John Stewart Miller
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Post by John Stewart Miller on Oct 30, 2005 23:06:58 GMT
I'm puzzled that my first memory of Cockney Rebel, journalist Steve Harleys band seems to be of a more recent vintage than when I saw it?
This was 'Top of the pops' 1974. In it the band did the first single 'Judy teen'. Harley wore a bowler hat and aped the make up look of the character played by Malcolm McDowell in Kubricks film 'Clockwork orange' (1971).
At the time it had a similar shock vein to punk, the image and served to revitalise a pop chart that was on a slow decline from the height of Sweet and T.Rexs work, which had yet to pick up again.
The wierd thing is, in my mind, the clip is in colour, with I think studio lights with a blue and orange gel visible behind Harley. He has, I think a T shirt, but the bowler hat and cane (?) like Paul Nicholas during his 70s hits. A sound like a vacuum cleaner or some thing, warming up to a musical note starts the record. At the start, I think Harley plucked the strings of the violin on record pizzicato style. The camera then slow zoomed from a side angle up to his face, with Harley turning theatrically and pulling faces. He then tilted it, I think backing out of screen. Now If I saw this in colour, we didn't have one till my Mum rented one out 1978 - 79 period. I'm sure I saw it as a clip on 'Pop quiz' around early 80s?
The whistle test session survives, which would be the Clockwork Orange image, but the song was the second single 'Sebastian'.
Harley did one more single 'Mr Soft' with the original line up. Am I right in saying this was found with a batch of 1974 - 75 insert reels for TOTP in recent years?
We all know the played to death second line up clip of 'come up and see me'. However I'm sure I've heard of other material surviving of that second line up too, such as; 'Mr Raffles', 'Man it was mean' (more like the earlier songs); and 'here comes the song'.
Does anyone know what went out or survives for sure? I'm sure there are many who could do with another old Cockney Rebel clip apart from 'come up and see me' being shown again!
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Post by Bill on Oct 30, 2005 23:23:43 GMT
I've seen recently a promo of 'Here comes the sun' which was a hit in 1976 being used on TOTP2 re-runs on UK G2. It was set among ruins of a castle
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Post by Laurence Piper on Oct 31, 2005 2:44:51 GMT
I can confirm a clip of Judy Teen being screeened along the lines of what you mention. It was on VT and looked probably like an insert or promo clip rather than a studio performance. TOTP showed such a clip at the time and I saw what may have been the same one briefly on (possibly) a Pop Quiz edition.
It would be interesting to know what survives of the early Cockney Rebel.
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Post by Ralph Town on Nov 3, 2005 12:05:20 GMT
Cockney Rebel were one of only a handful of bands to have a violin player in the line up of the band.
He left after the hits of judy Teen and Mr.Soft.
Both tracks coming from the Psycomodo(sp) album.
Line up changed after that to the cleaner pop sound found on Best years of our lives Lp.
George Ford being on bass(now playing with The Hollies) I believe.
Also Tina Charles doing backing vocals.
Great band...Steve was also a fan and good friend of Marc Bolan and sang backing on Marcs final T-Rex Lp before his death.
RALPH.
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Post by Stephen Doran on Nov 3, 2005 14:08:11 GMT
slade&east of eden members played a electric violin as did curved air. ;D
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Post by Andy Hurwitz on Nov 3, 2005 17:36:55 GMT
slade&east of eden members played a electric violin as did curved air. ;D as did String Driven Thing, Incredible String Band, Family - not to mention folk-rock bands like Fairport. It wasn't that uncommon really. Incidently, 'Sebastian' was actually Cockney Rebel's first single, although it sank without trace. 'Judy Teen' was the second and had more success, championed by John Peel. |
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Post by Donkey Dave on Nov 3, 2005 18:00:16 GMT
It seems that all that is left in the totp archive of Cockney Rebel is "Make Me Smile......", "Here Comes The Sun" and "Love's A Prima Donna". A great shame!  |
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Post by Stephen Doran on Nov 3, 2005 18:35:23 GMT
liked to have seen,judy teen&mr.soft from totp.well he has a dvd out soon as it gets cheaper ill buy it,ibought the cd of the human menagerie last year off amazon.
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Post by Keith Brockway on Nov 4, 2005 7:38:13 GMT
I think i`ve seen the "Judy Teen" promo, but not for many years, but do vaugly remember Steve Harley in the bowler hat and make up like Malcolm McDowell`s character in "A Clockwork Orange".
