This will be my 500th post on this fan forum,flitting in and out of many subjects and conversations,debates,etc.
From around 15 years old my world has been intertwined with a few things that have become very important to me over the following 43 years.
Basically my family,football and music.
Nothing spectacular,no major achievements,nothing to get on a pedestal and shout about.I will go back a few years earlier to start...February 1960 to be precise,I was four years old,born and bred in Glasgow,Scotland.
My dad and my uncle Billy took me to Ibrox stadium to see my first Rangers game,(in Glasgow you were either born in to a Rangers or Celtic family,no other choices really (unless your old man was an arty farty geography teacher or something ) and then of course your team of choice was Partick Thistle.
But,Rangers it was for me.I recall my first game against Dundee F.C.,only for the fact I remember crying at half time because Rangers were seemingly losing two nil.but my Dad explained,we were actually winning,back then when there was a clash of kit colour (blue) the home team were obliged to change strip,so Rangers were actually playing in WHITE and we went on to win easily,a love was formed in this young boy
which has never left me i still go to Ibrox on a regular basis and am proud to be a shareholder and founder member of Rangers International Football Club. This love of my team has led me to follow them all over the world,and to date I am proud to say I have seen them play in 26 different countries.including USA,DUBAI,RUSSIA,and SOUTH AFRICA and most European countries.
Now my second love (bar family) is music.My very early tastes in music were soul,tamla motown (latterly northern soul) and reggae.
On a trip to London when I was 15, with a few mates to go to a Chelsea v Sheff.Utd.match, I was walking through Marble Arch tube station and saw and heard a busker playing,I told my mates I would catch up with them,i was intrigued by the sound and songs this weedy looking guy was producing,I was so taken aback I chucked a couple of quid notes in to his hat,first impressions do stick.
Months later I was in my local record shop in Chesterfield called
'Some kinda mushroom' buying my weekly fix of reggae imports from Jamaica that the shop owner Dave McPhee specialised in.I spotted the NME,and MELODY MAKER on the mag rack and recognised the guy on the front cover as being the busker in London !!
IT TURNED OUT TO BE ONE STEVE HARLEY whos new band had released an album and landed a three album deal with EMI.
I ordered that debut album and had a few days wait until the following Thursday when new releases were delivered,it was always Thursdays for some reason!
My musical interests changed that day.a new love was forged.
LITTLE DID I KNOW BACK THEN THAT STEVE HARLEY AND COCKNEY REBEL(in all its different guises and formations) would be such an influence in my life,and here I am 43 years later still yapping away as if I have just discoveredn them.Along the years in between my love of soul,motown reggae progressed with change in the genres to also encapsulate rap and hip-hop also.I took to Bowie and The Faces,Rod Stewart etc at times but always,always it was Steve Harley at the forefront of my music.
As I sit here writing this now,two wives,5 children,eight grandchildren (and another due in the new year) later, I admit to shedding a tear on Friday night at The Lowry in Manchester as Steve took the acclaim of a standing ovation and came back to start singing the following lines....................
'I'VE BEEN TRYING TO WRITE THIS LINE,BUT THE YEARS HAVE GONE BY IN NO TIME'.......exactly right Steve it seems like yesterday,where has time gone.
Many friends I have made over the years were in that room on Friday
JULIE,PAUL,GRAEME AND MAGS,JO,and the fantastic human being that is STEW GRIFFIN,(so pleased young Jack is doing well mate),to name a few, and we spoke of others who didnt make it that night,MIKE J, PETER JH LISA,TRACEY,DEBS,KAREN etc etc also friends who are no longer with us
Mark (the phantom) and the beautiful Simone from Holland,(THINKING OF YOU TOO KEES) both taken from us far too early, and realising how bloody lucky we all are to have found,been influenced by,and to have
met the man himself STEVE HARLEY.
THE CONCERT WAS SUPERB,A PASSIONATE SET AND PERFORMANCE from all three guys,I watched and listened intently (from the back for once!) and I
just gazed in awe.As I always do.Thank You for being a part of my
life,every last one of you.

and just for my mate STEW GRIFFIN,
BEST REGARDS FROM PLANET HARLEY.

PS... almost forgot the Stockport Mafia....JOHN,ROXY,CHELSEA AND THE NEWEST MEMBER LITTLE MINNIE,sorry guys.

Now I am crying...... with happiness, touched with sadness.
JB xx

Sorry Jules,did you remember to go to sainsburys???

OH AND TO GRAEME BLAKE.....
NEIL LENNON....NO,NO,NO JUST BLOODY NO !!!!!
(kept that very clean,for me)

What a fantastic story big fella .i like you have she'd a few tears at Harley gigs over the years lol(and at Stamford bridge and Ibrox our 2 other loves)but it was a bit special on Friday with what went on with Minnie and your so right there's some very special friends I look forward to seeing at gigs .its been great forming friendships with the Harley clan over the years and may it and Steves music keep us all in this together .ps your a big soft git mate that's why we love ya

Hey Jim... what a tale.
Good to see you and have a chat....
Oh the shirt .....The shirt I bought from shop does "just".... fit !!!! my legs are rather too long!

Back in ciderland with the car that is needing attention.
Wishing you safe onward journeys
X Jo

I love the story about you "discovering" Steve busking in an Underground station. For some reason, I thought you put an entire week's wages in his tip bucket. Wish I could have been there this year, but it was not to be. I hope to come again sometime in the future, just do not know when I will be able to. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the concerts so much, I miss terribly not being able to be part of that.

Love, Cheri