Stone the Crows

Stone The Crows
Stone the Crows (Kralingen, 1970)
Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genres	Blues-rock
Years active	1968–1973
Past members	Leslie Harvey Maggie Bell Colin Allen John McGinnis Jim Dewar Steve Thompson (bass, 1971) Ronnie Leahy (keyboards, 1971) Jimmy McCulloch (guitar, 1972)

Stone the Crows were a blues-rock band formed in Glasgow in late 1969.

The band were formed after Maggie Bell was introduced to Les Harvey by his elder brother, Alex Harvey. After playing together in the Kinning Park Ramblers, they rejoined in a band named Power, later renamed Stone the Crows (after a British/Australian English ) by Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant. The band was co-managed by Grant and Mark London. London was associated with Lulu as the co-writer of her signature song, "To Sir With Love" and was also married to Lulu's manager, Marion Massey. London had also managed the predecessor band Cartoone, which featured Les Harvey on guitar, and in which Peter Grant had a financial interest.

The band's first two albums were recorded by the above line-up, with Bell's vocals "reminiscent of Janis Joplin".

McGinnis and Dewar left in 1971, to be replaced by Ronnie Leahy and Steve Thompson. Jimmy McCulloch would subsequently replace Harvey as lead guitarist following Harvey's accidental on-stage death by electrocution at Swansea's Top Rank Suite in May 1972. The band's primary songwriter as well as Maggie Bell's romantic partner, Harvey's death nearly led to the Crows' breakup.

Stone the Crows ultimately broke up in June 1973. Peter Grant would continue to manage Maggie Bell's career following the band's breakup, with Bell subsequently recording two solo albums under Grant's tutelage, Queen of the Night (1974) and Suicide Sal (1975), and a 1981 album with the Grant-managed band Midnight Flyer. Bell may be best known, however, for her session work on Rod Stewart's 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story, in particular her co-lead vocal with Stewart on the album's title track (credited as "vocal abrasives"). Jimmy McCulloch joined Paul McCartney's group, Wings, in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1974.