Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel is a London rock group formed in 1972 and active until 2024. Its line-up centres on Steve Harley, with Stuart Elliott, Barry Wickens, Paul Jeffreys, Milton Reame-James, Jean-Paul Crocker and Duncan Mackay among the musicians associated with the band at different points. The group is identified with glam rock and rock, although its music also ranges across pop and progressive rock.

Formation and early years

The original Cockney Rebel forms when Steve Harley, then performing as a soloist in the Beckenham Arts Lab, joins his former folk partner John Crocker in 1972. The pair busk and perform Harley’s own songs before recruiting drummer Stuart Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys and keyboardist Milton Reame-James. After only five gigs the band signs to EMI. One early performance takes place at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London, supporting The Jeff Beck Group.

The band’s first single, “Sebastian”, becomes a European hit, although it does not enter the UK singles chart. Their debut album, The Human Menagerie, follows in 1973 and receives critical acclaim. Many fans continue to regard it as the band’s strongest album. Harley’s public persona and self-confident style attract criticism from parts of the music press even as the records gather praise and a wide audience.

Success in the 1970s

The group’s second single, “Judy Teen”, becomes a hit, and the next album, The Psychomodo, is described as a more adventurous and ambitious record. “Mr. Soft”, taken from that album, also becomes a big hit. In 1974 the band is voted Most Outstanding New Act.

Later that year most of the musicians leave at the end of a successful UK tour, with Stuart Elliott the only exception. From that point, the group functions largely as Steve Harley’s solo project, with session musicians used for television appearances. In 1975 the band releases The Best Years of Our Lives, produced by Alan Parsons. It includes “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)”, which becomes a UK number one single and the band’s biggest-selling hit. Harley later says the song’s lyrics are directed at former band members who had left him.

Later releases and activity

After 1975, Harley finds it difficult to repeat the success of “Make Me Smile”. Cockney Rebel disbands in 1977, then Harley starts using the Cockney Rebel name again in 1998. The 2005 album The Quality of Mercy is the first album released under the Cockney Rebel name since the 1970s and includes the singles “A Friend for Life” and “The Last Goodbye”.

In 2010 Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel tour again in England, Ireland and Northern Ireland after the release of Stranger Comes to Town. In 2012 the band performs its first two albums, The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo, in full with the Orchestra of the Swan and a choir. A live double CD and DVD of that performance, Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir), appears in 2013.

Notable records and singles

Among the band’s UK singles are “Judy Teen”, “Mr. Soft”, “Here Comes the Sun”, “The Best Years of Our Lives”, “Freedom’s Prisoner”, “Ballerina (Prima Donna)” and “The Phantom of the Opera”. Their albums include The Human Menagerie, The Psychomodo, The Best Years of Our Lives, Timeless Flight, Love’s a Prima Donna, Face to Face – A Live Recording, The Quality of Mercy and Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir).