Steve Harley Returns To The Three Tuns

Looks like you’ve been there too…

Never realised so many of you out there enjoy the music of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, a fair few of you remarked how good it was to hear “Tumbling Down” being used as one of the warm-up tracks at last year’s Roseland shows. For those of you not familiar with the tune, it’s the song sung by the Bowie-esque (ish) Jonathan Rhys Meyers character, Brian Slade, near the start of ‘Velvet Goldmine’.

Anyway, when we learnt that Steve had been added to the bill for the unveiling of the plaque at the Rat & Parrot (formerly The Three Tuns) in Beckenham High Street on Thursday, 6th December, we asked him what his connection with the Beckenham Arts Lab was, he replied thus:

“When David went off the be a pop star with Space Oddity, I found myself playing more and more Sundays covering him. Eventually, I was offered my first headline spot at the Arts Lab and was paid the princely sum of £15. Bowie indirectly kick-started my professional career – who’d have thought?”

Steve went on to explain that those early performances at The Three Tuns consisted mainly of songs that were later recorded for his first two classic albums; ‘The Human Menagerie’ and ‘The Psychomodo’. Coincidentally, Mick Rock photographed and designed three or four of Steve’s album sleeves from ‘The Psychomodo’ onwards.

If you’re interested in seeing Mr Harley play at the Rat & Parrot event, nip over to BowieWonderWorld. Rednik has all the details that you need if you want to spend the day with fellow fans celebrating the Beckenham Arts Lab and the music of David Bowie at this historically significant venue. See ya there.