boys & Girls by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band belongs firmly in the second category.
Released by Madfish as a 21CD live box set, this is a major archival release built around 16 previously unreleased live performances, alongside a 144-page hardback book, rare memorabilia, a replica Glasgow Apollo programme, and a signed band photo. Madfish describe it as their most comprehensive attempt yet to capture the power of SAHB on stage, and it has been assembled with the cooperation of surviving members and the estates connected to the band. It is also presented as a limited edition of 2,000 copies, which immediately tells you this is aimed at serious fans and collectors rather than casual browsers.
And that is the first thing I want to say as clearly as possible.
This is not a box set for the merely curious.
This is not where I would tell someone to begin with Alex Harvey.
This is not the set for someone who vaguely likes a couple of songs and wants pristine, modern, audiophile live recordings.
This is a box set for the people who already know.
It is for the people who still talk about Alex Harvey with that look in their eye. The people who saw the band live. The people who understand that SAHB were not just another hard rock band from the 1970s, but something stranger, bolder, more theatrical and more uniquely British — and specifically Scottish — than almost anyone else on the scene.
A box set built for believers
Before I even get to the sound quality, which I know is what many people are most concerned about, I have to say that the presentation is superb.
Madfish have built a reputation for treating heritage artists with real care, and that tradition continues here. The box itself feels substantial, the sleeves are beautifully done, the memorabilia adds emotional weight rather than gimmickry, and the book is exactly what you would hope for from a release like this. Official details confirm the set includes that 144-page hardback book and the replica 1975 Glasgow Apollo programme, and those elements give the whole thing the feel of a time capsule rather than just a storage box for discs.
The signed print from Zal Cleminson and Chris Glen adds another layer of connection. This is one of those small touches that makes a limited set feel personal.
Because with Alex Harvey, so much of the mythology has always lived in memory. In stories. In recollections. In grainy photographs. In the tales people tell about seeing the band when they were untouchable on stage.
There was never enough filmed material to preserve what made SAHB so special in performance. They were visual, theatrical, unpredictable, funny, dangerous and completely their own thing. You can feel, all the way through this box, the ghost of a band who should have left behind far more official live documentation than they did.
Instead, for years, fans had that one official live album from the mid-70s — and that was more or less it.
This set changes that.
What’s actually in the box?
The official release spans performances from the Marquee in 1973 through to Reading in 1977, including the much-discussed Glasgow Apollo Christmas Show from 1975, which has long had near-mythical status among fans. The set covers venues in London, Newcastle, Glasgow, New York, Berlin and beyond, mapping the band’s rise and documenting how ferocious and committed they could be from night to night.
That scope is part of what makes this such an absorbing release.
You are not hearing one polished live album repeated over and over. You are hearing a band in motion. A band evolving, stretching out, taking risks, having great nights, rougher nights, wild nights, chaotic nights — but always sounding like The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
And that brings me to the central question.
Let’s talk honestly about the sound quality
I know this is the point many people want addressed properly, because there has already been plenty of discussion online.
So here is the simplest way I can put it:
This set is not a uniformly pristine audio experience.
If you are expecting 21 discs of polished, high-end, beautifully balanced live recordings on the level of a carefully planned modern archive release, you need to reset your expectations immediately.
That is not what this is.
What this is, instead, is a deep archive box that contains recordings from several different sources and several different levels of fidelity. Some sound closer to radio or desk recordings. Some sit comfortably in that rough-but-enjoyable bootleg area where your ears adjust and you get into the performance. A handful are there because of their historical importance rather than their audio excellence.
And I think that distinction is crucial.
Because if you approach this expecting an audiophile product, you may struggle.
If you approach it as a historical live archive of one of Britain’s most unique bands, it makes a lot more sense.
My own way of judging the discs
Listening through the set, I found myself mentally placing the recordings into rough categories.
There are those that feel close to a professionally recorded live album.
There are those that feel like strong radio or desk recordings.
There are those that are clearly bootleg in character, but your ears adjust and you can still enjoy the concert.
Then there are the tougher listens — the recordings where the historical value matters more than the fidelity.
That is the real shape of this box.
It is a live archive, not a sonic uniformity exercise.
The toughest discs — and why they still matter
The earliest Marquee 1973 recording is one of the more difficult listens in pure audio terms. Even the set itself effectively acknowledges that not every tape could be transformed into something pristine. But I understand completely why it has been included.
If you are building the definitive live portrait of SAHB, how do you leave out a document like that?
You don’t.
The same applies to the final Reading 1977 performance. This was the only disc in the box where I personally felt it fell into the category of something I probably would not return to often for pleasure. But again, I completely understand why it is there.
It is the last gig.
For the hardcore Alex Harvey fan, that matters.
