Cockney Rebel was formed by Steve Harley in 1973 and was signed to EMI Records after just 5 gigs at London's Speakeasy club.
The band comprised Steve Harley (who was the songwriter) on vocals and acoustic guitar, Stuart Elliot (an amazing young drummer whose timing was so tight he was like a human drum machine), John Crocker on violin, mandolin and guitar (a bluegrass fiddler at heart) and funky bass player Paul Avron Jeffreys. Keyboards man Milton Reame-James was invited to join and the band went straight into the studio and recorded "The Human Menagerie" (in 1973) and "The Psychomodo" (in 1974). The band had UK hits with "Judy Teen" and "Mr. Soft", and did a major UK tour.
The first single "Sebastian" didn't happen in the UK but did start a great interest in the band. It was, however, a huge hit in Holland and Belgium, staying at No 1 for weeks on end. The album rapidly drew attention and the violin/electric piano sound was soon recognised as an original trademark - Steve once famously declaring that the electric guitar was dead. A promotional tour of Europe followed.
The band recorded the second album, "Psychomodo". A major UK tour was arranged and the single "Judy Teen" picked up airplay. By the time it charted, major TV appearances helped to build the tour into one of the major rock events of 1974.
However, the demise of the band has always been something of an enigma.
The band sadly were unable to come to a satisfactory business arrangement and split half-way through the tour, completing the gigs as session musicians.
When the band said goodbye on the steps of Abbey Road Studios the day after the last gig, they were destined never to meet all together again.
When this site went live at the beginning of the millenium we were unaware that any accounts of the split were in the public domain. We were contacted by kind folks who told us of two accounts on the Internet.
We've included all the relevant links we know about on our links page. We will be glad to include any more suitable sites you come across.