Jon Butler reviews Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel at the Grand Opera House, York (From York Press)

Jon Butler reviews Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel at the Grand Opera House, York

12:22pm Saturday 29th May 2010 in

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With the passage of time Steve Harley has lost a lot of his early seventies affectations – but none of his edge.

Indeed his voice has held up well, very well in fact, and the new material from his latest album, Stranger Comes To Town, is strong stuff and worthy of closer inspection because Harley has something to say that’s worth listening to.

His lyrics reflect where he’s at along the journey of life, and his vigour for performing live is undiminished. For this current tour he has assembled a great band that really allows his work to become extremely expressive.

It’s hard to pigeon-hole his enigmatic music and that remark is meant very much as a compliment.

His songs perhaps fall somewhere between Anglo-Eagles ballads and Mr Soft rock, but that does not capture what Harley’s music is all about because this modern minstrel’s work is full of the aspirations and frustrations of us all, but articulated in a style that has evolved from the days he busked the London Underground.

Those experiences have armed him with a palette full of both colour and shade from which he draws his lyrical inspiration.

Of course he played the hits that included the likes of Judy Teen and Here Comes The Sun (the later being particularly good live) and the set closed inevitably with Make Me Smile, and he did.

Normally here would endeth the review, but as a caveat to the whole performance it has to be said that one song, Sebastian, stood out head and shoulders above all the rest.

It is Harley’s defining musical legacy and nothing short of a prog-rock masterpiece.