1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the worlds largest arts festival, which in 2016, spanned 25 days and featured 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Edinburgh, Scotlands capital and it is an open access performing arts festival, meaning there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The Fringe has often showcased experimental, challenging or controversial works that might not be invited to a more conservative arts festival, the Fringe board of directors is drawn from members of the Festival Fringe Society, who are often Fringe participants themselves – performers or administrators. Elections are held once a year, in August, and Board members serve a term of four years, the Board appoints the Fringe Chief Executive, who is currently Shona McCarthy and assumed the role in March 2016. The Chief Executive operates under the chair, currently Professor Sir Timothy OShea, the Fringe started life when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. With the official festival using the major venues, these companies took over smaller. Seven performed in Edinburgh, and one undertook a version of the morality play Everyman in Dunfermline Abbey, about 20 miles north. These groups aimed to take advantage of the large assembled theatre crowds to showcase their own alternative theatre, although at the time it was not recognised as such, this was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This meant that two defining features of the future Fringe were established at the very beginning – the lack of invitations to perform. I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings. The word fringe had in fact used in a review of Everyman in 1947. Late night revues, which would become a feature of Fringes, the first one was the New Drama Groups After The Show, a series of sketches taking place after Donald Pleasences Ebb Tide, in 1952. Among the talent to appear in early Fringe revues were Ned Sherrin in 1955, due to many reviewers only being able to attend Fringe events late night after the official festival was finished, the Fringe came to be seen as being about revues. It was a few years before an official programme for the Fringe was created. John Menzies compiled a list of shows under the title Other Events in their omnibus festival brochure and this was funded by participating companies and was entitled Additional Entertainments, since the name Fringe was still not yet in regular usage. It also used a strange cover motif, a first attempt was made to provide a central booking service in 1955 by students from the university, although it lost money, which was blamed on those who had not taken part. Formal organisation progressed in 1959, with the formation of the Festival Fringe Society, the push for such an organisation was led by Michael Imison, director of Oxford Theatre Group. A constitution was drawn up, in which the policy of not vetting or censoring shows was set out, nineteen companies participated in the Fringe in that year
3.
Steve Harley
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Steve Harley is an English singer and songwriter, best known for his work with the 1970s rock group Cockney Rebel, with whom he still occasionally tours. Harley was born Deptford, south London, in 1951, as Stephen Nice, during the summer of 1953, Harley contracted polio, causing him to spend four years in hospital between the ages of three and 16. He underwent major surgery in both 1963 and 1966, at the age of 10, he had received a Spanish, nylon-strung guitar from his parents at Christmas. Harleys mother was a jazz singer, Harley was a pupil of Edmund Waller Primary School in New Cross, London. He then attended Haberdashers Askes Hatcham Boys Grammar School until he was 17, having taken classical violin lessons from the age of 9 to 15, he played the instrument with the school orchestra. He left the school without completing his advanced level exams, in 1968, at the age of 17, Harley began work as a trainee accountant with the Daily Express, which was his first full-time job. This was despite having only gained 24% in his mock O-Level maths exam, from here he progressed to become a reporter, and was initially interviewed by various newspaper editors. Harley finally signed to train with Essex County Newspapers, over this duration of three years Harley worked at the Essex County Standard, the Braintree and Witham Times, the Maldon and Burnham Standard and the Colchester Evening Gazette. He then returned to London to work for the East London Advertiser, Harley became disillusioned when the editor insisted on reporting on a shoplifter who had absentmindedly walked out with a tin of soup and a tin of baked beans. Taking advice from his representative, he stopped wearing a tie. Harley started out playing in bars and clubs in the early 1970s, Harley also busked around London on the Underground and in Portobello Road. In 1971 he auditioned for the folk band Odin as rhythm guitarist and co-singer, which was where he met John Crocker, who would become the first Cockney Rebel violinist. The folk scene proved not to be Harleys preference, and in the midst of writing songs, he formed the band Cockney Rebel, as a vehicle for his own work, in late 1972. Through the band Harley first met drummer Stuart Elliott, who has continued to record, the original Cockney Rebel consisted of Harley, Crocker, Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys and guitarist Nick Jones. The line up of Harley, Crocker, Elliott, Jeffreys, during June and July 1973 the band recorded their debut album, The Human Menagerie, which was released in late 1973. Produced by Neil Harrison, the album included the single Sebastian which became a European hit, although, like the album, it failed to chart in the UK. After EMI expressed the wish for Harley to write a song with hit potential, Judy Teen was released in early 1974, and peaked at No.5 in the UK. The bands second album, The Psychomodo, produced by Harley and Alan Parsons, was released in June 1974, the single Mr. Soft also peaked at No.8 in the UK
4.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
5.
Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)
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Make Me Smile is a song by British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released as the lead single from the bands 1975 album The Best Years of Our Lives. It was written by Harley, and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons, in February 1975, the song reached the number-one spot on the UK chart and received a UK Silver certification. It spent nine weeks in the Top 50, and as of 2015, has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide, the song was the first single to be released under the name Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, as opposed to simply Cockney Rebel. In July 1974, the original Cockney Rebel disbanded, and Harley then assembled a new line-up later in the year, Make Me Smile described Harleys feelings on the bands split. For many years, it was believed that Harley purposely chose to disband the original line-up, however, years later, Harley began to reveal the truth behind the bands split. Between May and July 1974, Cockney Rebel embarked on a major British tour to promote their second studio album The Psychomodo, as the tour progressed, the band began facing growing tensions, which ultimately led to their split at the end of the tour in late July. On 18 July, the received a Gold Award for outstanding new act of 1974. Jean-Paul Crocker, Milton Reame-James and Paul Jeffreys had approached Harley, Harley, the bands sole songwriter, felt this was unfair as he had been the one to originally hire the musicians for his group, and explained the deal to them at the time. After the band split, only the original drummer, Stuart Elliott. In a television interview recorded in 2002, Harley described how the lyrics were directed at the former band members who. On The One Show in October 2010, Harley called the lyric a finger-pointing piece of vengeful poetry and its getting off my chest how I felt about the guys splitting up a perfectly workable machine. I wrote it saying Look, youll learn how well were doing here, were doing well and he elaborated, Three of them came to me in a little posse with several ultimatums. They wanted to write songs for the album, and I said Well you know I started the band, and I auditioned you. Were not moving the goal posts here and they knew this, and they came to me demanding that they could write songs too, and I just said Well go and do it then. Harley began writing the only days after the bands split. The original vision for the song was different to the one that was recorded. Harley had written the piece as a blues track with a dark mood. In January 2012, he told Uncut magazine that the first verse was written at four in the morning after a bottle of brandy
6.
The Cream of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
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The Cream of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel is a compilation album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released in 1999. It features material from Cockney Rebel, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, the compilation, originally released in 1999, followed from another Steve Harley EMI compilation More Than Somewhat – The Very Best of Steve Harley, which had been released in 1998. The Cream of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebels artwork and design was handled by P. Linard Marketing & Advertising Ltd, the compilation later made an appearance in the official UK Budget Albums Chart during January 2006. It reached #21 on 14 January 2006, and lasted within the Top 50 for four weeks, the album was released by EMI Gold on CD in the UK only. Later on 28 February 2003, the album was available as an online digital MP3 download. On 7 July 2008, the album was re-issued by EMI Gold for release in the UK and this release had the same track-listing, but new artwork, featuring a photograph of Harley in front of a red background. Dave Thompson of AllMusic reviewed the compilation, writing, This 16-song compilation brings together an unchallenging but almost uniformly excellent roundup of Steve Harleys 1970s output
7.
Judy Teen
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Judy Teen is a song by British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. The song was released as a single in 1974, and became the bands first hit in the UK. Judy Teen was written by Harley and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons, in 1973, Cockney Rebels debut single Sebastian became a big hit across Europe, but failed to enter the UK Top 50. The bands debut album The Human Menagerie was released in November 1973 and suffered a similar fate, following the release of The Human Menagerie, Harley went away to re-work Judy Teen, with the objective of making it a potential hit single. Harley later recalled, When the first album out, the record company said. And I said very arrogantly, Ill write one, I know how to do it, Thats exactly what I said and exactly what I did. Now I think - what an arrogant young man, fearless, Judy Teen was a boy/girl story, a teenage romance, a bit of sex in there, interesting drum rhythm, hooks all over the place - lo and behold big hit. Its a good sexy little teenage love story, when I wrote Judy Teen, I was 18 or 19 when I had the experience that that song came from. Judy Teen had already recorded as a demo in 1972. During that year, the early incarnation had featured Pete Newnham on guitar. This line-up recorded three demos at Riverside Recordings, Judy Teen, Ritz and Thats Alright Thats Me, in an exclusive interview with Newnham for the unofficial fan site Harley Fanzone, he recalled, We made our first demos at a friend of Steves studio, Riverside Recordings. Judy Teen, Ritz and Thats Alright Thats Me were the three songs, I had expected to do two guitar tracks, one a rhythm guitar and then a lead overdub for each song - but there was only time for a very rushed guitar take. So, although at the time we all were over the moon with the general result, going back to those demo tracks, they were very clean and untreated, except for a phased drum reverb fadeout on Ritz and a bit of echo on Johns violin on Judy Teen. A lot of time was spent getting Steves vocals to sound right, anyway, the demo was to play to prospective management rather than record companies. Once Harley finished re-working the song, the band recorded it as their single with Alan Parsons at the producers helm. However, the release was delayed after EMI decided to hold the song back at the beginning of 1974. This allowed them to re-issue Sebastian on 25 January, as the time being released as a single. When Sebastian still did not become a UK hit, EMI released Judy Teen as a single in March, successfully breaking the band in the UK, the song peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart, and remained within the Top 50 for eleven weeks
8.
