Steve Harley

Steve Harley 2013

Steve Harley , real name Steven Nice (born February 27, 1951 in London ), is a British musician and composer . He became known in the 1970s as the founder and singer of the successful British glam rock band Cockney Rebel .

Beginnings

At the age of two, Steve Harley developed polio (poliomyelitis) and therefore spent four years in hospitals until he was 14. During this time his interest in music grew. His mother, a former jazz singer, encouraged Harley's desire to become a musician through guitar and piano lessons.

Harley dropped out of school early and worked as a journalist. In the late 1960s he began to write his own songs, some of which later appeared on his albums, and to perform them in small clubs in and around London . In 1972 he founded Cockney Rebel .

1970s

With changing teammates, including Jim Cregan, John Paul Crocker, Stuart Elliott, George Ford, Paul Avron Jeffries, Duncan MacKay and Milton Reame-James, Harley largely determined the fortunes of Cockney Rebel on his own . He wrote almost all of the song material and was often criticized as an egomaniacal band leader who had an extremely tense relationship with journalists - of whom he had previously been himself - and often also with his fellow musicians. When performing, Harley was moody and unpredictable at times. On successful evenings, however, Harley and his band were able to create a unique atmosphere. This is documented on one of Cockney Rebel's most successful albums , Face to Face live . Because of their extravagant appearance, Cockney Rebel were assigned to glam rock in their early days.

Steve Harley fell out with the original band members and formed a new band, which he called Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel from now on . Only the drummer Stuart Elliott, who from then on was also in great demand as a studio musician for Paul McCartney , Alan Parsons , Kate Bush and many others, remained loyal to him.

One of the band's best-known titles is the dramatic, orchestral song Sebastian from their debut album The Human Menagerie from 1973. The piece was also released as a single. Cockney Rebel achieved the greatest commercial success in 1975 with Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) . The song thematized the separation from his former fellow musicians and reached the top position in the British charts. The band also had success with Judy Teen , Mr. Soft and Here Comes the Sun , a cover version of the George Harrison song. In the studio, producer Alan Parsons played a key role in the sound of the successful albums The Psychomodo and The Best Years of Our Lives . Steve Harley took part in 1976 in return for the song The Voice on Parson's album I Robot as a guest singer. In 1977 he acted as a background singer on the single Dandy in the underworld by his longtime friend Marc Bolan .

On Harley's following albums he took over the production tasks himself. From the 1978 album Hobo With A Grin , he temporarily renounced the band name, although Cockney Rebel musicians were still among his teammates. Also Marc Bolan took part in one of the receptacles ( America The Brave with a guitarist). From a commercial point of view, Steve Harley could no longer build on the success of the previous singles and albums, although he continued to receive mostly good reviews for his work and the concerts were well attended.

1980s until today

Harley achieved good sales again with the song The Phantom of the Opera from the musical of the same name , with which he reached number seven on the British charts in 1986 . Steve Harley was awarded the gold medal for his work by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters in 2002.

Through his concerts with other musicians, including his younger brother Ian Nice on keyboards , he has built a solid fan base in recent years, especially in Great Britain, Germany and Holland. In 2004, the album Anytime! , on which Harley played his most famous songs mainly in unamplified versions. In 2005 he released the album The Quality Of Mercy again under the band name Cockney Rebel .

On May 4th 2010 Harley's eleventh studio album Stranger Comes to Town was released in Germany. The album, produced in East Anglia , was recorded with his touring band.

Trivia

• The band Duran Duran played a cover version of Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) as an encore on various tours . A live recorded version can be heard on the B-side of the Duran-Duran hit The Reflex . Steve Harley acts as a guest singer. The single therefore became a coveted collector's item.

• Some of Steve Harley's songs can be heard in film productions, such as: B. Sebastian and Tumbling down as cover versions in Velvet Goldmine or Make Me Smile in all or nothing .

• The first bass player of Cockney Rebel , Paul Avron Jeffreys, came in 1988 with the bombing of the Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie killed.

• Steve Harley is married and has two children.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1974	The Psychomodo	-	UK8 (20 weeks) UK	-	Cockney Rebel
1975	The Best Years of Our Lives	-	UK4 (19 weeks) UK	-	Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
1976	Timeless Flight	-	UK18 (6 weeks) UK	-	Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
1976	Love's a Prima Donna	-	UK28 (3 weeks) UK	-	Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
1977	Face to Face - A Live Recording	-	UK40 (4 weeks) UK	-	Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel live album

More albums

• The Human Menagerie (1973)
• Hobo with a Grin (1978)
• The Candidate (1979)
• Greatest Hits (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, 1987)
• Yes You Can (1992)
• Poetic Justice (1996)
• More Than Somewhat - The Very Best of Steve Harley (1998)
• Stripped to the Bare Bones (1999)
• Acoustic and Pure: Live (2002)
• Anytime! (A Live Set) (The Steve Harley Band, 2004)
• The Quality of Mercy (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, 2005)
• Stranger Comes to Town (2010)
• Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir , Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, 2013)

Singles (chart successes)

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1974	Sebastian The Human Menagerie	DE30 (1 week) DE	-	-	Cockney Rebel
	Judy Teen single track	-	UK5 (11 weeks) UK	-	Cockney Rebel
	Mr Soft The Psychomodo	-	UK8 (9 weeks) UK	-	Cockney Rebel
1975	Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) The Best Years of Our Lives	DE20 (8 weeks) DE	UK1 (19 weeks) UK	US96 (3 weeks) US	Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel UK re-entry 1992, 1995, 2005 and 2015
	Mr Raffles (Man It Was Mean) The Best Years of Our Lives	-	UK13 (6 weeks) UK	-	Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
1976	Here Comes the Sun Love’s a Prima Donna	-	UK10 (7 weeks) UK	-	Original: The Beatles (1969)
	(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna Love’s a Prima Donna	-	UK41 (4 weeks) UK	-
1979	Freedom's Prisoner The Candidate	-	UK58 (3 weeks) UK	-
1983	Ballerina (Prima Donna) single track	-	UK51 (6 weeks) UK	-
1985	Irresistible single track	-	UK81 (5 weeks) UK	-
1986	The Phantom of the Opera single track	-	UK7 (10 weeks) UK	-	Sarah Brightman & Steve Harley from the musical The Phantom of the Opera

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1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE - UK1 (Steve Harley) - UK2 (Cockney Rebel) - US

Web links

• Literature by and about Steve Harley in the catalog of the German National Library
• Steve Harley's official website (English)
• Biography including annotated discography by Hans Peters (English)
• Review including the discography by George Starostin (English)