‘The Human Menagerie’ tour
Steve Harley (vocals) / Jean-Paul Crocker (electric violin, guitar) / Milton Reame-James (keyboards) / Paul Jeffreys (bass) / Stuart Elliott (drums, percussion)
I hated this band! I put it down to Steve Harley’s bloody awful drawl when he both spoke and sang; I just couldn’t abide it. Couple that with the fact that most of their material was of a fairly ‘poppy’ nature and it just didn’t appeal to me at all. I only went because a) they were a high-profile band, and b) to say that I was there and that I didn’t enjoy them. Others liked them, I’ll give you that, but it was not for me.
The album that they were pushing at the time would have been their debut effort, ‘The Human Menagerie‘ but they were actually riding high in the charts with their new release single ‘Judy Teen‘ which I still think is awful to this very day, and I clearly recall Harley singing this one. There is no confirmed setlist, but I know that they played tracks like ‘Sebastian‘, ‘Hideaway‘ and ‘Loretta’s Tale‘ as well as others from that first album. I really hope that they also played ‘Death Trip‘ but I honestly can’t remember. That song is wonderful, and I would forgive them everything if they did actually play it.
The band returned for a second gig in July but, as you might guess, I side-stepped that one. Decades later I would go to see Steve Harley in concert and thoroughly enjoy him; isn’t it strange how we mellow with age?
Partial setlist: (in no particular order but confirmed by Steve Burns‘ comment below) Sling It; Death Trip; Sebastian.
Footnote
Paul Jeffreys – who played bass at this gig – would later Join Be-Bop Deluxe and would tragically lose his life in the Lockerbie air disaster of 21st December 1988 (see comment at the end from evtimer.)
And then there is this, a bone of much contention…
Edit: this from Steve Burns in January 2024…
“Yes, the original Cockney Rebel (no “Steve Harley and” in those days) played at the Penthouse on the 22nd March 1974, a few days after ‘Judy Teen’ was released. I was definitely there, the first band I actually paid money to see!”
“They were indeed booked to play again on the 12th June, as per the posters. However, in the meantime ‘Judy Teen’ had become what we used to call in those days a hit single, also they had their much-heralded second album coming out shortly.”
“Accordingly, in keeping with the spirit of the times, someone (record company, management, who knows?) decided the Penthouse was no longer a suitable venue for a band so obviously on their way to Big Things, and so the gig was moved to Hull as Richard says, and a coach trip from Scarborough laid on. Also the date was changed – my diary suggests the date for this was 15th July (a Monday), not the 17th, and I presume Be-Bop Deluxe were the support, but I didn’t go so can’t be sure.”
“As stated elsewhere, the original Cockney Rebel self-destructed after this tour, three members leaving and two of them reportedly joining Be-Bop, Bill Nelson having also parted company with the rest of his band. Not sure how long this lasted, however, as I saw Be-Bop in Leeds in December 1974, and by then the line-up was Nelson, Charlie Tumahai and Simon Fox. (I should also report that, on this occasion they were very much a band in transition, and I was more impressed by support band Strife, another Penthouse favourite.) What happened to Steve Harley is of course another story. 🙂”
Gigs'n'Stuff 