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Steve Harley and The Cockney Rebel - Best of ( 72min.^ 172mb)
Steve Harley (born Steven Nice, 27 February 1951), grew up in London's New Cross area. He was stricken with polio at age two and spent the better part of his adolescence in and out of hospitals. After trying his hand at journalism, his musical career began in the late 1960s when he was busking (with John Crocker) and performing his own songs, some of which were later recorded by him and the band. The original Cockney Rebel was formed when Harley hooked up with his former folk music partner, John Crocker (fiddle / mandolin / guitar) in 1972. They auditioned drummer Stuart Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys, and keyboardist Milton Reame-James. They were signed to EMI after playing just five gigs. Their first single "Sebastian", a soaring rock epic ballad, was an immediate success in Europe, though failed to score in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album, The Human Menagerie, was released in 1973 to critical acclaim
Harley regarded the band as little more than accompaniment to his own agenda, and already there were signs that things would not last, despite having a big hit with their second single, "Judy Teen". What followed was the album The Psychomodo, an adventurous and ambitious production which showed that there was real talent in the group. A second single from the album, "Mr. Soft", was also a big hit. The band was voted the "Most Outstanding New Act" of 1974. By this time the problems within the band had already reached a head, and all the musicians, with the exception of Stuart Elliott, quit at the end of a highly successful UK tour.
In 1974, the third album, The Best Years of Our Lives was made, produced by Alan Parsons. This included the track "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" which would go on to be a UK Number one single and the band's biggest selling hit. Steve Harley followed up with an even more ambitious and artsy outing. Unfortunately, Timeless Flight neglects the strong pop hooks, much of Timeless Flight finds Harley getting bogged down in deliberately impenetrable wordplay and songs that, despite slick arrangements, are rather hookless. With the next album , Love's a Prima Donna, he regained some ground as it launched a Top Ten hit with the Beatles' cover "Here Comes the Sun." .But in the wake of 1977's Face to Face -- A Live Recording, Harley again disbanded Cockney Rebel and relocated to the U.S., recording the better part of Hobo With a Grin in Los Angeles before returning to Britain. 1979's The Candidate failed to restore his commercial lustre even when the Tamla Motown-inspired single "Freedom's Prisoner" was recieved well and bubbled just under the UK Top 40. Harley began touring again with his old Cockney Rebel songs in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Harley has released several solo albums since – Yes You Can in 1992, Poetic Justice in 1996.When his recording of "Mr. Soft" experienced a rebirth thanks to its use in a television commercial, Harley assembled a hits collection of the same name. Soon after he formed a new incarnation of Cockney Rebel and regularly toured into the following decade. 1999's Stripped to Bare Bones documents an acoustic set recorded the year previous. Yes You Can was re-issued in summer 2000.
Most recently, in 2005, The Quality of Mercy came out, the first since the 1970s to be released with the Cockney Rebel name.
Sad factoid, Cockney Rebel's original bass player, Paul Avron Jeffreys and his bride were among the victims on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, they were on their honeymoon.
01 - Make Me Smile - Come Up And See Me (4:01)
02 - Love - Compared With You (4:21)
03 - Judy Teen (3:41)
04 - Mr. Raffles - Man, It Was Mean (4:34)
05 - Mr. Soft (3:20)
06 - Sebastian (6:56)
07 - That's My Life In Your Hands (3:49)
08 - Here Comes The Sun (2:57)
09 - All Men Are Hungry (4:47)
10 - Roll The Dice (3:26)
11 - The Best Years Of Our Lives (5:45)
12 - Star For A Week - Dino (4:37)
13 - Rain In Venice (4:51)
14 - The Last Time I Saw You (5:38)
15 - Psychomodo (4:04)
16 - Irresistable - Remix (5:12)
extra lite
Steve Harley and The Cockney Rebel - Best of ( * 99mb)
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Hallo Venray - The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets! (91 ^ 99mb)
Hallo Venray is founded in 1987 by Henk Koorn and Anno Houwing, soon after Dim Veldhuisen(drums) and Peter Konings (bass) joined, initially they sang in Dutch but that changed with the changing of the gitar guards, Toon Moerland stepped in, and in this line up they release the debut album You Don’t Hit a Guy With Glasses On in 1989. The following year the next album King is released. It is with the band’s third record The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets that the band gets their due. Released in 1992 this album receives a lot of airplay on the Dutch national radio stations. The band tours extensively in their home country, with Pinkpop ( a 60,000 people festival) as crowning achievement.
