................GLAM ROCK(ish)................

The original Cockney Rebel was formed when Harley hooked up with his former folk music partner, Crocker (fiddle / mandolin / guitar) in 1972. Crocker had just finished a short stint with Trees and they advertised and auditioned drummer
Stuart Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys, and guitarist Nick Jones. This line-up played one of the band's first gigs at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London on 23 July 1972, supporting The Jeff Beck Group. Nick was soon replaced by guitarist
Pete Newnham but Steve felt that the Cockney Rebel sound did not need an electric guitar and they settled on the combination of Crocker's electric violin and the Fender Rhodes piano of keyboardist Milton Reame-James to share the lead.
The band was signed to EMI after playing five gigs. Their first single, "Sebastian", was an immediate success in Europe, although it failed to score in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album, The Human Menagerie, was released in 1973.
Although the album was not a commercial success, the band attracted a growing following in London.

It was becoming clear that Harley regarded the band as little more than accompaniment to his own agenda, and already there were signs that things would not last, despite their having a big hit with their second single, "Judy Teen". In May
1974, the British music magazine, NME reported that Cockney Rebel were to undertake their first British tour, with the highlight of the itinerary being a gig at London's Victoria Palace Theatre on 23 June. There then followed the album
The Psychomodo. Following the European single "Psychomodo", a second single from the album, "Mr. Soft", was also a hit. "Tumbling Down" was also issued in America as a promotional single. By this time the problems within the band
had already reached a head, and all the musicians, with the exception of Elliott, quit at the end of a successful UK tour, leaving the band to become session musicians. The original keyboardist, Milton Reame-James, recalled in 2010 that
the original band 'said goodbye on the steps of Abbey Road
studios and were never to meet up again.' Harley's next appearance on BBC Television's Top of the Pops was supported by session musicians and Francis Monkman, and B. A. Robertson. The band's single "Big Big Deal" was issued in
1974 and was almost immediately withdrawn.

From then on, the band was a band in name only, being more or less a Harley solo project. In 1974, a further album, The Best Years of Our Lives was released, produced by The Beatles' recording engineer, Alan Parsons. This included the
track "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" which would go on to be a UK number one single in February 1975, and the band's biggest selling hit. It sold over one million copies globally.

Big shout out to Bobby Haslett and his vast vinyl vault

 

Sebastian	Judy Teen
Psychomodo	Mr. Soft
Big Big Deal	Make Me Smile
Mr. Raffles	Black Or White

CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO ENLARGE // REDUCE