Mr. Soft
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Mr. Soft is a song by British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. The song was released in 1974 as the single from the bands second studio album The Psychomodo. In the UK, the became the bands second hit. Mr. Soft was written by Harley and produced by Harley, by the time Judy Teen successfully broke Cockney Rebel in the UK charts in May 1974, the band had already finished recording their second album The Psychomodo. During the same month, EMI released the track, Psychomodo. However, it was withdrawn from sale in the UK. The Psychomodo was released in June, and once Judy Teen dropped out of the UK Top 50, the song proved to be another success, peaking at #8 and remaining in the UK Top 50 for nine weeks. It also reached #16 in Ireland, from May to July 1974, Cockney Rebel embarked on a major British tour. As the tour progressed, the band began facing growing tensions, on 18 July, the band received a Gold Award for outstanding new act of 1974, and a week later they had split up over their disagreements. By the time Mr. Soft was released, Cockney Rebel had already disbanded, Harley would find a new line-up of the band by the end of the year. On Mr. Soft, the vocals were performed by the Mike Sammes Singers. In 2012, Harley recalled, The Mike Sammes Singers, practically resident on the BBC Light Programme, came in to sing backing vocals, all those boom-boom-boom, booms, the English alternative rock band Elbow called themselves Mr Soft during the early 1990s. Elbows first group name was Mr Soft, and Ive spoken quite a lot to Guy Garvey about it, but mostly you dont want to think about it. In circa 1986/87, the song was used in two successful TV adverts for Trebor Softmints, for the adverts, which used two lines of the song, the lyrics were rewritten and then re-recorded by a Steve Harley sound-alike. One advert promoted Trebor Softmints, while the other promoted Trebor Softfruits, initially, Harley was approached with the offer of re-writing and re-recording the song for the adverts himself. However, Harley felt uncomfortable at the idea of doing this, instead, he chose to give his permission for the advert creators to re-write the lyrics and use a sound-alike vocalist to record them. The lyrics were re-written by Malcolm Green and an unknown vocalist was used to replicate Harleys vocal style, ironically, much of the public believed Harley to be the vocalist in the adverts anyway. Both videos were directed by Len Fulford and produced by BFCS, for the Softmints advert, the lyrics were rewritten accordingly, Mr. Soft, wont tell you why the world in which youre living is so strange
9.
Tumbling Down (Cockney Rebel song)
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Tumbling Down is a song by British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. The song was released in America as a single in 1974. It was written by Harley, and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons, in June 1974, Cockney Rebel released their second studio album The Psychomodo. At the end of a major UK tour in late July, later in the year, Harley would assemble a new line-up under the name Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. During late 1974, EMI chose to release Tumbling Down as a single in America. It was released under the new bands name, as a promotional single, Tumbling Down was not eligible to make a chart appearance. Despite not being issued as a single in Europe or the UK, since its release, it has become a staple at Harleys concerts and has appeared on numerous compilations. The song was recorded during February/March 1974, and was mastered at Abbey Road Studios, the song featured an orchestra and choir, with arrangements by Andrew Powell. The single was released by EMI Records on 7 vinyl in America only, for its release as a single, the album version of Tumbling Down was cut down from six minutes to almost half the duration. Both sides of the feature the same song, the A-side in stereo. The single was issued in a generic sleeve, the song has also appeared on the 2013 various artists four-disc compilation Love Ballads. The song has been a regular inclusion in Harley and the bands set-list when performing live, on YouTube, audience recorded footage exists of the song being performed at various concerts. A number of live versions have also been released. On 14 April 1975, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel performed the song as part of their set at the Hammersmith Odeon in London and this concert was filmed and released as a film titled Between the Lines. In 1977, the song was included on the live album Face to Face. This version was added as the B-side to the live version of The Best Years of Our Lives. Later in 1984, the song was part of the recorded concert at the Camden Palace in London. In 1985, the concert, including the song, was released on VHS
10.
