Stone The Crows /Maggie Bell
Reissues REPERTOIRE
Band and solo work from prominent voice from the 70s British blues-rock scene.
GETTY
Stone The Crows, named after Led Zep manager Peter Grant’s exclamation when he saw them and signed them up, were by all accounts an incendiary live act, sparked off by frontwoman Maggie Bell’s voice, which saw her billed as a Glaswegian Janis Joplin. But on their self-titled debut album (1970, 6/10), pretensions towards psychedelia and flabby prog obscure their punchier, bluesier moments, and the same year’s Ode To John Law (6/10) only fleetingly impresses, when Les (brother of Alex) Harvey’s guitar hits a groove on Love 74. 1971’s Teenage Licks (7/10) fares better with the slow-burning rock melodrama of Mr Wizard and the piano boogie of I May Be Right, I May Be Wrong. Harvey was killed by on-stage electrocution while the band were making its follow-up Ontinuous Performance (7/10), a tragedy heightened by the fact the band were clearly finding their feet in the studio – Penicillin Blues is a highlight.