Arts & Culture
Interview - Steve Harley talks touring and new album

Swindon Link’s Jessica Durston spoke to the singer-songwriter and original Cockney Rebel about his Swindon tour date and new album, ‘Uncovered.’

Steve’s track ‘Make me Smile’ holds an especially dear place in my heart as I have fond memories of singing along and dancing around to it in the kitchen with my father. My palpable anticipation for this interview only increased after listening to Harley’s new album ‘Uncovered’.

Harley conducted the phone conversation from outside a rehearsal room within a complex in Hertfordshire. As his band members all live in different parts of the South East, this was equidistant for all. The sunny morning weather reflected the artist’s disposition as he was now able to rehearse and play with the Cockney Rebel outfit once again post-lockdown.

What can your audience expect for the gig this September in Swindon?

“We will be playing most of the newest album ‘Uncovered’ from 2020 as we lost 60 concerts that year, that had to be rescheduled for 2021 or 2022. I’m really proud of the album and this acoustic tour will be promoting it. The album deserves it - it was only released three weeks before lockdown!

Although it came out in February 2020, I still see it as a new album. As a performer, writer and artist, you can’t really knock things out every five minutes and I feel it would be great to give the album its chance in the limelight. 

And I mean the musicians on the album - Martin Simpson is just a legendary guitar player, he’s so special and Barry Wickens who is here in rehearsals with me now. Working with people of that quality, it wasn’t hard to make a pretty decent album you know?

We also play a long show. Everyone who knows me, knows that we tend to play two sets at around an hour and a quarter long, with an interval. I wouldn’t be able to give away any set list details just yet though, as I haven’t made one up!

I’ve been going like this now for 47 or 48 years and I think the people that come to my shows now - they know me pretty well. I think my audience tend not to know what to expect beacuse it’s never the same twice!”

What has your experience of being an artist and performer during a pandemic been like?

“The last year and a quarter has been very odd. I’m used to travelling and having a trolley bag packed. I’m used to moving and staying in hotels. I’ve been travelling for about four decades and then the door suddenly slams on you, you know? It’s been weird for me to be at home so much. I have missed being on the road and travelling. I like hotels and airports. 

When you reach a certain age and you’re still touring and performing, you’ve survived you know?  If you’re in your 60s and beyond, and are still going with it, it’s because it’s in your soul - it’s in your blood. I was at dinner last night with the Cockney Rebel band and this subject came up. It was nice to have the same feelings confirmed by the other members. They echoed the feelings that it was great to be back in rehearsals and playing together.

I have been sick of lockdown. It’s been tragic.”

Lets talk about your most recent album. ‘Uncovered’ has some fantastic interpretations of other artists’ songs. Bowie’s ‘Absolute Beginners’ stood out for me and I loved what you did with it. Could you tell me a bit about the process of choosing and recording these tracks?

“When you’re a songwriter looking to do covers - or as you rightly said, interpretations of other artists’ tracks, the criteria is ‘do I wish I’d written that?’ The nine songs I’ve done interpretations of on the album, are all tracks I’ve been playing and singing at home for years. 

I didn’t really know Bowie’s ‘Absolute Beginners’ very well until I did some guest performances with Mike Garson who has now turned into a good friend of mine. He is just the greatest pianist and I idolise his playing. I met him and guested one of his UK shows and he said he would like to perform some songs of mine and some songs of David’s. I said I would do ‘Changes’ and asked if I could do ‘Absolute Beginners.’ I think it’s the best part of the eponymous film! It’s a special song and there was something about it that grabbed me. After performing it with Mike and Iggy Pop’s band, I kept on playing it at home for a few years. 

The most recent song I cover on the album is from the 90s. It’s the track ‘Lost Myself’ by Longpigs and written by Crispin Hunt and Richard Hawley. I thought it was such a clever piece of work and I just wanted to interpret it in my own way - as I did all the songs I’ve chosen.

My engineer asked me how I wanted the album to come out. I said the songs have to be played and performed by me, like I was the one who wrote them. My goal was for people who listened to the album - that did not know the songs or read the sleeve notes - to say ‘I love that new song of Steve’s.’ I like the freedom of interpretation a lot - obviously I’m not claiming the songs by these other artists, that’s not the point. The point was to make the album personal and to put my heart and soul into it. I think we have scored a goal there - I think we have managed that.

I hear on Facebook and on the website that some people have said they thought I wrote some of these songs I have covered. That’s a fantastic thing to hear and read. Crazy - but very flattering.”

You collaborated with the lovely Eddi Reader on the track ‘The Star of Belle Isle’ and I was wondering if there are any artists out there in the ether that are still on your proverbial ‘bucket list’ to collaborate with?

“I’m not really like that. I’ve always been a bit on the outside of the music industry, a bit on the periphery. I’ve never really felt a big part of it. It’s only when I walk on stage that I’m a pop star. Off-stage I feel more like a geography teacher! I don’t mix in the industry much. Maybe I should really?

But in regards to Eddi and ‘The Star of Belle Isle’ - well Eddi is gifted. She is the lovliest person. When you reach a certain stage in this business and you’re there with the longevity behind you like she has, you can gel and blend immediately. It can give artists something in common. She’s a Scottish-roots singer, that’s her background and I’m a London boy. We don’t have anything in common except we’re both musicians. 

I went up to Lincolnshire with my wife three years ago to see her perform. When we went backstage, she came running up to us with huge friendly hugs and said the first record she ever bought was the Cockney Rebel album ‘Psychomodo.’ That was amazing to me. That was a real big surprise. 

We blended instantly and I told her she was magic on stage - and really meant it too. I then told her about my plans to make the new album ‘Uncovered’, and that I had this traditional folk song ‘The Star of Belle Isle’ from Newfoundland, Canada. I’d found two missing verses from the end that no one else had ever recorded. I knew they were there and researched and eventually found them. The part she sings during the duet is the female part that other people don’t record. It was lovely and meant the world to me.”

Lockdown has provided a lot of spare time at home for a lot of people, and I was wondering how you have filled your time aside from writing and playing? I know you are a lover of great wordsmiths such as Woolf, Hemingway and Bob Dylan - have you been doing a lot of reading?

“I’ve not had a good lockdown period and not enjoyed it at all. I didn’t get too much reading done. You come across people saying their lives hadn’t changed at all but that wasn’t the case for me.

Mine is a life - like Virginia Woolf would have put it - ‘of experiment and adventure’ and I’m like one of the original wandering minstrels - a troubadour you know? So I haven’t enjoyed it one bit. I’ve done a lot of crosswords - I like the cryptic crossword. I have also been staying up late watching a lot of old music content on YouTube. There’s some really great stuff on there.”

You are widely considered an incredibly charismatic live performer and I was wondering why it is you think your audience say this about you? How do you feel you energise your crowd?

“I’ve seen this said about me and I don’t really understand it - I’m just me! In the wings, I could be going out to the Royal Albert Hall or playing an intimate little gig and I’m still there just doing my crossword or reading the racing pages before I step out.

I don’t feel any of what people would call tension or nerves or anything. I think it’s mostly because we rehearse well and because when I walk out there - I won’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t plan anything except the music and I love that life so much. Not off-stage as I said before, but when the light hits me, somehow I’m in the right place at the right time.”