Stone the Crows -

Stone the Crows were a Scottish soul-rock band that released four albums between 1970 and 1972 on Polydor. Their guitarist and songwriter Leslie Harvey (brother of Alex Harvey) was electrocuted on stage in 1972. Early bassist James Dewar subsequently fronted the Robin Trower band. Singer Maggie Bell cut two solo albums and later fronted Midnight Flyer.

Members: Maggie Bell (vocals), Colin Allen (drums), John McGinnis (keyboards, 1969-71), James Dewar (bass, 1969-71), Leslie Harvey (guitar, 1969-72), Ronnie Leahy (keyboards, 1971-73), Stephen Thompson (bass, 1971-73), Jimmy McCulloch (guitar, 1972-73)

Background

Stone the Crows formed in late 1969 from the ashes of the Kinning Park Ramblers, a blues-rock band with singer Maggie Bell and guitarist Leslie Harvey. They were introduced by Leslie’s older brother, Alex Harvey, after Bell jumped on stage at a Ramblers gig.

Leslie Harvey (1944–1972), first played with his brother in the Alex Harvey Soul Band, a mid-’60s R&B/beat combo. He passed on an invitation by The Animals and joined The Blues Council, which issued the 1965 album Baby Don’t Look Down but disbanded after a tour van crash that killed their singer and bassist. After the Ramblers, he joined Scottish popsters Cartoone and played on their unreleased second album Reflections.

Bell (b. 1945) cut two 1966 Decca singles in the soul-pop duo Frankie & Johnny with songwriter Bobby Kerr (aka Johnny Curtis). She followed the Ramblers with stints in two Glasgow ballroom bands, the Mecca Band and the Dennistoun Palais Band. In late 1969, she reteamed with Harvey in Power. They hired bassist James Dewar, drummer Colin Allen, and keyboardist John McGinnis.

Dewar (1942–2002) first emerged in Scottish popsters Lulu and the Luvvers, which cut numerous mid-’60s Decca singles before the breakout stardom of frontwoman Lulu. In 1967, he joined soul-rockers Sock It to ‘Em J, which featured up-and-coming Glaswegian belter Frankie Miller. Soon thereafter, Dewar and Miller formed the pop-psych trio Stoics, which issued the 1968 RCA single “Earth, Fire, Air and Water” (b/w “Search for the Sea”).

Allen (b. 1938) got his career start in Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band, an R&B act that also featured (later-Police) guitarist Andy Summers. They morphed into the pop-psych Dantalian’s Chariot, which cut the 1967 single “Madman Running Through the Fields” and an album’s worth of material. In 1968, he drummed on the album Blues from Laurel Canyon by John Mayall and the single b-side “Cracking Up Over Christmas” by original Yardbirds guitarist Top Topham.

Power signed on with Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, who changed their name to Stone the Crows, a UK/Australian phrase for shock or surprise. He secured them a deal with Polydor and linked then with Mark London, a producer with ties to related earlier acts (Lulu, Cartoone) who acted as their co-manager.

Stone the Crows

Stone the Crows released their self-titled debut album in February 1970 on Polydor.

The album presents a blend of blues, soul, and extended form rock, framed around Maggie Bell’s vocal power and the interplay between guitarist Les Harvey and keyboardist John McGinnis. Harvey’s phrasing alternates between lyrical sustain and clipped rhythm bursts, while McGinnis threads organ and piano figures through open passages and solo breaks.

“Blind Man” adapts a song by Josh White Jr., restructured and arranged by Bell and Harvey. “I Saw America,” the 17-minute B-side suite, credits Harvey, drummer Colin Allen, and producer Mark London.

Stone the Crows opens with a slow-climb burner, driven by co-lead vocals that arc into a sustained vocal peak beneath a gauzy organ bed and a brief phrased guitar break. The second track accelerates with clipped rhythmic charge and saturated guitar lines that frame organ accents and overlapping vocal lines, then falls into an abrupt stop. On “Blind Man,” acoustic guitar shapes a repeated blues motif as Bell’s voice rises with widened vibrato over bare accompaniment.

The band recasts “Fool on the Hill” as a down-tempo soul arrangement, stretching the phrasing into warped intervals and pulling apart the original cadence for looser reinterpretation. The second side comprises a multi-part suite with acoustic intro, fragmented song passages, and a slow pivot into hard-riff repetition. Sections drift between low-motion shuffle and open-chord vamping, then shift abruptly into brief angular transitions, returning at the end to a locked minor-key progression where guitar and organ drive a terminal acceleration.

A1. “The Touch of Your Loving Hand” (6:03) – Dewar, Harvey
A2. “Raining in Your Heart” (5:08) – Dewar, Harvey
A3. “Blind Man” (5:11) – White Jr.; arr. Bell, Harvey
A4. “The Fool on the Hill” (4:09) – Lennon, McCartney
B1. “I Saw America” (17:20) – Allen, Harvey, London

Mark London produced the album at Advision Studios, London, with engineers Robin Black and Christopher Neil. Peter Grant acted as executive producer.

