STEVE HARLEY
Cockney Rebel captain (1951-2024)
STEVE Harley’s biggest hit may never have happened had his band not walked out on him. After a successful 1974 tour, three members of Cockney Rebel demanded more say in the songwriting. Harley, who’d written everything thus far, stood firm. When the dissenters quit, he swiftly put together a new lineup and poured his sense of betrayal into the scornful lyrics of “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)”. The single topped the UK charts and sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
It proved the high point of a career that had already been eventful. Born Stephen Nice in Deptford, Harley spent much of his formative years receiving treatment for polio. One hospital stay, in 1963, coincided with his first exposure to Bob Dylan. Having devoured the works of DH Lawrence and TS Eliot, it pointed the way to Harley’s creative future. “In Dylan’s case [lyrics] were poems,” he later told the International Songwriters Association. “That entirely turned my head.”
