Post by wingsj0 on Feb 26, 2006 17:29:34 GMT
Singer song-writer Steve Harley was born on the 27th of February 1951 and grew up in New Cross, Borough of Deptford, SE14. During the summer of 1953 he contracted the fatal disease polio. Harley was afflicted in the right leg, the only legacy now being a slight limp. "It meant I couldn't run for the bus or play football, that's all really. I had to get on with life". Steve tells us how he become interested in music. "I had violin lessons for several years at school, my friend Ronnie Jay and his brother Martin (both musical) inspired me to play the guitar, and they introduced me to rudimentary guitar, and piano chords.”
On Christmas day 1962, Steve Harley got his first guitar, which he fondly remembers "Oh yeah, I'll remember my first guitar forever. It was a Spanish gut-string. Buddy Holly was my idol, he helped turn me into a romantic. Dylan later showed the way, and showed me songs could have meaning and depth. I didn't dream of fame. I never wanted to be famous. I just want (and still want) to be accepted as an artist and respected as a writer/performer, to play and sing means everything.”
Harley spent four years in and out of hospital during the years 1963 to 1966, undergoing major surgery. During 1964 he spent up to nine months in hospitalisation in the children's ward at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton Beeches in Surrey. The ward welcomed a PR visit from the young Rolling Stones. Steve remembers "Charlie Watts spent quite a time chatting with us kids, but the others seemed more interested in knocking the huge poster of THE BEATLES we had pinned above the fireplace.”
When Harley left school he worked in the Accounts Dept. at the Daily Express and became a reporter on Essex local papers, in his spare time, could be found busking in London. " I never made any any money busking. Others made money but not me. They all sang traditional songs, but I went in with 'Sebastian' and 'Bed in a Corner' and even 'Sling it!' and the average American tourist just didn't get it. But that's where and how I honed those early songs and partly where and how I learnt to perform in public. Eventually, Stuart Elliott, the original drummer, and I met in 1972 and we formed the band that year". In 1973, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel had signed a record deal with EMI and had much success but Harley explained being in the public eye wasn't always a bed of roses. "My parents were stunned when I told them I was going to relinquish my career in journalism to become a professional musician. It was very hard understandably, for them to grasp. Later, after some success, my dad couldn't get enough of it! I coped poorly with great public fame in the 70's. I like my own space, and privacy. I cope better now with a name, but not a recognised face, generally speaking. I escaped the mania by travelling, even when I wasn't touring.
Harley without a doubt is one of the UK's most gifted singer song writers, so was there competition among song writers during the 70's? "There were many Tin Pin Alley songwriters. Songs were there if you couldn't write your own, but I was always writing, from the age of 10 or so, songs, poems, letters and diaries etc. I’ am alone when I work, and I write for myself, best way, then you don't carry the burden of trying to please others." Make Me Smile' (Come Up and See Me) has become one of the most played records in British broadcasting history, Harley shares memories of recording it. "You can never know what you've got in the studio. Some tracks come out more exciting than others, but you can't really swear to believing you have a hit. But Make Me Smile seems to keep on keeping on...........bless!" On composing his other masterpieces such as Sebastian, Loves a Prima Donna, Harley says: "You just do your work, to the highest level you can attain at the time.”
Harley told us what the 60's & 70's meant to him " The 60's meant youth, teenage first love, first sexual experiences, tights replacing stockings, Dylan, The Beatles, social changes. The 70's meant work, travel, career, dealing with the Press, Dorothy, success, failure, enormous highs, dreadful lows....ultimately, survival.”
Thirty years on Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel still thrill audiences and sell out theatres wherever they play and their fan base remains as strong as ever. Harley tells us "We started our live shows in 2005 at The Nantwich Festival, Cheshire on Sunday 26th March. We will play festivals in the UK and Europe in the summer, travel to Japan and New Zealand, also play acoustic shows in Holland, and then tour the UK again in the Autumn. Check www.steveharley.com for details (excuse the plug, but you did ask!").
For the past few years Steve Harley has been a DJ doing his own radio show which is broadcast every Tuesday evening at 10.00 pm on BBC Radio 2. Steve tells us "I do enjoy "Sounds of The 70's" because I get to choose the best of the decade and chat about my friends, peers and idols. And today, since the mid-90's, there are many good bands. They can sing again, play drums again, harmonise again and produce interesting sounds and write songs again. "Bye-bye synthesisers! Thank heavens the 80s didn’t last forever.
2005 is a busy year for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. "We booked the studio in February to record our new album. And a DVD of our '04 Isle of Wight Festival performance, plus backstage action and the sound check, interview footage plus clips filmed on tour in Edinburgh, December '94, should be released in the late spring.”
If you were asked to describe Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel in a rock 'n' roll history books how would you word it?:...... "My Band!".