Polydor lifted “The Fool on the Hill” as a UK single, backed with the third section of “I Saw America.”

Ode to John Law

Stone the Crows released their second album, Ode to John Law, in October 1970 on Polydor.

The album extends their blend of electric blues, soul, and dramatic balladry across seven tracks with expanded instrumental space and compositional input from keyboardist John McGinnis. Guitarist Les Harvey interacts fluidly with McGinnis across sustained climaxes and staggered shifts, particularly on the McGinnis-led pieces.

Ode to John Law stretches Stone the Crows’ arrangements across wider structures, anchoring extended vocal passages to slow-shifting instrumental frameworks. “Sad Mary” opens with clipped organ and driving chords but dissolves into spaced, down-tempo intervals where guitarist Les Harvey shapes brittle, high-tone figures beneath Maggie Bell’s staggered phrasing. “Friend” threads thin wah-wah lead lines over a measured pulse that never accelerates, giving Harvey room to alternate between clipped phrases and long sustain. “Love 74” centers on a firm organ vamp that stays constant beneath Bell’s vocal arc and Harvey’s clipped, minimalist commentary.

“Mad Dogs and Englishmen” changes direction with a clipped piano-led bounce, freeing Bell to improvise short, contoured turns with quick rests and suspended entries. The title track blurs tempo boundaries with loose transitional bars and abrupt rhythmic stalls before reforming in a repeated vamp. “Danger Zone” closes with the album’s most restrained pacing—organ and guitar circle beneath Bell’s elongated tones, held just behind the beat while Harvey answers with flattened, scraping figures. Throughout, the solos rarely break from the ensemble frame, but instead move in staggered exchange with the voice.

A1. “Sad Mary” (6:53) – McGinnis
A2. “Friend” (6:28) – Harvey, Dewar
A3. “Love 74” (6:35) – McGinnis

B1. “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” (3:34) – Allen, Harvey; lifts its title from a 1931 Noel Coward song, itself inspired by the phrase “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,” attributed to English novelist Rudyard Kipling. Joe Cocker used the title for his 1970 live album, released two months before Ode to John Law.
B2. “Things Are Getting Better” (6:10) – McGinnis
B3. “Ode to John Law” (5:47) – Allen, Harvey
B4. “Danger Zone” (6:21) – Mayfield

Mark London produced the album at Advision Studios, London, with engineer Eddy Offord, a prior Idle Race and Trinity soundman who worked in sequence on titles by Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jackson Heights, Taste, and Yes (Time and a Word).

Polydor issued “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” as a single, backed with “Sad Mary.” In Germany, they issued “Things Are Getting Better” backed with “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.”

After this album, McGinnis retired and John Dewar formed a trio with Scottish singer Frankie Miller and English guitarist Robin Trower, who’d just departed Procol Harum. Dewar became the longstanding voice on Trower’s solo albums. Stone the Crows hired English bassist Steve Thompson, a recent John Mayall sideman.

Teenage Licks

Stone the Crows released their third album, Teenage Licks, in November 1971 on Polydor.

The album highlights a tighter ensemble dynamic with new keyboardist Ronnie Leahy, who locks into extended sections with guitarist Les Harvey across shifting tonal backdrops and solo exchanges. Leahy supplies layered organ voicings and piano cadences that counterbalance Harvey’s phased leads and blues phrases, particularly on longer arrangements like “One Five Eight.”

Teenage Licks opens with “Big Jim Salter,” where clipped vocal refrains alternate with sharp rhythm breaks before the structure stretches into an extended mid-tempo instrumental section, allowing guitarist Les Harvey to stagger clipped motifs across swelling organ lines. “Mr. Wizard” maintains a steady pulse under locked vocals, but its tension builds in bursts, with Harvey pushing fast-picked lead phrases that break briefly into distorted sustain. “Don’t Think Twice” pares the arrangement to accent Maggie Bell’s phrasing, which reshapes the lyric pacing with broken entries and pushed climaxes over open, restrained backing.

“One Five Eight” stretches further, layering repetitive keyboard figures under irregular rhythmic emphasis and alternating lead runs that rise into dense, overlapping motion. “Seven Lakes” closes with a narrowed focus around piano voicings and light chordal support, where the band drops volume to leave space between each phrase before converging in a low, unresolved cadence. Across the album, Harvey and keyboardist Ronnie Leahy alternate lead and support roles in blocks—trading tonal control without overextension, while Bell stretches and contracts the vocal line above them with varying density and sharp-cut entries.

