Steve Harley calls on Hull to support new Mick Ronson memorial

Cockney Rebel with a cause Steve Harley is on the road to raise funds for a new memorial to his friend and Hull legend Mick Ronson, as Hannah Robinson reports.

He's done it all. But the cockney rebel hasn't been pulled to the floor yet.

In fact, it is Steve Harley's friendship with Hull's most famous musical son that has caused him to travel up the A63 again.

"I played the Hull City Hall back in February," explains the 64-year-old Deptford-raised rocker, who met Mick Ronson through mutual friend Mick Rock, a music photographer.

"I had noticed the Mick Ronson tribute and mentioned it in between the songs, which is unusual for me as I usually get very relaxed and don't speak much at all while I'm on stage.

"I asked, 'Is it bad?', to which everyone shouted at me, 'Terrible!'. So 1,200 people shared the same opinion about the tribute.

"So I said, 'I'll come back and play to raise money for a new one', so I have.

"I'm a racehorse owner, and men who bet professionally are very honest men. I never break my word."

The late Mick Ronson, who died from liver cancer in April 1993 at the terribly young age of 43, began his music career with Hull-based band The Rats.

The former council gardener, who was born in Beverley Road and later moved to Greatfield, found fame as a guitarist with the Spiders From Mars, with David Bowie, and went on to have success as a producer for the likes of Lou Reed, Lulu and Morrissey.

In 2012, he was voted by Rolling Stone as the 41st greatest guitarist of all time.

And the city that gave him his roots and inspired the name for his third album, Heaven And Hull, chose to remember him with the Mick Ronson Memorial Stage in Queens Gardens. Yes. A brick platform.

Harley heard the city's plight and is returning to make a change.

"I'm playing a concert for free," says the former Daily Express employee and subsequent frontman of Seventies band Cockney Rebel. "And I can't thank Hull City Hall enough.

"I'm not a meetings and discussions kind of man, at all. I'm a writer. I'm socially gregarious but I'm solitary, and waffling repeatedly in a room for hours is definitely not my thing.

"But, anyway, Hull City Hall, in this particular meeting, agreed to give me the hall and staff completely for free. It's so touching. What super, super people. It's hard to think of any way to thank them enough."

Rock For Ronson is a one-off concert in April by Steve Harley and special guests to raise money for a new Mick Ronson memorial. But what kind of memorial?

"I originally said to Mick's family, 'Listen, I'm just the performer, not the decider, so I'll give you the money and you decide on the memorial'. But then I said, 'If it were up to me, however ...', and that's how the memorial began to evolve into something better than we all could have hoped for.

"Instead of a physical statue or plaque, the money will be going straight into the Mick Ronson Scholarship Trust, which Lisa [Ronson's daughter] can control every year.

"With the money raised with this concert, we want to be able to send young people who have incredible musical talents, be that playing or sound engineering or whatever, but are from a disadvantaged background, to university or college.

"I just think it's so important. Especially with UK City of Culture 2017 just around the corner.

"We haven't decided on the facility that will benefit from the trust yet, though."

And Harley has got the city involved with the production even more.

"The evening is being opened by The Black Delta Movement [Hull's own up and coming band], who seem really great. I'm hoping Mick's daughter will join me on stage as well. She's got an album out and it would be just amazing if she could be there and share the moment with everyone.

"And I've also got help from a Hull choir.

"One of Cockney Rebel's songs, Sebastian, requires a big production, so it will be great with them providing the backing vocals.

"I'm hopping with excitement."

But Harley still needs the help of Hull to provide as much as possible to save funds for the cause.

"We want local companies to sponsor us. If catering companies think they can cater for 40 people for free, then that would be just superb.

"We need as much of the money raised to go the trust. Rather than it going towards feeding and accommodating people.

"Isn't that just a great idea? That Hull businesses could help towards this charity and make it even better for the people who's lives will be benefited because of it.

"Any company that believes they can help in any way, I urge them to come forward and do so.

"It really is such a brilliant cause in the name of a brilliant musician. He's a Hull son. I want his family to be proud of what we've achieved."

When & where: Saturday, April 23. 7.30pm. Hull City Hall, Queen Victoria Square, city centre. Tickets cost £30. Call 01482 300300 or visit www.hullboxoffice.co.uk