Zal Cleminson

Alistair MacDonald "Zal" Cleminson (born 4 May 1949) is a Scottish guitarist, best known for his role in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band between 1972 and 1978.

He was subsequently a member of Nazareth for three years.

During the mid-1960s he joined his first band the Bo-Weavels which performed mainly Tamla Motown & Stax music.

In the early 1970s he left the Bo Weavels and joined Glasgow-based band Tear Gas.

The line up of Tear Gas were: Andi Mulvey on lead vocals, Zal Cleminson on lead guitar, Eddie Campbell on keyboards, Chris Glen on bass guitar, and Gilson Lavis on drums.

Mulvey had previously sung with local beat group the Poets.

After changing from their original name, Mustard, they chose Tear Gas as a variation on the same theme.

However, Mulvey was soon replaced by keyboard player and vocalist David Batchelor, and Lavis (who later played with Squeeze) by Richard Monro from Ritchie Blackmore's Mandrake Root.

It was this line-up who made their recorded debut with 1970's Piggy Go Getter, an album typical of the time with its extended guitar and keyboard passages.

However, they were more playful than some - ‘We were a really loud band.

In fact we used to open with Jethro Tull's 'Love Story', which started very softly and the crowd would drift towards the front.

Then we'd turn the volume up and blow everyone out of the hall.’ Later in 1970 Hugh McKenna replaced Batchelor while his cousin Ted McKenna (ex-Dream Police) took over from Monro on drums.

Itinerant musician Ronnie Leahy also contributed keyboards in Batchelor's absence, though the group were by now living in penury six to a room in Shepherd's Bush, London.

A second album was recorded for release on Regal Zonophone Records but again met with a lacklustre response from the critics despite regular touring in an effort to establish themselves.

Tear Gas met with an experienced vocalist called Alex Harvey, this was arranged by the Management Company.

Alex joined Tear Gas and the band's name was changed to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

SAHB produced a succession of highly regarded albums and tours throughout the 1970s.

Kicking off their careers as SAHB in August 1972 they were primarily performing material Alex already had.

By 1973 they adopted distinctive stage costumes: Harvey wore vaudeville-like clothes and his trademark striped shirt, while Cleminson assumed the identity of a "mime" in full make-up and green-yellow jumpsuit and Glen wore a dark blue jumpsuit reminiscent of a superhero costume incorporating a lighter blue codpiece.

The band did not enjoy large-scale success in the United States as it had in the UK, though they did acquire a cult following in certain US cities, notably Cleveland, where the group first played at the Agora Ballroom in December 1974.

Thanks to airplay from WMMS, songs like "Next" and "The Faith Healer" became popular.

In January 1974, the band went into Advision Studios in London with the American producer Shel Talmy to record a third album.

By April, the sessions were finished and the album was mixed.

However, the band and management had some reservations about the overall sound and decided to scrap the entire album.

Talmy returned to Los Angeles with his tapes.

By 1975 they were selling out iconic venues such as The Apollos and their shows there became famous thanks to their Christmas Shows which were never filmed.

Also in 1975 they released a live album containing the song Delilah.

The band had top 40 hits in Britain including "Delilah", a cover version of the Tom Jones hit, which reached number seven in 1975.

Delilah was added to their live set in order for Zal, Chris and Alex To do a dance in the middle of the song.

But the record company thought it was a fantastic version, they mixed and released the song without the band's knowledge or permission while they were on tour in America, which required the band to fly back to the UK to perform on Top Of The Pops and shows such as The Old Grey Whistle Test as the song had entered the UK charts.

Harvey left the group late in 1975; the other members continued with the name "SAHB (without Alex)".

"The Boston Tea Party" was released in June 1976 and the song "Anthem" was a top 30 hit in Australia in 1975.

They recorded a new album, Fourplay, in February 1977.

The album steered towards solid pop-rock with progressive influences.

Harvey re-joined the group in mid-1977.

Most of the song titles appeared on the official album The Impossible Dream later that year with a different producer, though the songs were dramatically changed.[clarification needed] The original recordings formed an album called Hot City, released in 2009 by Major League Productions.

The SAHB, as they were better known, recorded eight albums in five years and were regarded as one of the biggest-grossing live bands in Europe.

They participated in major tours supporting the likes of Jethro Tull, Slade, and supporting bands such as The Who and Frank Zappa.

In 2017, Cleminson put together a new rock band - /sin'dogs/, which recorded and released a four-song CD and toured Scotland and England at the end of that year.

A self-taught guitarist, influenced by guitarists such as Wes Montgomery and Chuck Berry.