| Acoustic and Pure: Live | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by Steve Harley (with Jim Cregan and guests) | ||||
| Released | 2003 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 77:08 | |||
| Label | Comeuppance Discs | |||
| Producer | Steve Harley, Matt Butler | |||
| Steve Harley (with Jim Cregan and guests) chronology | ||||
| ||||
Acoustic and Pure: Live is a live acoustic album by English songwriter and musician Steve Harley, released in 2003. The album features ex-Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Cregan, while certain tracks also include other members of Cockney Rebel. [1] [2]
During 2002, Harley made plans for an extensive acoustic tour that autumn, which saw him being accompanied by the ex-Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Cregan. This was the first time Cregan toured with Harley since 1976, after he left Cockney Rebel to join Rod Stewart's touring band. [3] In early September 2002, Cregan began rehearsing forty songs for the upcoming tour, and later in the month travelled to the UK from Los Angeles. Harley and Cregan settled on a set-list of approximately twenty-five songs each night for the tour. It was also announced that at a small handful of venues, Harley and Cregan would be joined by members of the current Cockney Rebel line-up, including Barry Wickens and James Lascelles. [4]
Speaking of the upcoming tour in a September 2002 diary entry for his official website, Harley announced that a live album would be released from the tour: "We're going to record most of the shows, then cull the best takes to compile an album. You'll be on a record! Provided you buy a ticket!" [4] For the recording of the shows, Harley used equipment from FX Rentals in London as well as Sony MD. He later announced in October that he hoped to have the album released a few days after the tour's final show. He commented that the album would be a "first-rate reproduction of this tour". [5]
In late 2002, with the tour ongoing, the album was made available as a pre-order. Soon afterwards, the album was produced, compiled and edited by Harley and Matt Butler at The Stone House in Herefordshire. It was mastered by Clive at Audio Edit Productions. Originally, the album's pre-orders were due to be dispatched before the end of the year. However, the album's release was delayed by a few weeks due to unforeseen printing issues over the CD's sleeve. Harley and his team had rejected the first two test prints from the printing company, and settled on the third. Commenting on its impending release in a January 2003 diary entry, Harley said: "I can only hope then that those who have bought it will be satisfied. We played 22 to 25 tracks each night, on a single CD 13 (including the chat) was ample. Someone had to decide and it was me. Because it is my record." [6]
Acoustic and Pure: Live was released in early 2003. Featuring thirteen tracks, the album used performances from various recorded concerts on the tour. As written in the CD liner notes, during the tour, Harley and Cregan played at Reading, Chelsea, Felixstowe, Cheltenham, Pocklington, Bolton, Oswaldtwistle, Beverley, Wolverhampton, Croydon, Letchworth, Southampton, Pontardawe, Buxton, Sheffield, Blackheath, Folkestone, Newcastle, Milton Keynes, Worthing, Weston-Super-Mare, Manchester, Birkenhead, Aylesbury, Oxford, Colchester and Hayes.
After its release, Harley commented in a March diary entry:
"The release of the CD from the Autumn tour has given me great pleasure. It's gratifying to hear the comments made to the Guestbook on this site. We loved that tour and really wanted to put out a record that truly reflected its atmosphere. Some tracks have their little glitches, but I was determined not to doctor the tapes/mini-discs to the ninth degree, depriving myself, as well as all of you who were there, of its peccadilloes. Jim and I are real musicians, not machines or pre-programmed red-coats miming to a backing-track. And Live means Live. My dear friend, the masterful Matt Butler, did a fine job of mixing and cross-fading and correcting little technical nuisances." [6]
Originally, Harley considered leaving his 1975 UK number one hit "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" off the CD. In a 2003 interview with the online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever, he admitted: "I was so fed up with it being absolutely everywhere on everything that's released by me." However, he eventually reconsidered and included the song. [3]
Acoustic and Pure: Live features "The Last Feast" as its closing track, which was the song's first appearance on an album. It was included as an "un-retouched mini-disc recording". [7] [8] A studio version would later appear on the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel album The Quality of Mercy , which was released in 2005. [9]
The album was released by Harley's own label, Comeuppance Discs, on CD in the UK only. Colin Cotter for 3BC handled the album's manufacturing. It was made available for purchase on Harley's official website, by postal order and at Harley's and Cockney Rebel's concerts only. [10] Later in 2003, Harley announced in Perfect Sound Forever that he was aiming to organise a full release of the album on a conventional label. However, these plans never materialised, and in 2004, Harley would release the new live album Anytime! (A Live Set) . [3] Today, the album remains out-of-print. [11] [12]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| 24.000 Dischi |   [13] |
On its release, Andrew Thomas of The Westmorland Gazette considered "fans of great music and performances will be glad to hear Acoustic and Pure". He felt Harley was in "fine voice throughout" with the recording showing "his voice has got better and better with age". Thomas also praised Cregan's guitarwork as "very impressive". He picked "The Last Feast" as the highlight of the album. [14]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Nothing is Sacred" | Steve Harley | 5:20 |
| 2. | "Two Damn'd Lies" | Harley | 5:44 |
| 3. | "Mr Soft" | Harley | 3:17 |
| 4. | "Audience with the Man" | Harley | 7:55 |
| 5. | "The Last Time I Saw You" | Harley | 6:05 |
| 6. | "Sweet Dreams" | Harley | 1:38 |
| 7. | "Psychomodo" | Harley | 4:27 |
| 8. | "All in a Life's Work" | Harley | 5:23 |
| 9. | "Riding the Waves (For Virginia Woolf)" | Harley | 7:40 |
| 10. | "Tumbling Down" | Harley | 9:21 |
| 11. | "A Friend for Life" | Harley; Jim Cregan | 6:30 |
| 12. | "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" | Harley | 4:47 |
| 13. | "The Last Feast" | Harley | 8:55 |
Production
Other
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were an English rock band who formed in the early 1970s in London. Their music covered a range of styles from pop to progressive rock. Over the years, they have had five albums on the UK Albums Chart and twelve singles on the UK Singles Chart.
