I saw Steve Harley live a few days ago,among many amusing ramblings he had some kind words to say about Bill...Can anybody on here recollect what the Be Bop//Cockney Rebel tour of 74 was like ,,any troubles backstage good or bad shows,Harley admits to being extremely arrogant back in the day..
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Yes, he did, but I didn't really fancy going out on the road at that time.
Bill tell me if Iām wrong.
I seem to remember you saying to me a few years ago, Steve had asked you to be his guitarist on tour!!
The tour was the band's first major tour, (though it was the original 'Axe Victim' line-up. We'd done some dates previously with Peter Hammil but this was a more pop audience as Cockney Rebel had some chart success at that time. I must admit, Steve could seem a little intimidating back then and didn't really extend the hand of friendship much. I'm not even sure he wanted us on the tour but as my band and his were both EMI signed acts, the plan was to introduce Be Bop to a wider audience.
What it did do was make me realise that EMI's urging that I should surround myself with more competent musicians was probably right. Cockney Rebel seemed somehow more 'pro' than us and by the end of the tour I'd split the first line up and actually got two of Cockney Rebel into Be Bop Deluxe, (Milton Reame James and Paul Jeffries.) But after a few test gigs to try out the new members I didn't feel it was quite gelling and so continued the search for musicians, eventually arriving at the line-up that enjoyed a great deal of success.
By the way, in later years I met Steve Harley again on the Mick Ronson tribute concert at Hammersmith Odeon and when he saw me he came up and gave me a big hug. He'd turned into a real sweetheart and has played quite a bit of Be Bop on his radio show.