Release Date 1975  Information here comes from the All-Music Guide and from the album.  ALBUM RELEASES 1975 LP Vertigo 9102007

PERSONNEL Alex Harvey -- Vocals Zal Cleminson -- Guitars Chris Glen -- Bass Guitar Hugh McKenna -- Keyboards/Synthesizer Ted McKenna -- Percussion Produced by David Batchelor B. J. Cole played Pedal Steel Guitar on "Say You're Mine". Recorded and Mixed at Basing Street Studios, London. Additional Mixing at AIR and Advision Studios, London "Cheek to Cheek" recorded Live at the New Victoria Theatre, London (Christmas 1975) with the RAK Mobile. Engineers: John Burns, John Punter, Doug Hopkins and Denny Bridges. A MOUNTAIN RECORDS PRODUCTION

ALBUM TRACKS

side one
1. I Wanna Have You Back (S.A.H.B.) ..........2:42
2. Jungle Jenny (S.A.H.B./D. Batchelor) .......... 4:07
3. Runaway (Del Shannon & Max Crook) .......... 2:46
4. Love Story (Ian Anderson) .......... 5:10
5. School's Out (A. Cooper, M. Bruce, D. Dunaway and N. Smith) ..........5:02

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THE PENTHOUSE TAPES by Allan Jones

The majority of the material collected here will doubtless be familiar to those who have followed with any scrutiny the band's development over the last three years, since all but two of the ten songs presented have, at various times, been included in their repertoire.

None, however have appeared on an album, though both "Jungle Jenny" - the lurid tale of a young lady brought up in the jungle by a family of gorillas who finds eventual employment as a lipstick tester for Willie and his Walnuts - and the Jimmy Rodgers tune, "Gambling Bar Room Blues", curiously unsuccessful as a follow up to "Delilah", have been issued previously as singles.

Of the remaining eight tracks, two are SAHB originals: "I wanna have you back", which opens the album, and the country and western opus, "If you'll only say you're mine". The former is described by Alex as "a pop song written suddenly in silent fury - inspired by some riff Zal ripped off", and features some vintage Cleminson guitar lunacy and a thoroughly infections chorus.

If The Monkees had been recruited from the Gorbals they may have sounded rather like this. More contemporary teenage idols, The Osmonds, are evoked later in the proceedings via a quick Glasgow rampage through "Crazy Horses", which, in this wild incarnation would be evidence enough for the entire population of Salt Lake City to be convinced that the apocalypse was upon them.

"If you only say you're mine" was composed some 23 years ago when Vambo was entertaining dreams fo becoming a cowboy and Alex was suffering under the illusion that he was Hank Williams. I presume it was written to commemorate the camping trips which Alex and his team enjoyed as a respite from the depression of the Gorbals, and comes complete with camp fire harmonies and steel guitar. It's dedicated, amongst others, to Geordie K, Darky, Low Appaches, Uncle Jimmy, Banjo Chuck, the very wonderful General Grimes and "everybody who ever shared their beans with the Dunoon Pier Dwellers".

The band's interpretation of Huddie Leadbetter's "Irene Goodnight" which opens with SAHB's celebrated impersonation of the Dallas Boys and develops into a skiffle stomp, (which may, for Alex, recall Saturday nights at the Glasgow Metropole), is similarly charming. As is their beautifully sleazy tribute to Fred Astaire, "Cheek to Cheek", which was recorded live at one of their Christmas spectaculars at London's New Victoria Theatre.

But the real triumphs are reserved for the second half of side one. We have first the utterly deranged recording of Del Shannon's "Runaway", which has been conceived and performed with a casual disregard for the original's captivating innocence. Alex's loony crooning is enhanced by the passionate hysteria of Hugh McKenna's synthethiser. It's a completely off the wall performance which I find rather endearing.

It's followed by an intense and dramatic arrangement of "Love Story" ("written and dedicated to Ian Anderson"), which opens with Zal at his most restrained and lyrical before breaking off at a violent tangent in a brilliantly neurotic guitar solo. The piece segues, via Hugh McKenna's atmostpheric synthesiser and Alex's introductory rap - "Remember this boys n' gurlz, when freedom comes around, doan pissh in the water supply" - into Alice Cooper's "School's Out".

The version here is one of unprecedented ferocity and power. The band, led by Harvey at his most insane, prepare a furious onslaught, punctuated by the battering insistence of Ted McKenna's drum attack, and contrive, most effectively, to sound like World War Three on wheels. It's really quite extraordinary. For a B movie, "The Penthouse Tapes" is a real epic. Four stars and a kiss on the back of the head for this, lads."

Review courtesy a SAHB List contributor: Used here without permission.

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