Written by It’s June 7, 1975. Steve Harley and his new-look Cockney Rebel have just gained their first No.1 single – Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) – and their first Top Five album: The Best Years Of Our Lives.
Now they’re headlining a big outdoor festival at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl. Unusually, there’s an ornamental lake right in front of the stage. Fans sit on the faraway banks, facing the stage, which makes for a somewhat subdued atmosphere from the performer’s perspective.
Mr Harley has a crafty plan, however. He’s put together a strong lineup, with the Jack Bruce Band, John Cale, Billy Cobham and Steeleye Span playing support. He has a quadraphonic sound system, and Alan Parsons has been shipped in to mix the sound, much to the chagrin of Harley’s regular sound engineer, Bob Gross. And that isn’t all.
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“I had a secret ramp – a fibreglass board, like a diving board – built out of the stage and into the water,” Harley told Classic Rock, more than three decades later. “It was three inches below the surface, and I was going to walk on the water – ha-ha! I was being heavily criticised in the music press at the time for being an arrogant so-and-so. It was going to be so self-mocking, so amusing.”
What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, plenty.
“We were going to play our song Death Trip and, during the long section in the middle where I didn’t have much to do except bang a tambourine, I was going to step out into the water and pretend to be the Son of God! I just thought I’d have a laugh. At the end, I might’ve jumped in and pretended I was drowning. That was in my mind too, to go under the water and not come up again.”
Harley’s cunning stunt was doomed to failure when overheated fans jumped into the lake to cool off.
“It was a heatwave, and it was hotter than hell out there,” said Harley. “So loads of people waded into the lake. They wouldn’t get out, and they found the board. They were sitting on it, looking at me on stage. Shit! Ha-ha.”
As if having fans innocently pre-empting Harley’s Jesus act by prancing up and down his underwater ramp wasn’t enough, their presence also curtailed the show’s finale, when a series of underwater fireworks were scheduled to be detonated, sending water hundreds of feet into the air. With audience safety in mind, the explosives were never used.
“An announcement was made that Cockney Rebel would not appear until everyone was out of the water,” one fan remembered. “Unfortunately, a few of us didn’t hear what was being said, and a barrage of bottles and cans rained down into the lake, making us exit pretty quickly. All in all, though, another great day at the Bowl.”
“I think my entire fee for the gig went down the tubes,” Harley said. “Or at least a good wad of it.”
