Steve Harley may not be a cockney but Sally Churchward finds he is still a bit of a rebel

IT was nearly 30 years ago that Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was a number one hit for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel.

Today the enduringly popular song is synonymous with the man who fronted the band.

But there is much more to Steve Harley than that one song.

At 53 he is still touring (due to visit Wales later this year) and although he says he has mellowed with age he still gets passionate about, well about, everything.

He is considering writing a political song about one of his major bugbears, Tony Blair.

"I'm trying to write an album full of songs about real life. I'd like to write one that's a ten minute rant about 'President Tony'.

"I hate him and his government. I hate modern life the way it's run by people like him with a vengeance," he says, getting on a roll.

"I totally despise the committees that rule our lives and I despise even more than that your ambulance-chasing lawyers. We're not even treated like adults any more. I've got example after example of what these health & safety committees are up to. It's like committees to help committees.

"I am a bit of a renegade but you know I feel that we're not treated any longer like adults, we're like Tony's little children. Well it's pathetic and pitiful and it has to stop. I might end up writing this and sending it to President Tony!

"I have mellowed - I'm 53 but I feel 25, well, 35. And what I do for a living, it does keep you a bit sparky, you know?" he says by way of explanation for his tirade.

And 'sparky' does seem like the right word to describe Steve, who was born Steve Nice in 1951.

He gets passionate about almost every subject he touches on, from his son's plans to travel through having to avoid catching colds and the beauty of Britain to the enduring popularity of what has become his signature tune, Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me).

"It does sound fresh, doesn't it," he says.

"I won't take credit for that - I can afford to agree with you without any sense of arrogance," he says before launching into a lengthy explanation of how 24-track recording worked and crediting Abbey Road recording engineer Alan Parsons with making it sound so good.

"I tried to remix it a few years ago, I don't know why, just for a crack, but I gave up. I said 'We're never going to get this to sound like Alan made it sound. Leave it at that - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!'"

Happily for audiences, Steve doesn't mind playing his most famous song although they can also look forward to hearing some newer material too.

"It's no good resting on your laurels.I play three or four songs in my sets that haven't been released. I've been doing them for a couple of years now and a lot of the audience know them but they're ostensibly new songs and that's what they want from me. And we keep digging out old songs from albums that were recorded 25 years ago. You can go back to them and find tracks that you look at think, 'You know I haven't played that since it was recorded.'

You know, you don't play every song. And there are songs that I have never, ever played on stage. And here I am doing them now and that's a buzz, it's almost like doing a new song. The only worrying thing is that it might not have stood the test of time. You've got that on your mind the whole time. I'm a pretty hard judge of my own work."

Luckily for Steve, his work stands up to being judged.

Steve Harley will perform at the Muni Arts Centre, Pontypridd on Friday November 19.