A Million Planes to Fly (1993), the band’s fourth record builds on this success. The band plays a number of international shows. In 94 an acoustic radio session is released.In 1995 the band’s popularity has waned and the album Merry-Go-Round fails to live up to the success of the two previous albums. Two years later Hallo Venray releases a self-titled album. This album shows off a more modern sound with samples and electronic instruments. After this album the band becomes less active. In 1998 drummer Dim Veldhuizen leaves, he is replaced by Henk Jonkers.
1999 they release a livealbum with Neil Young covers, Roll Another Number'. The group’s members dedicate their time to side projects in the following years (Supertroopers and Dakota Love Beach each release an album and tour). But with 2001’s album I’m Not a Senseless Person, At Least I Don’t Want To Be Hallo Venray returns and sounds as vital as ever. Two years later they release a live album recorded in Rotterdam, Gallons & Gasoline. That year the band signs with Excelsior Recordings. Together with that label’s staff producer Frans Hagenaars, the band initiates recordings in November 2003. Two years later this results in the release of Vegetables and Fruit. The cd is presented in Paradiso, Amsterdam on January 23. This show lauds in an extensive club tour through the Netherlands. Currently they're recording a new album.
01 - The Summer Is Gone (2:36)
02 - Slow Change (4:03)
03 - Not So Long (4:41)
04 - Mr. Bigshot (2:42)
05 - Tuck, The Man (7:03)
06 - Eugene (4:21)
07 - Be Someone (4:52)
08 - The Heart And The Soul (5:08)
09 - The Road (4:37)
10 - Japanese Cars (1:36)
11 - Las Vegas (6:49)
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Hidden Cameras - The Smell Of Our Own ( 03 ^99mb)
Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the band consists of a varying roster of musicians who play what Gibb once described as "gay church folk music". A mix of queer politics, explicit sexuality, symphonic indie pop, and theatrical spectacle that borders on the religious. The band's first album was released independently in 2001 on EvilEvil, Ecce Homo -- a collection of four-track demos introduced a stripped-down version of the Hidden Cameras' witty, acoustic-based songwriting, which drew comparisons to the Magnetic Fields and Belle & Sebastian.
Ecce Homo also caught the ear of Rough Trade, whose signing of Gibb made the Hidden Cameras the first Canadian artist on the label in its 25-year history. Meanwhile, the group's elaborate live performances, which include up to 30 go-go dancers, strippers, and musicians, as well as videos, projected lyrics, and heavy audience participation, won the group a widespread and devoted following in Canada.
2003's Rough Trade debut, The Smell of Our Own, reflected some of the group's more elaborate sound more so than Ecce Homo did and spread the Hidden Cameras' subversively catchy music further afield. Joel Gibb and company not only celebrate sex and its accompanying smells and stains, but inflate them to divine status on their second album. This album brings back indie music's libido, which is certainly worth something; it's also possible that if the Cameras' music sounded as radical as its lyrics are, it wouldn't be nearly as well-received.
In 2004, they released their third album, Mississauga Goddam (Toronto suburb of Gibb's youth), on Rough Trade and also on EvilEvil in Canada. Their EP, The arms of his 'ill' , was released by California label Absolutely Kosher Records in the same year, and features jacket art specially created by Paul P. and G.B. Jones. Awoo, their 2006 recording was released on Rough Trade in Europe, EvilEvil in Canada and, in the U.S., on the Arts & Crafts label. The Hidden Cameras are featured on the soundtrack of the John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus, which premiered in 2006.
01 - Golden Streams (4:29)
02 - Ban Marriage (4:20)
03 - A Miracle (2:56)
04 - The Animals Of Prey (4:05)
05 - Smells Like Happiness (3:09)
06 - Day Is Dawning (5:08)
07 - Boys Of Melody (5:01)
08 - Shame (5:28)
09 - Breathe On It (2:53)
10 - The Man That I Am With My Man (4:38)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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