3.15am time for bed. What a brilliant night, one that will live forever in the memory. The sounds, the performance and the people, and so many of them! (Photos to come later). Words cannot express how deeply moving all this all was.


Harley delivers, and how. This is a dream realised. Such passion, such gusto. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Special it was, the venue, the concert, the people.
If I could only put the words together, you'd understand.

Personnally i felt Steve Norman stole the show, the band were so laid back and i completely forgot the laterley sisters were there, whereas Steve Norman loved evry minute of it apart from being strangled by Mr. H whilst trying to do a sax solo! I would pay good money to watch Steve Norman perform again

Agree! Steve Norman stole the show and was up for it!

Truly great gig, great night and as always great company

Birmingham was wonderful, excellent, brilliant!
The orchestra was just great and Cockney Rebel did the best they could!
Alas, Stuart couldn't be there, hope he gets better soon. But Adam played at least as good if not better. (And Steve's jokes are sometimes bang out of order even if he afterwards claims it's irony.)
My favourites were Sebastian, Death Trip, Ritz and Mirror Freak.
They had me in tears of joy!

Things I didn't like so much:
- Steve's old jeans - he definitely can do better, look at The Herre Avdelingen of last year. After all, this was a symphony concert...
- Black or White - wrong album. Would have been much better to play Rock'n'Roll Parade ot Big Big Deal, let alone Such a Dream.-
- Stranger Comes to Town - ruined the atmosphere completely. Even if it were a good song, it didn't belong there at all. That was the biggest no-no of the evening. This concert was not there to promote Harley's new album.
It was really miserable to play SCTT amongst the gem-stones of the past.

Apart from that the concert was pure bliss!
If this is Steve then give me more!

My wish for a future symphony concert: leave the guitar be!
There was a whole orchestra for Christ's sake! We don't need your strummin', do something sensible with your hands and emphasize your songs with some of your wonderful gestures.

Thanks for that Gilly, I'm sure Steve will take all your comments on board, and maybe even hire you as a consultant prior to the anticipated London and Manchester concerts. He'd be foolish not to take cognisance of your sage advice.
I notice in the acknowledgements at the back of Saturday's concert programme there are no names listed for Wardrobe Consultant or Set List Developer, so an opportunity certainly beckons for you,although I hear that earlier today Steve has appointed a Mr R Smith to take on the role of Chief Librettist for all future tours.

I'm not being funny Gilly but the whole set list worked a treat. So when were you put in charge of the rules i.e. your comment "This concert was not there to promote Harley's new album". Throwing in 'Stranger comes to Town' was typical Harley and in case you hadn't noticed the crowd's reaction proved it was a good decision. He also sung it really well. Also Black & White was an inspired choice, and one I predicted he'd do months ago, as it was the perfect song to do when you have an orchestra and choir on the stage and one missing from any set list since around 1975/6. Maybe you'd have preferred Make me Smile. Ooo la la!

Sensible comments Gilly.Don't post any type of criticism on the 'official' discussion board because they get removed. Sad times indeed.

Yeah right Paul...blah, blah, blah! You you like Gilly's wierd comments like criticising Harley for wearing jeans (It's rock n roll. Did you want him to wear a tuxedo like that muppet Bryan Ferry?),then if that was bad enough he then had the nerve to strum his guitar and horror of horrors playing Black and White, a song made to be performed by orchestra and choir. I don't understand why you would even bother to mention this nonsense after saying how you loved the gig. Was that not good enough? I think you're just being a Silly Gilly.

Not having been there it perhaps is out of place for me to commend Gilly but I think that for years all of us have been asking for Black or white but Steve did not feel the right settings were there. The 1 time he has an orchestra he thought the settings would do the song proud and from the outside looking in I think he is 100% right.
Stranger comes to town? One my absolute total favourites, when he did it in belgium it was 1 of the highlights of the show BUT you have to think of the lyrics. So many people had come from across the world (including yourself!) and the song was for all of those, indeed strangers came to town and (again including yourself) enjoyed the show to bits.
To me it sounds like EVERY single detail was worked out to the finest detail, including the hat that I saw in some pictures.
I think Steve took the gamble of his career with putting on this show and nothing can have given him greater satisfaction than seeing that he could not only pull it off butt do so with the greatest credits possible.
Hats off indeed! 'Chapeau' as my Belgian friend might say.
An full marks to you for speaking your mind, as always!