And that is one of the great strengths of this release, actually. Madfish have resisted the temptation to over-curate the history into something cleaner, safer or more marketable. They have let the archive be the archive.
That honesty matters.
The Glasgow Apollo Christmas show: atmosphere over polish
One of the most talked-about performances in the set is the Glasgow Apollo Christmas Show from 1975, and rightly so. Madfish themselves spotlight it as one of the great discoveries in the box, and it is one of the key selling points of the release.
Now, in strict audio terms, this is not one of the cleanest recordings in the set.
But atmosphere?
Energy?
Crowd reaction?
Sense of occasion?
That is where it becomes absolutely fascinating.
You can hear the room. You can hear the audience going wild. You can hear the eventness of it all. The performance pushes through the limitations of the source, and that is why I think many SAHB fans will treasure it regardless of sonic imperfections.
It captures a moment.
And sometimes, with live archive material, that is more valuable than clean separation and perfect tonal balance.
The stronger recordings in the box
There are also recordings here that really do rise above the “historical curiosity” label and become genuinely satisfying live albums in their own right.
The Berlin 1976 material is one of the standouts for me. It has that sense of being close to a proper official release, and that probably explains why it was selected for a separate vinyl issue around the same time as the box.
Manchester 1976 is another key moment in the set, feeling close to radio or desk quality and showing what this band could do when the recording source and the performance aligned.
Other discs move around that same territory — not “audiophile spectaculars”, but absolutely strong enough to give you that sense of being in the room with a band who knew exactly how to command one.
Why this set works despite the uneven audio
Because Alex Harvey was never just about clean sound.
He was about performance.
Character.
Storytelling.
Humour.
Danger.
The sense that anything might happen.
And that comes through again and again here.
This is what saves the box from becoming just an exercise in completism. Alex’s between-song presence, his delivery, his phrasing, his ability to turn a live performance into theatre — all of that survives even when the recordings vary.
You hear not just the songs, but the persona.
And then, of course, there is the band around him.
Zal Cleminson’s guitar playing is one of the joys of this entire set. The attack, the tone, the phrasing, the sheer character of it. Again and again, you are reminded how much of SAHB’s brilliance lived in the chemistry between the players as much as in the songs themselves.
Who should buy this box set?
I think this is the most important question of all, and it is the one I kept coming back to while going through the set.
Buy this if:
You already love The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
You play the albums regularly.
You understand the lack of official live material has always been a frustrating gap in the story.
You want the archive, the memorabilia, the book, the context and the experience of being pulled deeper into Alex Harvey’s world.
You can accept that historical live recordings often come with flaws.
You either saw the band live, wish you had, or have spent years fascinated by what they must have been like on stage.
Hold back if:
You only know a couple of tracks.
You want this as a starting point for discovering the band.
You are highly sensitive to variable sound quality.
You mainly buy box sets for sonic perfection rather than historical depth.
You expect every disc to sound like a major label live album.
That is not a criticism of the set.
It is simply being honest about what it is.
Final verdict
Good Evening Boys & Girls is not a box set that tries to flatter its contents into uniform excellence.
It is messier than that. More human than that. More honest than that.
It gives you a major slice of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band as they actually were in the wild — brilliant, eccentric, theatrical, electrifying, inconsistent from tape to tape perhaps, but never generic, never dull, and never remotely ordinary.
For the right audience, this will feel like a treasure chest.
For the wrong audience, it may feel overwhelming, expensive and sonically uneven.
But that is the nature of archival releases like this. They are not meant for everyone.
They are meant for the faithful.
And in that respect, Madfish seem to know exactly what they are doing. This release was never trying to be an entry-level “best of live Alex Harvey” package. It was designed as a deep, lovingly assembled document for serious fans, and on those terms it feels significant. Officially, it is positioned as a 21CD limited-edition set, with those 16 previously unreleased performances and a wealth of printed and collectible material, and that alone makes it one of the most substantial SAHB archive releases ever assembled.
My advice?
If Alex Harvey is one of your artists — one of those names that means something deep, personal and long-lasting — then you probably already know the answer.
And if you are still unsure, watch the video, because this is one of those releases where seeing the contents, hearing the nuance in the discussion, and understanding exactly what kind of archive this is will help far more than a simple star rating ever could.
Key facts box
Artist: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Title: Good Evening Boys & Girls
Label: Madfish
Format: 21CD box set
Includes: 16 previously unreleased live performances, 144-page hardback book, replica Glasgow Apollo programme, signed band photo, memorabilia
Edition: Limited to 2,000 copies
Best for: Dedicated SAHB fans, collectors, and those who want a deep live archive rather than a beginner’s introduction
ORDER THE GOOD EVENING BOYS AND GIRLS BOX SET BY THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND
Phil Aston | Now Spinning Magazine
