Steve Harley
| Steve Harley | |
|---|---|
Steve Harley
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice |
| Born |
27 February 1951 Deptford, London, England |
| Genres | Glam rock,art rock, progressive rock, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Labels | EMI, Chrysalis, RAK, Gott Discs, Comeuppance, CTE |
| Associated acts | Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel |
| Website | Official website |
Steve Harley (born Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, 27 February 1951,Deptford, London, England) is an English singer and songwriter, best known for his work with the 1970s rock group Cockney Rebel, with whom he still occasionally tours.
Harley was born Deptford, south London, in 1951, as Stephen Nice, and was the second of five children in his family. During the summer of 1953, Harley contracted polio, causing him to spend four years in hospital between the age of 3 and 16. He underwent major surgery in both 1963 and 1966. After recovering from surgery at the age of 12, Harley was introduced to the poetry of T.S. Eliot and D.H. Lawrence, the prose of John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway, and the music of Bob Dylan, which inspired him to a career of words and music. At the age of 10, he had received a Spanish, nylon-strung guitar from his parents at Christmas. Harley's mother was a jazz singer. Harley was a pupil of Edmund Waller Primary School in New Cross, London. He then attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys' Grammar School until he was 17. Having taken classical violin lessons from the age of 9 to 15, he played the instrument with the school orchestra. He left the school without completing his advanced level exams.
In 1968, at the age of 17, Harley began work as a trainee accountant with the Daily Express, which was his first full-time job. This was despite having only gained 24% in his mock O-Level maths exam. From here he progressed to become a reporter, and was initially interviewed by various newspaper editors. Harley finally signed to train with Essex County Newspapers. Over this duration of three years Harley worked at the Essex County Standard, the Braintree and Witham Times, the Maldon and Burnham Standard and the Colchester Evening Gazette. He then returned to London to work for the East London Advertiser. Harley became disillusioned when the editor insisted on reporting on a shoplifter who had absentmindedly walked out with a tin of soup and a tin of baked beans. Taking advice from his union representative, he stopped wearing a tie, grew his hair and was duly sacked. Among many of Harley's peers who went on to gain successful careers in national journalism were John Blake and Richard Madeley, the latter who took over the desk relinquished by Harley at the ELA in 1972.
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