Sebastian (song)
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Sebastian is a song by British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. The song was released as the debut single in 1973 from the album The Human Menagerie. It was written by Harley and produced by Neil Harrison, described by Harley as a Gothic love song, the song features a 50-plus piece orchestra and choir alongside the band, with orchestral arrangements by Andrew Powell. In June-July 1973, Cockney Rebel recorded their debut album The Human Menagerie, including the song, at Air Studios, London, Harley had first performed the song during his days of busking, before Cockney Rebel were formed in lat 1972. Having trained as a journalist for three years, Harley embarked on his career through floor-spotting within London folk clubs in 1971-72. In 1972, Harley began busking in London, in subways and runways under such places as Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Leicester Square and Covent Garden. In a 2007 interview with the Daily Express, he revealed, I started busking in the early 70s, I had one called Sebastian, which was six minutes of gothic poetry. In August 1973, Sebastian was released as the debut single, preceding the album. Sebastian failed to find success in the UK, and did not enter the UK Top 50, however, in continental Europe, the song performed much better and became a big hit in various countries. It peaked at #2 in both Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as #30 in Germany, in a 2014 interview with the Sunday Express, Harley spoke of the songs European success, Sebastian was a number one in most of Europe in 1974. I didnt pay many dues to be honest, thats what the NME held against me at the time. The singles failure in the UK led EMI Records to feel that Harley had yet to record a hit single. In response, Harley went away and re-worked an unrecorded song of his called Judy Teen and this was in hope of it becoming a chart hit, however Sebastian still did not make a chart appearance. While much debate has been made over its meaning, in 2008, Harley spoke about the song and its lyrics in a documentary for the Netherlands programme Top 2000. It means what you want it to mean, Sebastian is the conduit, the tubes through which I took myself on that journey to write the story. I cant say for sure, but I wouldnt have been far away from tripping when I wrote Sebastian, LSD, certainly, created so many incidents in your life, so many images, so much madness and mayhem, as well as great tranquility if you were lucky. Its like most poetry, its a lovely word, in the liner notes of the BGO2004 CD release of The Human Menagerie, Harley recalled, Sebastian is possibly a sort of Gothic love song, possibly not, Im not really sure to be honest. Andrew Powells enormous and wild arrangement for the classical bods and the choir turned the song into something different, in 1983, Harley would re-record the song with Mike Batt as producer
11.
Acoustic and Pure: Live
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Acoustic and Pure, Live is a live acoustic album by English songwriter and musician Steve Harley, released in 2003. The album features ex-Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Cregan, while certain tracks also include members of Cockney Rebel. During 2002, Harley made plans for an acoustic tour that autumn. This was the first time Cregan toured with Harley since 1976, in early September 2002, Cregan began rehearsing forty songs for the upcoming tour, and later in the month traveled to the UK from Los Angeles. Harley and Cregan settled on a set-list of approximately twenty-five songs each night for the tour and it was also announced that at a small handful of venues, Harley and Cregan would be joined by members of the current Cockney Rebel line-up, including Barry Wickens and James Lascelles. For the recording of the shows, Harley used equipment from FX Rentals in London as well as Sony MD and he later announced in October that he hoped to have the album released a few days after the tours final show. He commented that the album would be a reproduction of this tour. In late 2002, with the ongoing, the album was made available as a pre-order. Soon afterwards, the album was produced, compiled and edited by Harley and it was mastered by Clive at Audio Edit Productions. Originally, the albums pre-orders were due to be dispatched before the end of the year, however, the albums release was delayed by a few weeks due to unforeseen printing issues over the CDs sleeve. Harley and his team had rejected the first two test prints from the company, and settled on the third. Commenting on its release in a January 2003 diary entry, Harley said. We played 22 to 25 tracks each night, on a single CD13 was ample, someone had to decide and it was me. Acoustic and Pure, Live was released in early 2003, featuring thirteen tracks, the album used performances from various recorded concerts on the tour. After its release, Harley commented in a March diary entry and its gratifying to hear the comments made to the Guestbook on this site. We loved that tour and really wanted to put out a record that reflected its atmosphere. Some tracks have their little glitches, but I was determined not to doctor the tapes/mini-discs to the degree, depriving myself, as well as all of you who were there. Jim and I are real musicians, not machines or pre-programmed red-coats miming to a backing-track and my dear friend, the masterful Matt Butler, did a fine job of mixing and cross-fading and correcting little technical nuisances
