I’m not flamboyant, yet when that light hits me I come alive
From fearless young glam-rockers to iconic performers who’ve lost none of their passion for music in the intervening 50 years, Cockney Rebel’s Steve Harley tells JEFFREY DAVIES about Seventies mayhem, set list shocks and the joy of being on tour
COCKNEY Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley, was one of the biggest pop/ rock bands of the glam-rock Seventies. Now celebrating his 48th year in music, singer and songwriter Steve continues to play concerts and gigs around the world, stating simply that playing live is more than a job. It’s his life’s blood.
Considered one of the most charismatic live performers at work today, the original Cockney Rebel now tours with a full six-piece rock band, as well as fronting his own Steve Harley Acoustic Band. Among his many honours, the multi-awardwinning artist was presented with a Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Acoustic Music from the British Federation of Music.
Music is Steve Harley’s selfconfessed passion - his life. But why, at the age of 70, is the veteran rocker still rolling?
“Well, we see the world and play to great audiences; how good is that! I see great cities and their galleries and museums in our down time; beautiful landscapes from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean coast; and all in my life as a musician. I love what I do. It’s still the greatest job on Earth because music means the world to me,” the friendly and engaging rock icon told me with enthusiasm ahead of his gig in Bath next week, which is part of a major UK tour.
The live shows include the big hit singles: Judy Teen, Mr Soft, Love’s A Prima Donna and the legendary Sebastian, as well as the evergreen Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me), which is one of the most played song in British radio history.
Recent critical acclaim has included such praise for Steve as “a consummate professional at the top of his game” and Rod Stewart, who has covered Steve’s song A Friend For Life, described him as “one of the greatest lyricists Britain has produced”. Glowing plaudits indeed.
Still going 48 years on, I remarked to the man I first interviewed back in the Seventies in Bristol. “Yeah. One of the first proper shows that we played as Cockney Rebel was at the Bristol Hippodrome. I was on the bill with Nazareth and Suzi Quatro. After that it was always the Colston Hall,” he told me. So what can audiences expect from Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel 50 years on from the rock band’s glam-rock heyday? “Well, I’ve put together a set list which shocked everybody. It surprised the musicians and it shocked the fans,” he reveals.
“I took a dive into the deep water and said make it special. There are a couple of songs – album tracks – that I’ve never played on stage. But people have been asking for them on Facebook over the last few years. There’s also a couple I hadn’t played for perhaps 40 years. And mixed in is the more contemporary acoustic stuff from the new album which is all strings and no keyboards; it took them all by surprise a bit. We played four shows recently and there was big, big excitement from everyone.
“It is exciting, Jeffrey. I love travelling and I love this job. I love what I do. And it’s been pretty lonesome for the last 20 or so months of the pandemic,” the London-born musician said.
Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel rose to prominence in the Seventies. How did the band come about?
“I gave up my journalistic career on the East London Advertiser because I got tired of it, with all respect. Richard Madeley got my job as a junior reporter,” he recalled with a smile.
“Since the age of 12 I was always playing the guitar. I used to play in folk clubs just for the crack. Playing free. I got bitten by that bug. I enjoyed entertaining. I’m not a flamboyant person at all. I’m not shy but reticent to private and yet when that light hits me I come alive,” he said, his face lighting up at the very thought of performing.
“I was playing the folk clubs and I wanted a band which played soft rock. I’d written all these songs; all of The Human Menagerie album and most of The Psychomodo album before I’d formed the band. As to how we came about, we formed like most bands form, actually. We were mates. We were young fellas who said, ‘We can do this’. We were fearless because you are fearless at that age. You just think you can change the world. We never thought it would all last a lifetime, which it has, and it will.”
Sebastian, Mr Soft and Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) are great songs, I remarked. Is Steve still fond of these hit singles, which were first released nearly half a century ago?
“Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sebastian is still kind of a showstopper, I can’t deny it. We have to do it at every show,” he readily conceded of his selfpenned 1973 Cockney Rebel debut song.
