After forty-five years, Steve Harley still enjoys performing and knows how to entertain his audience.
On April 12th 1974, I first saw Cockney Rebel perform at the Empire Pool, Wembley (now Wembley Arena). One day short of forty-three years later, Steve Harley looks older, has mellowed a little but still sings well, has retained his distinct phrasing, still writes beautiful melodies and is writes great lyrics.
I had last seen Steve perform live in 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall with Cockney Rebel and a full orchestra. This was totally different a small intimate venue and only Barry Wickens (Violin and Guitar) and James Lascelles (Keyboards) accompanying him. It worked exceptionally well.
Surprisingly (because I am not used to Steve playing covers), he opened with Bob Dylan’s ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’ which he interpreted brilliantly. Apart from the old Cockney Rebel songs like ‘Judy Teen’ and ‘Sling It’, I did not recognise his songs but from the writing style and phrasing I assumed they were all self-penned. One song ‘A Friend For Life’, he told us had been covered brilliantly by Rod Stewart.
The second set began with a tribute to Scott Walker and a rendition of ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’. Amongst the songs was one about the Amalfi Coast which managed to include Pompei, Sorrento, Napoli and Ischia in its lyrics which is not a simple task. The set concluded with magnificent versions of ‘Best Year of Our Lives’ and ‘Sebastian’ which featured stunning playing from Barry Wickens and James Lascelles supporting Steve’s guitar work, much of which was improvised. They were so good that when they played an encore of ‘Make Me Smile’ it was almost anti-climactic.
Steve told a few stories and one was about meeting Vince Clark at the Ivor Novello awards, where Steve was presenting rather than receiving a song-writing award. I cannot think of any UK song-writer better than Steve who is yet to win one of those awards.
Steve clearly still enjoys performing and is well worth going to see.
Johns London Music Reviews 