LONDON — Steve Harley, a British musician whose glam-rock band Cockney Insurrection had a long-lasting collision with the tune “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me),” has died. He used to be 73.
Harley’s people stated Sunday that he had “passed away peacefully at home, with his family by his side.” Harley stated overdue extreme hour he used to be being handled for “a nasty cancer.”
Born in London in 1951, Harley spent virtually 4 years of his youth hospitalized nearest contracting polio, sessions throughout which he started studying and writing poetry. He labored as a trainee accountant and as journalist on native newspapers, and started his appearing occupation at London people golf equipment.
He shaped Cockney Insurrection, which immune a debut copy, “The Human Menagerie,” in 1973 sooner than foundering over ingenious variations. With a unused lineup and rebranded as Steve Harley and Cockney Insurrection, the band immune the 1975 copy “The Best Years of Our Lives,” which contained Harley’s largest collision.
With its barbed lyrics – geared toward Harley’s former bandmates — and infectiously catchy refrain, the Alan Parsons-produced “Make Me Smile” crowned the U.Okay. singles chart. It went directly to be coated ratings of instances and used to be old on numerous soundtracks, together with within the 1997 movie “The Full Monty” and in commercials for Carlsberg beer, section collect Marks and Spencer and Viagra.
Harley additionally sang the name tune of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera” along Sarah Brightman when it used to be immune as a unmarried in 1986. He used to be at the beginning forged within the name position for the degree musical, however used to be changed by way of Michael Crawford.
Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, who produced Harley’s 1982 observe “I Can’t Even Touch You,” known as him a “true ‘working musician.’”
“He toured until he could tour no more, playing his songs for fans old and new,” Ure wrote on social media. “My thoughts go out to Dorothy and his family at this very sad time. Our songs live on longer than we ever can.”
Harley is survived by way of his spouse Dorothy, kids Kerr and Greta and 4 grandchildren. The people stated in a observation that they knew he could be “desperately missed by people all over the world.”