“Mr Soft was a big hit as well. We now play it like a bebop. Gypsy jazz-style,” Steve said
I don’t really get it when you hear about some guys who don’t play their old hits. It must be because they’re not proud of them; almost like they’re slightly ashamed of what they did when they were younger. But I’m not. They’re like the crossbeams that hold the roof of a building up. Steve Harley
while mouthing the clicketyclick beat of another of his selfpenned hits. And of course Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me). A great song the fans loved.
“Yes, Jeffrey, I’m really proud of them all. I don’t really get it when you hear about some guys who don’t play their old hits. It must be because they’re not proud of them; almost like they’re slightly ashamed of what they did when they were younger. But I’m not. They’re like the cross-beams that hold the roof of a building up. Without them, the live performance would not be the same.”
Of the three songs, does Steve have a favourite? And indeed does the audience?
“I can’t speak for the audience. When the fans do stuff like polls online they’re not the tracks that come up as the big favourites ever. They come up with quite obscure ones which move them more; the album tracks with a bit of depth to them. But live on stage those big hit records are the favourites,” Steve readily admitted.
David Bowie, Les Gray of Mud, Brian Connolly of Sweet and Marc Bolan of T.rex. What a great time for a young pop/rock star to be performing. Did Steve feel blessed to be centre stage during the era of glam rock? He laughed. “Well, I just enjoyed it all. Life was crackers to be honest. I had a really quiet Eighties because the Seventies was mayhem. Then we moved into the Eighties and I married fabulous Dorothy and had two children, who were born in 1982 and 1985. It was only in 1986 that I came alive again professionally when Andrew Lloyd Webber came to me to do The Phantom of the Opera. To be his Phantom.
“But the Seventies were just the mayhem that you’ve heard about. We took full advantage; we can’t deny it. And why not! It was fun. We all had a great time. Sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll as they say. That’s what it was,” Steve remembered, adding quickly that he likes life more now because he “likes being more mature” as he put it.
He continued: “It’s all sleep now. Two and a quarter hours of singing is very stressful on the body. I have to keep my voice in good order because it’s my instrument, as all singers will tell you. It’s a couple of glasses of chardonnay now in my hotel room and a lot of sleep. And not too many early mornings, which I hate. It’s a completely different lifestyle now to that of the Seventies.”
Pop. Rock. Progressive rock. How does Steve define his and Cockney Rebel’s musical genre?
“I’m pretty eclectic and I think everyone knows that. My new album Uncovered is just acoustic instruments, acoustic strings. It’s a double-bass string quartet with guitars, violins and viola. At Bath Forum we are coming as Cockney Rebel with a mix of the early hits and the later acoustic sounds. There’s something for everyone,” he promised.
One might imagine that back in the halcyon days of glam rock, all the iconic solo performers and bands were “mates” off stage. “No, I never met anybody except Marc Bolan. He was my good friend for two years. I miss him badly,” Steve lamented.
I mentioned to Steve that Marc Bolan once told me that he was prettier than all the “chicks” who came to see him. Steve laughed out loud. “He was very vain but everyone loved him for it. He talked such nonsense. He lived on fantasy island, frankly. But he could get away with it because everyone loved it. Everyone could see through his nonsense!”
He went on: “I hadn’t seen David [Bowie] since Marc’s funeral in Golders Green in September ‘77. We sat together at the funeral. The three of us were very close at that time.”
Almost 50 years in music. A wonderful milestone. What does the artist put his and Cockney Rebel’s longevity down to?
“I don’t really have an answer to that because it’s not for me to say. After I know that my wife, my children and my grandchildren are looked after and are secure and healthy, I think about whether I have an audience and about going out there on stage to play.
“You know, I have pretty much virtuoso players on stage with me; musicians of the highest skill and calibre. This life is wonderful and it keeps us all young and strong.
“As for the longevity you mention, that comes from people trusting me as an artist; an artist who will come on that stage and deliver. And not disappoint,” Steve answered, adding immediately that he couldn’t imagine retirement when his passion continues to bring him so much joy.
■ Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel are playing Bath Forum on Friday, December 17. Tickets can be booked on 0161 813 2222 or online at www. bathforum.co.uk