9. A bizarre accident led to the membership of Leslie Harvey in the 27 Club
Leslie Harvey was a guitar player of note in the 1970s, performing with the Alex Harvey Soul Band after declining an invitation to join the popular group the Animals in the 1960s. In 1965 he joined a group known as Blues Council, which toured in the UK and recorded a minor hit, Baby Don’t Look Down. While touring in Scotland in support of the record the band’s van crashed, killing two members. Having cheated death, Harvey began working as a session musician before joining the band Cartoone, which gained fame as the opening act for Led Zeppelin during the latter group’s first United States’ tour. Later that same year, 1969, he was one of the forming members of the band Stone the Crows.
Harvey remained with Stone the Crows into 1972. When the band was performing at Swansea that year, Harvey touched a microphone onstage which was improperly grounded, and in a flash of blue light the guitarist was electrocuted. An urban myth arose regarding the accident, in which it was presented that Harvey had been standing in a rain puddle on stage, but the accident occurred within an indoor venue (Swansea Top Rank was indoors in 1972), and the contact between guitar and microphone stand led to the fatal accident. Ironically Stone the Crows is an expression used by the English to express shock and surprise. Leslie was, of course, 27 years of age at the time of his fatal encounter with an ungrounded microphone stand, entering the 27 Club through an unfortunate accident.