R.I.P. STEVE HARRIS
19th April 1965 - 28th October 2011
I have known Steve since he was 15/16 right up until his late 30's, we spent the best part of our 'rock and roll' years together, he was very quiet had little or no ego, he was very intelligent and had a fantastic sense of humour, he rarely had a drink, he didn't drive and was brilliant at tennis, he could touch both of his elbows together and could flip between his lips and his nose with the little finger on both hands at the same time with unreal speed, he would stay in his bedroom practising guitar while the rest of the band went out on the piss, he loved films particularly horror films and was brilliant at doing cartoon sketches and was distantly related to horror thriller writer 'James Herbert', I first saw Steve playing guitar in a band with my brother called 'War Horse', I jammed with them once on the drums at Diamond Sound Studios at Dale End in Birmingham, we played 'Smoke on the water' and 'Rocky Shades from 'Wrathchild' sang lead vocals. I wrote the lyrics to 'Talk to me' from 'Excess all areas' about Steve having a conversation with his wife Deb, the phone wasn't far from our room and all I could hear was him saying was "Talk to me".. "Talk to me", we were recording demos for the album at the time in Los Angeles and it must have been costing him a fortune being on the phone for so long. He was like a designer of a very fast car, who knows all the ins and outs technically and watches it being built at every stage but somehow doesn't want to get behind the wheel himself when its finished and thrash the crap out of it, he was technically gifted as a song writer and lyric writer and he could make that guitar sing, but he was never going to get all tattooed, take drugs and throw TV's out of hotel windows, he was a reluctant star but star he most certainly was and deserved to go on to bigger and better things. He is a piece of jigsaw in my life that I could not have been the same without, I can only hope that I was an equal piece of the jigsaw in his, I can honestly say that I am proud to have known him and to have had the pleasure to have worked with him, Unfortunately we didn't part on good terms his last words to me were "business is business Al" ... words that still resonate in my ear to this day. I have known Steve as well as anyone could and yet I don't know him at all, we hadn't spoken to each other for eleven years, although I was informed of his illness, if I'm honest, I wanted to call him but I was too afraid to talk about the subject I know that seems incredibly weak of me considering his circumstances, but there you go, that was a chance missed and that is something that I will have to live with. I will always remember Steve as a truly great friend to me.
Alan Kelly.
The music and lyrics were written by Steve, this version of 'Reflections' was recorded live at The Venue, Glasgow 29/3/1985 and features Steve Harris, Alan Kelly, Paddy McKenna, Roy Davis and Tony Mills.
The video features clips I have of Steve show just what a sense of humour he had.
If you’re a fan of SHY click this link to my SHY Website for a history of SHY from the beginning, touring, signing deals etc with photos and videos. Enjoy : https://shyengland.wordpress.com
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