A Night Out with Cockney Rebel

Venue:

Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry

Date: 20/11/2015

The squeeze is a big fan, so here we are, 3rd Steve Harley gig in 18/12, this time in the school assembly ambience of W.A.C.s Butterworth Hall. Following on from last years faithful run-through of the first 2 albums, with a symphony orchestra, this is the original line-up, bar the deceased George Ford, reformed to run through L.P. no. 3, ‘Best Years of Our Lives’, arguably when the band was at its peak. Getting lost in the single tracks around Kenilworth blunted our start, 3 songs in, missing ‘Her Comes the Sun’. Thankfully this was the first half, supposedly fan chosen songs, but, as Harley depracatedly pointed out, no-one bothered, and he was always going to play what he liked anyway. So, amongst a number of, to me, lesser known tracks, we had his new single, out for 6 weeks and known by no-one, as well as ‘A Friend for Life’, covered on Rod Stewarts latest (‘number 1’) album. (Or kerching, as Harley commented!) An elegiac, extended ‘Sebastian’was the highpoint and always is, building ever up into glissandos of ululation, tightly pegged in by Stuart Elliotts sturdy and precise drumming. Jim Cregan, yes, that Jim Cregan, dapper in a candy striped suit laying down an efficient interplay between himself, Duncan McKay on keyboards and the Harley head honcho of these last 30 years, Barry Wickens on searing electric fiddle. There were also 2 bimbettes, twins as is the rage, on percussion, guitars and anything else felt lacking from the mix. They did a ditty of their own both in this set and, incongruously, in the 2nd. Good for them but I couldn’t tell why.
A 20 minute gap and onto the main course. The band, now visibly more relaxed, seemed to be enjoying themselves. Cregan switched between acoustic and electrics, with Wickens picking up on guitars and mandolin as well as violin, fleshing out the sound. All to quickly it was the last track on side 1, leading Harley to falter, explaining how this was always the slot on a record reserved for the hit single, and he wasn’t going to risk losing the audience thereafter by playing it then. Instead we were treated to an unaccompanied version of the original and somewhat slower demo. And it was a delight, Harley crooning to his own guitar. Who would have remembered that much sensitivity in ‘Make Me Smile’? Side 2 and it was really just a build toward the title track, stretched out gorgeously to allow miniature introductions and features of all the band members, as well as no small number of repeats of audience led chorus. Standing ovations, applause and, yes, of course it was, for afters, the full band ‘Make Me Smile’. I was, the squeeze was and so was everyone else. Wall to wall and unapologetic nostalgia but consummately performed.

The audience:

Given it was 40 years since the record came out, age-appropriate I would say, dressed to the nines, with a proportion of the audience still clearly holding a candle for the star, his poster still perhaps, if not on their walls, in their often sturdy hearts.

It made me think..

If you can still do it this well, then why the hell not. Harley seems to be on a latter-day roll, as his glory years get reprised to ever increasing audiences, away from the spotlight and away from the media. If ABC were putting on a show a couple of weeks ago, pretending it was still the 80s, Harley and his grizzled combatants seem more to be saying, fuck it, we’re still here and we can still play, take it or leave it. All takers last night in Coventry

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