Leslie Harvey

Leslie Cameron "Les" Harvey (13 September 1944 – 3 May 1972) was a guitarist in several Scottish bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, most notably Stone the Crows. He was the brother of Alex Harvey.

Harvey was born in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. In the 1960s he was asked to join the Animals by Alan Price, but chose to stay with his brother in the Alex Harvey Soul Band. He later joined the ill-fated Blues Council, another Scottish band. The Blues Council made one record, Baby Don't Look Down, then, in March 1965, their tour van crashed, killing vocalist Fraser Calder and bassist James Giffen, and the rest of the band went their separate ways.^[1]

In 1969 Harvey joined Scottish band Cartoone to record some tracks for their second album. He also accompanied Cartoone on their live tour of the United States supporting Led Zeppelin. They also supported the US band Spirit in 1969. John Lee Hooker, whose songs both Harvey and Cartoone used to cover on their tour of the UK, was their opening act. In December 1969 Harvey played guitar on Maurice Gibb's The Loner album, but only the single "Railroad" was released.

Harvey was a co-founder of Stone the Crows in late 1969. It was while on stage with Stone the Crows at Swansea Top Rank in 1972, on a rainy day with puddles on the stage, that he was killed by electrocution, after touching a microphone that was not earth-grounded.^[2]

Here's how Dr. John remembers it: "While we were waiting for our turn, I watched a band called Stone the Crows go through their act. During the last song of their show, the guitar player took a solo just as he stepped into one of these puddles of water. The solo was a heavy feedback and distortion-extortion number, and he was near the peak of it when his foot hit the water. What happened next was strange and creepy. He began to do all sorts of body contortions, and the rain of distorted sound continued just like he was working out on his solo. He rolled around for what seemed like minutes, then finally fell down into the puddle in a grand closing finale of stoned "acid" picking. At last, the roar of his guitar dimmed to a hum; the song was over and the audience gave the band a big round of applause. As the rest of the band left the stage, the guitarist lay in the puddle. I remember thinking, This guy's carrying the dramatics too far." It was only when the roadie tried to unplug the guy's guitar and got a jolt that anybody figured out what had happened." ^[3]

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