....buy and read an authorised biography, of Steve Harley?
A possible title: 'The Best Years Of Our Lives'.
Some of you will know from a couple of my recent posts that I've been reading authorised biographies of Stuart Adamson and Ian Hunter. Full reference is made to these in the (said) other posts.
Steve Harley is at least mentioned, in both publications.
Of course only Dorothy and maybe Kerr and Greta, could authorise any such 'authorised biography' of Steve.
It may be that Steve was against the idea, during his lifetime or even at all? If that was the case then none of us would want it to happen.
Of course (probably) a suitably qualified author, would need to be willing to do it.
I could fancifully suggest periods and titles, respectfully too, as a true fan;
CHAPTER ONE (1951-1967) 'The Early Years'
As far as I am aware, only a limited amount of information is known about Steve's early life. I wondered whether any of Steve's siblings were still alive (he was the second of five children, I understand).
The illness and operations
Edmund Waller School, then the grammar (?)
The Spanish guitar acquisition at 12 years of age (?) - check for precise age
This period would be, in my view, the biggest challenge, not least, given the passage of time...
CHAPTER TWO (1968-1971) 'A New Life'
His early career choice. The events that moved him away from it. Music.
CHAPTER THREE (1972-1977) Cockney Rebel, The Solstice (or Halcyon) Years or 'See My Mind In Kaleidoscope'
Busking
The forming of the bands (Odin and Cockney Rebel)
The Three Tuns, Beckenham Arts Lab
The EMI three album deal
Mainland Europe picks up on the early work
The top 5 single in the UK, sets off the trajectory
Stuart Elliott, John Crocker, Milton Reame James, Neil Harrison, Andrew Powell, Alan Parsons, Jim Cregan, Duncan Mackay, Lindsay Elliott et al, might be sources.. Not in this chapter but later, of course, Barry, James, David and Oli too. I think Barry may have first played with Steve in 1984 (I seem to recall from his website), but he was definitely involved before the end of the 1980's.
From the pre-digital age, it would be useful to have access to the archives/stored issues (?) of the following music papers, Summer 1973 to February 1977, particularly (many of these I read at the time, but obviously, did not retain);
Sounds
NME
Melody Maker
(Any Beckenham newspaper covering 1972-1973, that might contain info about the Beckenham Arts Lab would be useful too?)
CHAPTER FOUR (1978-1985) 'Maybe I'll Settle In The Country And Fade '
The first two solo albums
'Amerika The Brave'
Meeting someone special
Marriage and family
A project with Midge
Harley's horses
CHAPTER FIVE (1986-1992) 'Phantom And Then A New Day'
The near transition to major musical theatre and then the return to both touring and recording.
Back in the charts with Sarah Brightman
Yes You Can and probably the best of the solo albums. Harley put a lot into this album and the strength of the songs shows. How much the album meant came through on a YouTube upload (I'm pretty sure it's another occasion when Steve was with Stuart Adamson, but earlier than the 1993 clip, in 1991 - that would need checking - as all content). The difficulty was, by this time, Steve was outside of the mainstream.
CHAPTER SIX (1993-1999) '20th Century Boy'
Re-kindle the spark
Old hits new film soundtracks
Attending premiere
CHAPTER SEVEN (2000-2008) 'Smashie and Nicey'
Re-connecting with a larger audience, the BBC Radio Years
Festivals
Harley the techno-phobe?
CHAPTER EIGHT (2009-2020) 'The Travelling Minstrels'
The new order
'We play a lot of shows'
'70's contemporaries likewise
The new website
COVID
THE FINAL CHAPTER (2021-2024)
By this point, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (or the Acoustic Band) had been doing what they loved doing, for the best part of half a century.
Playing to hundreds of fans a night and thousands of fans over a tour. All that and periodically, bringing in new material along the way.
During Steve's children's formative years, he must have been around for them often.
The original ambition had only morphed into genuine and continued enthusiasm and that made the whole experience exciting and pleasurable.
In my view, he was pretty wise, clever and single minded once he'd found HIS career for life and we'll never forget him, for being part of our lives too. X
Its occurred to me the day after starting this thread, that finishing this post/thread in the near future, is unlikely to happen. There are just too many events in a single lifetime that may have a bearing, on this sort of work. For example, the later Zoom Chats, potentially contained dozens of anecdotes or snippets of information - from the man himself. This would depend on contributions from fans who had asked a question or raised something - no doubt that they would remember long term or maybe remembered something else that came up...
I don't really know, but I'd expect such an undertaking (with the necessary research, interviews, to take a couple of years? Scott Rowley or Campbell Devine, would certainly know the answer to that one).
All the best