Pity you weren't there Wout 'cos you'd have loved it and it would have been great to see you again.

Yeah, yeah, peeps, you all overlooked the words in bold.
It's only my opinion and you don't have to share it.
I found the concert on the whole pure magic but nothing is perfect.
Critique is not meant to put somebody down but to make him think about it, maybe reconsider, maybe not.
As for the jeans, look at the suit he wore in Oslo and see what I mean.
Black or White is not my favourite and if you asked him for years to play it and he did: congratulations. But there are other songs people asked him for years to play, so I think he should have picked one recorded closer to the first two albums.
SCTT: very typically Steve. I know that and he'd be the last to listen to me. Still for a motto concert totally wrong IMHO.
And my wish for the future is my wish. My hope, my dream. Probably it will never come true.
But miracles do happen every other decade so since we don't get censored here (THANX GALORE to Peter!!!) I feel free to express it.
My friends didn't like other things which didn't bother me. So each to their own.

The things I did like are too many to mention, only a few:
- Steve Norman and Andrew Powell, a joy to watch/listen to.
- The symphony hall, what a wonderful venue, great acoustics, lovely sight.
- The orchestra and choir, what pros!
- Steve's singing, he really threw his heart in.
I really don't complain, it was a fab night!

My objection Graeme was the fact the official forum removed my comment supporting Ray for what he said. I did enjoy the concert. The whole of the Human Menagerie and Psychomodo,Judy Teen, Black or White,the orchestra,the choir,the venue....what was there not to like? As Steve said "a no brainer". I understood Ray's criticism concerning Steve's delivery of the lyrics.If an actor go's on stage he learns his lines. There were many mistakes and it just took the edge of the otherwise professional performance from all of the musicians. It was understandable because Steve was high on emotion and must have been quite nervous to perform well.It just saddens me that two or three of us dare to make a criticism and get jumped on.My post wasn't offensive and didn't break the forum rules.Why did they remove it??

I think you might have broken rule number 8

Just found out that i've been banned from posting on the official site.For what? Daring to support Ray in understanding some of the points that he raised? I'm against being insulting and offensive.I never break forum rules.In a hundred plus postings on the official forum i've always tried to raise interesting and constructive points for discussion.Check them out and figure out for yourself if i'm objectionable and 'self important'. The response to the Birmingham concert has been 99% positive,even from The Times newspaper.Against that, a handful of us offered some valid critical points.I never went as far in my criticism as Ray but i did get what his argument was about. In her wisdom Rachel in one foul swoop has kicked me off the board.I hope that she and others will reflect and read my past postings and realise that i'm a true and genuine fan who's followed Cockney Rebel through thick and thin for the past 38 years.I make no secret in my preference for this site but still feel sad that i'm banned from the official one whilst other Harley,thought police,bully boy posters still exist providing a somewhat disturbing 'non shall criticise' shield around Steve.

Well it's a good job rule number 8 doesn't apply to this site

Tried to defend ya on the official Forum, Paul ........ We,ll see ....

"Haven't read all these 120-something posts yet, but Rachel has mentioned that there's been a few exchanges. Love the banter. We don't like self-importance, though. Seems oddly out-of-place on a musician's website. It's only rock 'n roll.... Steve xxx "


Come come, Moderators .......... even The Times article mentions the odd lyrical slip, so why are we taking down the comments of long standing loyal fans. Tis ONLY an opinion offered .......
It seems that Steve isnt bothered that he slipped up a couple of times, 99.9% of people at the show are not bothered, and Mr Raffles and Ray wont lose sleep either, but surely they/we/The Times are all entitled to an opinion ..... as long as they,re not rude etc.......
Please no banning, and no censorship ????

Thanks for the support Craig.Having a post taken down is one thing if it is deemed as breaking the slightly vague 'rule 8'. Being banned completly from posting is another thing. I'm totally into the history of the band,the wonderful archive and Steve playing concerts like the one he did in Birmingham the other night. It had many wonderful moments.I just happened to agree with a few posters that Steve's 'slip ups' diminished the enjoyment just a tad. Future similar concerts i'm sure will see Steve get better and better.I'll be there but due to Rachel i won't be able to post on the 'official' discussion board anymore.