I had travelled down from Coventry with my wife for this gig and although on the whole enjoyed the evening, there were also a few disappointments.
The first was that the venue was only half full. The audience were undoubtedly appreciative of the quality and brilliance of the music, but there was still a lack of atmosphere. Admittedly, it is quite a large venue to fill, which leads to my second disappointment - the lack of diversity in the audience. My wife (a reluctant SH fan) thought it was hilarious that the room was full of 50 year old men. I pointed out that she couldn't include me in that observation (I'm only 49!), but she was right. There was the odd lady and a few younger people, however the vast majority were middle aged men. Not that there is anything wrong with middle aged men, but with the Dome is smack bang in the middle of a very studentey area of Brighton, you would have hope the band would have appealed to a wider audience. However, having spent the day crawling many of the dozens of bars around the Dome, you wouldn't have know Cockney Rebel were in town. Not a leaflet or a poster (even outside the venue) were to be seen. I'm sure if it had been better promoted there could have been a bigger and more diverse audience.
Disappointment number three comes in the shape of the Lartey Sister’s. Not that they are bad - far from it, their own set was very good and they add a great presence on stage for the Rebel, however I thought their backing vocals could have been utilized more. They really brought 'come up and see me to life', but other than that, I thought they were under used, which was a shame.
My final disappointment was the play list. I know SH has a new album to promote and you can't please all the people all the time and in fairness, they did the new tracks brilliantly. However, no ‘Tumbling Down’ or ‘Best Years of our Lives’, left me felling slightly short changed.
Having said that, to hear tracks like Loretta's Tale, Panorama and 'All men are hungry' was a real bonus - and to some degree compensated. Like I said, you can't please everyone.
So I've now managed to give everyone the impression that I had a wasted journey and didn't enjoy the gig - far from it.
Vocally SH was as good as I have ever heard him. The band were tight and sounded fantastic. The new material was as good, if not better, than some of the old stuff and gave a good mix and variety of songs.
So if you are a young student, just starting out on your discovery of music (or even a 50ish old man like me ), I would implore you to get to a Cockney Rebel concert. Despite my few minor 'disappointments' Cockney Rebel are still one of the best bands that you are ever likely to see and deserve to be playing in front of packed houses every night

there were also a few disappointments.
The first was that the venue was only half full. The audience were undoubtedly appreciative of the quality and brilliance of the music, but there was still a lack of atmosphere. Admittedly, it is quite a large venue to fill,


I know what you mean.....Steve played the Waterfront Hall here in Belfast twice, the first time in the compact "BT Studio" auditorium and evey seat was filled. The next time was in the Main Hall during a promotion by the Council and all tickets were a fiver (it was a week long thing and they had several good artists on) but because the large arena wasn't filled the gig lacked the atmosphere of the gig in the smaller hall.

Personally, I think a Rebel gig works best when the crowd can get up and dance and have a good old singalong and that when we are sitting in concert style it isn't the same.

But that's just me.


which leads to my second disappointment - the lack of diversity in the audience. My wife (a reluctant SH fan) thought it was hilarious that the room was full of 50 year old men. I pointed out that she couldn't include me in that observation (I'm only 49!), but she was right. There was the odd lady and a few younger people, however the vast majority were middle aged men. Not that there is anything wrong with middle aged men, but with the Dome is smack bang in the middle of a very studentey area of Brighton, you would have hope the band would have appealed to a wider audience.

Well, speaking as a "fifty sommat" bloke I can think of nowt worse than being surrounded with people of my ilk at a rock concert (where do the years go)

I must say that wasn't the case in Belfast...lots of guys like us but plenty of women there and a good crowd of twenty, thirty and forty somethings and all.

However, having spent the day crawling many of the dozens of bars around the Dome, you wouldn't have know Cockney Rebel were in town. Not a leaflet or a poster (even outside the venue) were to be seen. I'm sure if it had been better promoted there could have been a bigger and more diverse audience.

I remarked on the other thread about the lack of advertising here as well and happen Steve's management will look at that aspect for the next tour.

(which I hope is soon )


My final disappointment was the play list. I know SH has a new album to promote and you can't please all the people all the time and in fairness, they did the new tracks brilliantly. However, no ‘Tumbling Down’ or ‘Best Years of our Lives’, left me felling slightly short changed.
Having said that, to hear tracks like Loretta's Tale, Panorama and 'All men are hungry' was a real bonus - and to some degree compensated. Like I said, you can't please everyone.

Ah, the play list.

You know, Steve has had so many super songs over the years it is always the case that some favourites won't be heard....for instance, my favourite song is Nothing Is Sacred and I don't believe I have ever heard him do it at a gig.

Regarding Tumbling Down, it is a long singalong and I am thinking that if he did Virginia Woolf or The Lighthouse at Brighton then there is really only room for one of those football chant type songs in the set.

But the new songs are a must, IMO

Steve Harley is unique among his 1970s peers insofar as he is still writing quality new songs....the guy just gets better as he gets older.

I love Rod the Mod and Neil Young and have seen them both in the past year but it is all about old stuff and neither of them have wfritten any good new songs in yonkos.

Not Steve.....Quality of Mercy is, IMO, the album of the decade and this new one is superb.

I also think the vastly under rated Yes You Can is as good as any of the seventies quartet which we all fell in love with and sustained us in the years up until the renaissance that was Yes You Can.

In my opinion, Steve has struck the perfect balance between old and new.

He still has sommat to say and boy, he sure can say it.

So I've now managed to give everyone the impression that I had a wasted journey and didn't enjoy the gig

Not at all.....it is always good to hear other fan's opinions and excellent that we have a place to discuss them.

I hope you don't mind me making such a wordy response but I love talking about the man and his music....

Khalekan wrote:
I remarked it too. All this advertising is important for an artist.
Let me tell you a funny thing the Sparks staff has done the day they came in Paris (2007 - previous gig in Paris was 25 years ago !), knowing that Sparks is not very famous in France.
As they seemly were affraid not to fill enough the place, the staff asked the few french fans to constitute a "Sparks Street Team" ; I was one of them. The staff sent us flyers and posters and ... We loved them enough to play the game : distributing flyers et pining posters everywhere we could
The night of the gig, the place was full : 50ish of course but also a lot of young and even very young people.
The Mael brothers probably were not hoping so much : I personnaly saw Russell Mael discretly puting his thumb up to his brother when the crowd could not stop applausing them ...
They were nice enough to thank us.
So may be the Cockney Rebel staff should think of doing the same !

Indeed you did.

And you mentioned it even before I did.