When you think of Steve Harley the word rebel comes to mind and you don't really picture him sitting in his back garden appreciating the dawn chorus. But the man who fronted Cockney Rebel and had a number one hit in 1975 with Make Me Smile has a real love for his East Anglia base.

He said: "You only have to look at my live date itinerary and you can see how much I travel. Outside of my touring I also travel all the time. My desk always has tickets in it.

"The great thing about being here is that I am on the Essex/Suffolk border near Clare, and about 35 – 40 minutes from Stansted. I've got back here at 3 o'clock in the morning and in the summer it's almost dawn breaking and it's just the most peaceful thing.

"I've got friends all over Britain and none of them seem to be able to draw up a list of bird life like we do. My garden is like an aviary it's astonishing. Even this morning what I've been watching is so beautiful. I've got Reed Buntings, Yellowhammers Goldfinches, Greenfinches, the whole lot in this garden. We're very lucky.

"What I love about here is that we're off the motorway, the population thins out and I love the big skies of East Anglia. They say it's flat, but hey, there's always compensation on God's earth - and we get the skies.

"Dorothy (Steve's wife) and I went to Burnham Market for a few days last Autumn. We went to the Hoste Arms and to walk on Holkham Beach. There is just such a history everywhere.

"When the kids were younger we'd drive up the coast in July. We'd go to the marshes, Blakeney way, and pick samphire. What a great afternoon! We'd bring bin liners and fill them with samphire, always leaving the roots behind. We'd bring them home and give it to all the neighbours. Then I'd put it in boiling water and run it through butter – wow!

"Don't laugh, but for 20 years we've also had a beach hut at Frinton. It's so quaint with miles of golden sand – it's very peaceful. Nothing happens in Frinton and I like that."

Steve even recorded his latest album – Stranger Comes To Town – locally. He said: "I spent most of last year recording at Leeder's Farm in Spooner Row. It's a lovely place. Funnily enough the house and the grounds are almost identical to my own property. It's Tudor 17th century, mine is Georgian about 1820, but I've got the same two acres of orchard and woodland and the big old pond, so walking round their land was a bit like being home.

"We even got kids from the local primary school to sing on the album, it was brilliant.

"This album isn't half a million dollars up front from EMI or Sony. I paid for it myself. I own the record, and I own the company. So I decided, for the first time really ever, I would write entirely what I wanted to write for me and get a lot of things off my chest; a lot of concerns about the state of the world, about the state of our leaders, politics, teachers, police.

"I've got children who are now 27 and 24 and you get a view on life.

"It's not a very political album. It's basically a very lightweight, kind of protest album.

"The dumbing down and mediocrity of leaders stuns me. There are songs on the album that are hinting to my thoughts on this, but it's not very obvious. It's pretty abstruse allegory and stuff."

Steve feels that the lyrics of some contemporary songs have not had enough thought put behind them: "I can't write bubble gum. The writing of the words today is often just nonsense that they get away with because they are just lazy." But he does think there are some quality performers around. "I thought in the mid-nineties it all sprung to life again with Oasis. And Radiohead are just fabulous. I love the imagination in that work – I love Thom Yorke and everything about Radiohead. Then a bit later the more lightweight, but brilliantly put together, Coldplay and Keane and the Arctic Monkeys are all great. I don't buy it all. I don't spend my time listening to other people's music but I hear enough to know what is going on. Since my kids left home I've kind of missed out a bit. They used to say ‘dad I think we need that album.'"

Steve's tour schedule is packed for the rest of the year, including some acoustic dates which see him visiting Norwich and Bury St Edmunds. He said: "We've just finished a long rock band tour including the Isle of Wight Festival and Glastonbury. We've been playing quite a lot of gigs touring with the big band – eight of us on stage – and we've got more of that to come before the acoustic tour.

"We are at Glastonbury Abbey which is the third year of Michael Eavis' Glastonbury extravaganza where he raises money to help support the ruined abbey – which is a sensational sight, an amazing place, and he asked me to play with Madness.

"We're also going to Germany, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, all with the rock band. Then I only get abut 4 – 5 days off and two of the musicians and I, and three crew, go out on a three week acoustic tour. I do it because I just like playing. We're coming to Norwich. I've enjoy playing the UEA previously and it suits my smaller acoustic tour."

Steve also manages to fit charity work in with his relentless schedule: "I'm an ambassador for the Mines Advisory Group and I'm very privileged and proud to say so.

"I've led a couple of treks for MAG. I led one through Cambodia for a couple of weeks which was incredible. It's so green and pretty and is home to such wonderful people. I also got to go to Siem Reap – it's fantastic. And a couple of years ago we went to Death Valley – the hottest place on earth and spent a couple of weeks there. The trek ended up in Vegas which I despise. Everyone was so excited and I was saying ‘enjoy yourself I'm going to tuck myself up in my room and watch some horse racing from England'.

"We are playing at the beginning of September at Portmeirion – the village where The Prisoner was filmed. We're doing an acoustic show there for the Alzheimers Society. I try and play at least one a year where the fee goes straight to the charity."

So the rebel is still well and truly rocking but it's sometimes the smaller things in life that make him smile these days.

Steve Harley will be playing the Norwich UEA on Wednesday, November 17 as part of his acoustic tour. For tickets please call 01603 508050.

He will also be playing new arts venue The Apex in Bury St Edmunds on Tuesday, November 30. For more information call 01284 761315.

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