STEVE HARLEY was born in Deptford, south London, on February 27th 1951, the second of five children.

Due to a childhood illness, Steve spent almost four years in hospital between three and sixteen years, undergoing major surgery in 1963 and 1966. Aged 12, while in hospital recovering from surgery, Steve was first introduced to the poetry of Eliot and Lawrence, the prose of Steinbeck, Woolf and Hemingway, and the music of BOB DYLAN and realised that his life was likely to be preoccupied with words and music.

Close to Christmas 1964, during that same nine months' hospitalisation at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey, the ward welcomed the young ROLLING STONES who were on a goodwill PR visit.

Charlie Watts spent quite a time chatting with us kids, but the others seemed more interested in joking about the huge poster of THE BEATLES pinned to a wall.
Steve was a pupil of EDMUND WALLER PRIMARY SCHOOL, in Waller Road, New Cross, London, a short walk from his parents' home at FAIRLAWN MANSIONS, New Cross Gate, between the ages of five and eleven.

He attended HABERDASHERS' ASKE'S HATCHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL, Telegraph Hill, New Cross until seventeen. He left school without completing his Advanced Level exams. Steve later took an A-Level in English in his mid-30s.

Steve's first guitar was a Christmas gift from his parents when he was ten-years-old. It was a Spanish, nylon-strung instrument.

He took classical violin lessons from the age of nine to fifteen and played in his Grammar school orchestra.

But he has always admitted he was a hopeless reader of music, so “must have been bluffing a lot of the time”.

In the spring of 1968, Steve got his first full-time job, as a trainee accountant, at the DAILY EXPRESS newspaper in Fleet Street, London, in spite of gaining a mere 24% in his mock O-Level maths exam. But his heart was set on a career in Journalism, so being at the industry's heart was a useful stepping-stone for the nascent reporter. Interviewed by several newspaper editors, Steve finally signed indentures to train with ESSEX COUNTY NEWSPAPERS in Colchester, Essex. After three years working within the group, including stints at the Essex County Standard, the Braintree and Witham Times, the Maldon and Burnham Standard and the Colchester Evening Gazette, Steve moved back to London to work for the EAST LONDON ADVERTISER, then based in Mile End Road, in the heart of London's East End.

Among many of Steve's contemporaries who have gone on to successful careers in national Journalism are JOHN BLAKE (now Managing Director of BLAKE PUBLISHING) and RICHARD MADELEY, of daytime TV fame. It was Madeley who actually took over the desk relinquished by Steve at the ELA in 1972.

"So, if you hadn't given it up to become a rock star," Madeley has told Steve, "I may never have got my chance to become a reporter."

Steve began his singing career "floor-spotting" (singing for free as a member of the audience) in London folk clubs in 1971/72. He sang at LES COUSINS, BUNJIE'S and THE TROUBADOUR on nights featuring JOHN MARTIN, RALPH McTELL, MARTIN CARTHY and JULIE FELIX, all leading lights of the London folk movement at the time.

He later joined folk band ODIN as rhythm guitarist and co-singer, which was where he met the first COCKNEY REBEL violinist, JOHN CROCKER. However, the folk scene proved a little tame for Mr Harley and, as he was constantly writing songs, formed COCKNEY REBEL as a vehicle for his own work. It was here that Steve and STUART ELLIOTT first met and worked together. Stuart drums with Steve's band on record and on tour from time to time to this day.

The band signed to EMI for a guaranteed three album deal in 1972 and released THE HUMAN MENAGERIE early in '73. From this collection, a single, SEBASTIAN, became a huge European hit, staying at NUMBER ONE in HOLLAND and BELGIUM for many weeks. Other COCKNEY REBEL and/or STEVE HARLEY albums are: THE PSYCHOMODO, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, TIMELESS FLIGHT,