Thursday 13th November

They burst onto the scene in 1973, in itself an incredible year for music with prog rock expanding to new horizons and Bowie cementing his fame with Ziggy Stardust.  The first single Sebastian was a huge hit in Europe but failed to chart over here.  For some reason I heard about them, or maybe heard them on the radio and was hooked.  I saw them a couple of times in London where they seemed to have a fanatical following playing their entire first album ‘The Human Menagerie” with electric violin, piano and drums and Steve Harley in make-up, bowler hat and wide collared suit singing in a somewhat dramatic style.  It was like something out of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ – very futuristic and absolutely mesmerizing.  The songs were strange and full of great imagery and Steve sung with an intensity that made them special. They then had hits with the song ‘Judy Teen’ and ‘Mr. Soft’ and had released a second album with a rockier sound ‘The Psychomodo’.  Then the band folded, or maybe Steve kicked them out, who knows, he has always been “difficult”.

He formed a new band and wrote one of the greatest hits ever “Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile)” which was actually about the band break-up but which has touched a chord with people ever since.  Three more albums followed, all written by Steve but eventually this incarnation of the band failed too.  Steve made a couple of solo records and has toured fairly solidly ever since, relying mostly on material from these five Cockney Rebel albums.  He still releases records, many of them live and some under his own name and some by “Cockney Rebel”.

For us aficionados Cockney Rebel was just those first five records, though like the true fan I am I still buy everything Steve puts out, including the truly majestic “Birmingham”, a reincarnation of the first two albums but with full orchestra and choir.