STEVE HARLEY
Cockney Rebel captain (1951-2024)
STEVE Harley’s biggest hit may never have happened had his band not walked out on him. A¢er a successful 1974 tour, three members of Cockney Rebel demanded more say in the songwriting. Harley, who’d written everything thus far, stood £rm. When the dissenters quit, he swi¢ly put together a new lineup and poured his sense of betrayal into the scornful lyrics of “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)”. The single topped the UK charts and sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
It proved the high point of a career that had already been eventful. Born Stephen Nice in Deptford, Harley spent much of his formative years receiving treatment for polio. One hospital stay, in 1963, coincided with his £rst exposure to Bob Dylan. Having devoured the works of DH Lawrence and TS Eliot, it pointed the way to Harley’s creative future. “In Dylan’s case [lyrics] were poems,” he later told the International Songwriters Association. “That entirely turned my head.”
Having begun as a reporter for regional newspapers, Harley’s early experience on the London folk circuit was uninspiring. By late 1972, he and violinist Jean-paul Crocker had split from folk ensemble Odin to form the more glam-facing Cockney Rebel. Eclectic 1973 debut The Human Menagerie featured the surreal “Sebastian” and semi-orchestral epic “Death Trip”, but despite such nerveless ambition – “We were young and full of dangerous ideas and adventure,” Harley wrote later – EMI demanded hit singles. Harley duly obliged with the hook-laden “Judy Teen” and “Mr So¢” – the latter from second album The Psychomodo – both of which went Top 10.
A¢er “Make Me Smile”, Harley enjoyed further success with “Mr Ra¬es” and a cover of The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun”, before £nally disbanding Cockney Rebel in 1977. His solo career was £tful, though he returned to the charts in 1986 with Sarah Brightman duet “The Phantom Of The Opera”, from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical. In between subsequent solo albums, live work and various Cockney Rebel reunions, Harley also excelled as a DJ, hosting BBC Radio 2’s Sounds Of The 70s for nine years.