A1. “Big Jim Salter” (4:34) – Allen, Harvey, Bell
A2. “Faces” (4:38) – Stone the Crows
A3. “Mr. Wizard” (5:23) – Allen, Harvey, Bell
A4. “Don’t Think Twice” (5:00) – Dylan

B1. “Keep On Rollin’” (3:50) – Allen, Harvey, Bell
B2. “Ailen Mochree” (0:20) – Trad.; arr. Bell
B3. “One Five Eight” (6:12) – McGinnis
B4. “I May Be Right I May Be Wrong” (5:02) – Stone the Crows
B5. “Seven Lakes” (3:04) – Stone the Crows

Mark London produced the album with recording by Eddie Offord, George Chkiantz, and Martin Rushent at Advision Studios, London. Offord worked in sequence on titles by ELP (Tarkus), and Yes (Fragile), Mogul Thrash, National Head Band, Heads Hands and Feet, and Brian Auger’s Oblivion.

On May 3, 1972, Stone the Crows took the stage at the Top Rank Suite in Swansea, Wales, where Les Harvey was electrocuted on stage by an un-grounded microphone, which he touched at the same time as his metal guitar strings. He died in front of his audience and bandmates, aged 27.

Stone the Crows rehearsed for six weeks with Peter Green, who balked at their summer tour schedule, fulfilled instead by ex-Thunderclap Newman guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, a recent John Entwistle sideman.

Ontinuous Performance

Stone the Crows released their fourth album, Ontinuous Performance, in November 1972 on Polydor.

The album combines material completed before and after the sudden death of Harvey, who appears on four tracks. Ronnie Leahy and Harvey share compositional roles and extended passages, with Leahy’s organ and piano patterns interlacing Harvey’s phrased runs on “Niagra.” Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch joins on two post-Harvey cuts, working in counterpoint with Leahy across layered horn charts by Roger Ball.

Ontinuous Performance opens with “On the Highway,” where clipped phrases and stacked chords trade off between piano and guitar before Maggie Bell cuts in with taut, compressed vocal lines that rise through each verse. “One More Chance” drops into a slower frame built on sustained keyboard tones and a staggered rhythm bed, with Bell drawing out long vocal shapes across minimal accompaniment. The instrumental “King Tut” pivots around a repeated figure, with Les Harvey layering warped slide lines and background bends in staggered waves, pulling the pitch just out of center.

“Good Time Girl” pushes a rapid, riff-centered structure with horn punctuation and quick piano cuts; Bell enters with sharpened phrasing, pressing the lyric rhythmically against the beat. “Penicillin Blues” moves with mid-tempo restraint—slide guitar and voice alternate lead focus while the band holds to a two-chord frame. “Niagra” divides into multiple segments, some defined by rhythmic surges, others by suspended harmonic figures that never resolve fully; the transitions between sections loosen as the track progresses. “Sunset Cowboy” closes with a slow pace, shaped by soft piano phrasing and short guitar fills that recede into the spaces between Bell’s voice. Across the album, solos appear only where structurally integrated—guitar, piano, and horns shift lead focus in measured turns rather than through extended spotlight breaks.

A1. “On the Highway” (5:38) – Harvey, Leahy
A2. “One More Chance” (6:12) – Leahy
A3. “Penicillin Blues” (5:28) – Magee, Terry
A4. “King Tut” (2:37) – Harvey, Leahy

B1. “Good Time Girl” (3:25) – Allen, Bell, Leahy, Thompson
B2. “Niagra” (9:14) – Leahy
B3. “Sunset Cowboy” (6:39) – Allen, Leahy

Mark London produced the album at Advision with engineer Martin Rushent and assistant John Bromley. Rushent also worked on 1972 albums by Compost, Groundhogs (Hogwash), and Gentle Giant (Three Friends, Octopus).

Roger Ball arranged and played horns alongside Malcolm Duncan, credited collectively as The Pumping Spumona Horns. Polydor issued “Good Time Girl” backed with “On the Highway” as a UK single.

Postlude

Stone the Crows disbanded in June 1973. Green, in a post-Fleetwood Mac break from music, managed Maggie Bell’s solo career. She made the 1974/75 Atlantic albums Queen of the Night and Suicide Sal.

Colin Allen joined Focus for the Dutch band’s 1974 album Hamburger Concerto. Steve Thompson played on subsequent albums by Alvin Lee, Denny Laine, Kevin Coyne, and Anthony Moore.

Jimmy McCulloch commenced a three-year stint in Paul McCartney’s Wings, playing on their 1975/76 albums Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound and their Wings Over America tour. He reunited with Ronnie Leahy in The Dukes, an R&B supergroup with Be-Bop Deluxe bassist Charlie Tumahai and Scottish journeyman Miller Anderson (Keef Hartley, Hemlock, Dog Soldier, Broken Glass). McCulloch died of an overdose soon after their 1979 album.

Leahy and Tumahai formed the short-lived Tandoori Cassette with Jethro Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow and Tear Gas/SAHB guitarist (and recent Nazareth fifth wheel) Zal Cleminson. Leahy subsequently backed Jon Anderson on the erstwhile Yes singer’s Song of Seven tour and 1982 solo album Animation.

Discography: