Topic: Steve Harley

Steve Harley (born Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, 27 February 1951, Deptford, London, England) is a English singer and songwriter, best known for his work with the 1970s rock group Cockney Rebel, with whom he still tours (albeit with many personnel changes through the years).

As a child he suffered from polio, spending four years in hospital up to his sixteenth birthday. It was in hospital he first heard Bob Dylan, inspiring him to a career of words and music. At ten he received a guitar from his parents, and he played violin with the school orchestra. He left the Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College with no O levels.

In 1968 he got a job as an accountant with the Daily Express from which he progressed to become a reporter in a number of local Essex newspapers for a duration of three years. Later, he returned to London to work for the East London Advertiser.