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John Stewart Miller
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Post by John Stewart Miller on Nov 9, 2005 22:15:39 GMT
It seems that all that is left in the totp archive of Cockney Rebel is "Make Me Smile......", "Here Comes The Sun" and "Love's A Prima Donna". A great shame! :( This is what I was wondering about Dave. My memory suggests theres a snippet of a performance of 'Judy teen' with the original Harley gear from something; maybe not TOTP but that looks like it; on a 1980s BBC programme. Obviously this won't be listed as a separate item in itself, but maybe on 'Pop Quiz's own index, if there is such a thing! 'Record collector' definitely published some kind of find that consisted of a TOTP insert reel, mid 1990s. The date was from 1974 - 75 and I'm sure it listed 'Mr Soft' as one of the tracks, unless I'm quoting another source. I think the reel was supposed to include some thing like David Essex's hit 'lamplight', which has since been utilized in TV retrospects. |
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Post by Robbie on Nov 10, 2005 14:43:29 GMT
Harley doing Here Comes The Sun on TOTP still exists.
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Post by Keith Brockway on Nov 10, 2005 18:44:03 GMT
It seems that all that is left in the totp archive of Cockney Rebel is "Make Me Smile......", "Here Comes The Sun" and "Love's A Prima Donna". A great shame! :( This is what I was wondering about Dave. My memory suggests theres a snippet of a performance of 'Judy teen' with the original Harley gear from something; maybe not TOTP but that looks like it; on a 1980s BBC programme. Obviously this won't be listed as a separate item in itself, but maybe on 'Pop Quiz's own index, if there is such a thing! 'Record collector' definitely published some kind of find that consisted of a TOTP insert reel, mid 1990s. The date was from 1974 - 75 and I'm sure it listed 'Mr Soft' as one of the tracks, unless I'm quoting another source. I think the reel was supposed to include some thing like David Essex's hit 'lamplight', which has since been utilized in TV retrospects. This is quite a weird thing as i`m quite sure i`ve seen TOTP snippets of performances that are officially wiped and are not known to be with any foreign station as in the 'Disco' clips. One`s that spring to mind are "Horse With No Name" by America (January 1972) , "Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel (May/June 1973) and both "Judy Teen"& "Mr Soft" by Cockney Rebel (May & August 1974 respectively). They all could possibly be from some other programme with a similar set up to TOTP at the time, but has anybody else seen these or anything similar. I know the Wings performance of "Junior`s Farm" from November 1974 has been verified as seen, but not on any listings anywhere, so i`m wondering where these clips would have come from. Can anyone shed any light here? |
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Post by Peter Chadwick on Nov 11, 2005 6:48:35 GMT
Macca certainly has a copy of 'Junior's Farm', as there's a decent length clip of it used in the 'Wingspan' DVD.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Nov 11, 2005 10:06:27 GMT
This is quite a weird thing as i`m quite sure i`ve seen TOTP snippets of performances that are officially wiped and are not known to be with any foreign station as in the 'Disco' clips. One`s that spring to mind are "Horse With No Name" by America (January 1972) , "Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel (May/June 1973) and both "Judy Teen"& "Mr Soft" by Cockney Rebel (May & August 1974 respectively). They all could possibly be from some other programme with a similar set up to TOTP at the time, but has anybody else seen these or anything similar. I know the Wings performance of "Junior`s Farm" from November 1974 has been verified as seen, but not on any listings anywhere, so i`m wondering where these clips would have come from. Can anyone shed any light here? Ah, so someone else saw those clips too! I take it they were in Pop Quiz as many rare snippets seemed to surface there. I'm particularly interested in what seemed like colour tape clips of Stealers Wheel and Cockney Rebel (the former seemed like a TOTP type studio appearance and the latter a video insert type clip as described by John Miller earlier). Neither clip has surfaced anywhere since. Bearing in mind the fact that Mike Read is supposed to be a pop collector (and also that missing TOTP clips of Jean Jeanie and See Emily Play are reported to have turned up in Pop Quiz), i'd say it's possible that material was sourced from Mike's own collection. Incidentally, on the sunject of Macca, does anyone know what format "James Paul McCartney" survives in? The old Kal guide I have lists it as a b/w t/r but I have an average quality colour VT copy here that is NTSC sourced. Also, a lengthy colour clip was used in a doc on McCartney in the '80s (which I have) that is clearly from a colour PAL master. Presumably Macca has his own colour copy (even if the ATV archive as was only has a b/w copy)? I too recall seeing the Junior's Farm clip on TOTP at the time (a mimed performance); supposedly it's from a missing edition but does the insert itself survive anywhere? It would be good to think so. |
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Post by Graham Hammond on Nov 13, 2005 4:39:46 GMT
On the subject of Cockney Rebel does anyone know what songs they performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974, a session that still exists I believe.
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