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Better known to those of us who worked with him many years ago as Stephen Nice.
I was driving into Suffolk today when the very sad news of his passing came up on my daughter's phone.
Steve worked for Essex County Newspapers back in the early seventies on several titles including The Evening Gazette, The Braintree and Witham Times and The Maldon and Burnham Standard.
Several years later he had a number one hit with 'Make me Smile ( Come up and see me ).
This just has to be one of the most perfect recordings ever - just sublime. I always wanted to use it in something and came very close to doing so in 2008. The licence for its use ( in the context intended ) was £4,000 and seemed like very good value. We had a change of musical direction but l have returned to this song time and again over the years and it always brings sunshine and light.
The story l was told by a young lady who used to be a colleague of Steve is that he wrote the song about her coming up the stairs of his flat on Sheregate Steps in Colchester.
I have heard other theories of how the song originated but Ms Freeman seemed positive that the lyrics evolved from her visits.
Either way, Steve Harley made a telling contribution to the music scene and his music will live on forever.
Exceptionally sad news, Make Me Smile was a seminal track of the 70s that has endured down through the ages - we even had it on our wedding playlist. I was always under the belief that it was written in a flat around the back of the (then) Colne Lodge, but never with any evidence to back it up, so Ms Freeman's account kind of rings true? I always thought he was an Old Gilberdian too, but there seems to be less evidence of that tbh.
RIP the original Cockney Rebel.
Always worth another listen, despite the sad occasion
Visited Paul Francis today who was the drummer for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel between 1992 and 2000.
We exchanged some of our work and l am loving his career story -.he is possibly the youngest ever drummer to go professional, leaving school at 14.
He has played with Jack Bruce, Bill Wyman, Maggie Bell and Tony Jackson of The Searchers not to mention being a member of Fuzzy Duck, and associated with a vast array of bands over the years.
I showed him an Akarma pressing of the Fuzzy Duck album which he didn't appear to be aware of.
The original pressing has a value of £1,500 and above and is a wonderful example of free flowing music from a short lived time when the labels were experimenting with progressive music.
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