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, known by his stage name Steve Harley, was an English singer-songwriter and frontman of the rock group Cockney Rebel. He had six UK hit singles with the band in the mid-1970s, including "Judy Teen", "Mr. Soft", and the number one "Make Me Smile ".
The Best Years of Our Lives is the third studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released by EMI on 7 March 1975. It was the first album to feature Harley's name ahead of the band's. The album was produced by Harley and Alan Parsons, and contains the band's only UK number one, the million-selling "Make Me Smile ".
Love's a Prima Donna is the fifth studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1976. It was produced by Harley, and would be the band's last album before splitting in 1977.
Timeless Flight is the fourth studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1976. It was written and produced by Steve Harley.
"The Last Goodbye" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released in 2006 as a single from their 2005 studio album The Quality of Mercy. The song was written by Harley and ex-Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Cregan, and produced by Harley.
The Quality of Mercy is the sixth and final studio album by English rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by Gott Discs on 3 October 2005. The album was Steve Harley's first studio album in 9 years and the first in 29 years to be released under the Cockney Rebel name. The album was produced entirely by Harley, with Jim Cregan co-producing the track "A Friend for Life". The album's title is based on the Shakespearean phrase.
Stranger Comes to Town is the fifth solo studio album from English songwriter and musician Steve Harley, released by Absolute on 3 May 2010. The album was produced by Harley.
The Cockney Rebel – A Steve Harley Anthology is a remastered three-disc box-set anthology by Steve Harley, released in 2006. The anthology features material from Cockney Rebel, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and Harley's solo career. It covers all of Harley's albums, spanning over 33 years, from 1973's The Human Menagerie to 2005's The Quality of Mercy. The anthology was released by EMI Music UK. It was released on CD in the UK only. Today, the physical CD release is out-of-print.
Anytime! is a live acoustic album by Steve Harley, released under the name The Steve Harley Band and featuring members of the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel line-up of the time. It was released in 2004.
"Tumbling Down" is a song by the British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. It was released in 1975 as the third and final single from the band's second studio album The Psychomodo (1974). The song was written by Harley, and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons.
"A Friend for Life" is a song by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley, released by Intrinsic Records on 30 April 2001 as a non-album single. The song was written by Harley and former Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Cregan, and was produced by Cregan. Harley's first release of new material since his 1996 album Poetic Justice, "A Friend for Life" was later included on Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's sixth studio album The Quality of Mercy (2005).
Birmingham is a live album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, featuring the Orchestra of the Swan and Chamber Choir. It was recorded live at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on 24 November 2012, and was released on both CD and DVD in 2013. A DVD version of the performance was also released at the same time.
"Mr. Soft" is a song by the British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley, which was released in 1974 as the second single from their second studio album The Psychomodo. The song was written by Harley, and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons. "Mr. Soft" peaked at number 8 in the UK Singles Chart.
Stripped to the Bare Bones is a 1999 live acoustic album by English musician and songwriter Steve Harley. The album was produced by Harley and features Nick Pynn.
"The Best Years of Our Lives" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released in 1975 as the title track from the band's third studio album The Best Years of Our Lives. In 1977, a live version of the song was released as a single from the album Face to Face: A Live Recording.
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Barry Wickens is a British musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Primarily a violinist and guitarist, he also plays mandolin, viola, Appalachian dulcimer (psaltery), dobro and keyboards. He is best known for being one of the longest-serving members of Steve Harley's rock group Cockney Rebel, and for being a former member of the pop group Immaculate Fools. He is also a violin teacher for Brighton & Hove Music & Arts.
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