Thanks for the latest wiki entry aj, a great read as always, I don't know how you manage to pull it all together.

I think Cockney Rebel/Steve's first major music press interview was with the Melody Maker in November '73. In there Steve mentions that ‘Sebastian’ and ‘Death Trip’ were written at one point in his life and knew he would never write anything like that again. The article notes that those two tracks were essentially Harley statements rather than Cockney Rebel statements.

Given that, it is worth noting (perhaps) the 'lightness' of most of the other tracks on HM compared those two songs. We also have 'Sebastian' closing Side 1 and 'Death Trip' closing Side 2, giving them even more import.

Keep up the good work.

Great work, as always AJ. Just a couple of points: in 2008, the Belgian Opera singer Hans-Peter Janssens recorded "Sebastian" in Italian. Steve is on the HP website filmed, describing how much he loves hearing his words in Italian. Hans Peter also has recorded "The Coast Of Amalfi", again translated into Italian.
Also, when I was in the music business in the early 70-s, it was definitely recognised that "Sebastian" reached number one in either Holland or Belgium or both. In one of those, it was labelled a "Superhit" and the compilers allowed another record to be called Number One! I can't actually confirm that right now, but I'll contact my Holland mates and see if they can do so. Thanks for the terrific input. Reg

Hi aj, I suppose noting cover versions of the song in the article might be going 'off-piste' a bit, but, just by way of a footnote, Patricia Paay did cover it on her album 'Beam of Light' - which was produced by Steve.

www.discogs.com/Patricia-Paay-Beam-Of-Light/release/1467295

Thanks GedKen and Reg,

GedKen, the Melody Maker interview sounds like an intriguing read. I don't suppose it is online anywhere? I don't think its in the Harleyfanzone scrapbook.

Thanks for the reminder of the Hans-Peter Janssens version Reg, and GedKen for the Patricia Paay version - I've added a "Cover Versions" section to the article now with them both mentioned.

Reg, the source of the chart positions on the article are that of dutchcharts.nl and ultratop.be which in accordance to Wikipedia's guidelines are the accepted, most accurate sources of chart positions in Europe. However I do sometimes wonder if some positions are missing from certain songs, mainly in particular countries as Belgium, as I know that there are various charts, and some of which may not be easily obtainable.

There are some conflicting sources though as www.flanders-hitparade.net/ has Sebastian listed as peaking at #4, although ultratop.be is a more reliable source of the two. It could very well be that the song did actually peak at #1, but there would need to be an official source to reference it.

ajsmith wrote:

Sheila?

Haha sorry Stella, my bad. I just so happened to have had Slade's Little Sheila song on play earlier this morning - that's probably why.