Jo Rishton
With Steve Harley
Special thanks to Steve Harley for taking the time out of his busy schedule to do this interview, and Christina Czarnik for arranging the interview. (This interview, article has been approved by Steve Harley.)
Official Site: www.steveharley.com
Please note all articles on this site are (C) to The Beat Goes On And On Fanzine and may not be used without permission.
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me.)
On Christmas day 1962, Steve Harley got his first guitar, which he fondly remembers "Oh yeah, I'll remember my first guitar forever. It was a Spanish gut-string. Buddy Holly was my idol, he helped turn me into a romantic. Dylan later showed the way, and showed me songs could have meaning and depth. I didn't dream of fame. I never wanted to be famous. I just want (and still want) to be accepted as an artist and respected as a writer/performer, to play and sing means everything.”
Harley spent four years in and out of hospital during the years 1963 to 1966, undergoing major surgery. During 1964 he spent up to nine months in hospitalisation in the children's ward at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton Beeches in Surrey. The ward welcomed a PR visit from the young Rolling Stones. Steve remembers "Charlie Watts spent quite a time chatting with us kids, but the others seemed more interested in knocking the huge poster of THE BEATLES we had pinned above the fireplace.”
When Harley left school he worked in the Accounts Dept. at the Daily Express and became a reporter on Essex local papers, in his spare time, could be found busking in London. " I never made any any money busking. Others made money but not me. They all sang traditional songs, but I went in with 'Sebastian' and 'Bed in a Corner' and even 'Sling it!' and the average American tourist just didn't get it. But that's where and how I honed those early songs and partly where and how I learnt to perform in public. Eventually, Stuart Elliott, the original drummer, and I met in 1972 and we formed the band that year". In 1973, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel had signed a record deal with EMI and had much success but Harley explained being in the public eye wasn't always a bed of roses. "My parents were stunned when I told them I was going to relinquish my career in journalism to become a professional musician. It was very hard understandably, for them to grasp. Later, after some success, my dad couldn't get enough of it! I coped poorly with great public fame in the 70's. I like my own space, and privacy. I cope better now with a name, but not a recognised face, generally speaking. I escaped the mania by travelling, even when I wasn't touring.
Harley without a doubt is one of the UK's most gifted singer song writers, so was there competition among song writers during the 70's? "There were many Tin Pin Alley songwriters. Songs were there if you couldn't write your own, but I was always writing, from the age of 10 or so, songs, poems, letters and diaries etc. I’ am alone when I work, and I write for myself, best way, then you don't carry the burden of trying to please others." Make Me Smile' (Come Up and See Me) has become one of the most played records in British broadcasting history, Harley shares memories of recording it. "You can never know what you've got in the studio. Some tracks come out more exciting than others, but you can't really swear to believing you have a hit. But Make Me Smile seems to keep on keeping on...........bless!" On composing his other masterpieces such as Sebastian, Loves a Prima Donna, Harley says: "You just do your work, to the highest level you can attain at the time.”
Harley told us what the 60's & 70's meant to him " The 60's meant youth, teenage first love, first sexual experiences, tights replacing stockings, Dylan, The Beatles, social changes. The 70's meant work, travel, career, dealing with the Press, Dorothy, success, failure, enormous highs, dreadful lows....ultimately, survival.”
Thirty years on Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel still thrill audiences and sell out theatres wherever they play and their fan base remains as strong as ever. Harley tells us "We started our live shows in 2005 at The Nantwich Festival, Cheshire on Sunday 26th March. We will play festivals in the UK and Europe in the summer, travel to Japan and New Zealand, also play acoustic shows in Holland, and then tour the UK again in the Autumn. Check www.steveharley.com for details (excuse the plug, but you did ask!").
For the past few years Steve Harley has been a DJ doing his own radio show which is broadcast every Tuesday evening at 10.00 pm on BBC Radio 2. Steve tells us "I do enjoy "Sounds of The 70's" because I get to choose the best of the decade and chat about my friends, peers and idols. And today, since the mid-90's, there are many good bands. They can sing again, play drums again, harmonise again and produce interesting sounds and write songs again. "Bye-bye synthesisers! Thank heavens the 80s didn’t last forever.
2005 is a busy year for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. "We booked the studio in February to record our new album. And a DVD of our '04 Isle of Wight Festival performance, plus backstage action and the sound check, interview footage plus clips filmed on tour in Edinburgh, December '94, should be released in the late spring.”
If you were asked to describe Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel in a rock 'n' roll history books how would you word it?:...... "My Band!".
Jo Rishton
With Steve Harley
Special thanks to Steve Harley for taking the time out of his busy schedule to do this interview, and Christina Czarnik for arranging the interview. (This interview, article has been approved by Steve Harley.)
Official Site: www.steveharley.com
Please note all articles on this site are (C) to The Beat Goes On And On Fanzine and may not be used without permission.
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me.)