Steve Harris

Introduction:

Sometimes words are not enough to describe what you feel or what you have in mind about a certain musician or a band. Having in mind to make a Tribute to Steve Harris, a gifted songwriter & guitarist, was the least thing I could do so as to honour his memory. Honestly, Steve Harris had been one of a kind… a musical genius that left this World far too early on October 28th, 2011, his life ended by a GBM brain tumour. There is no doubt that Steve had so much more to offer…

At the age of 46, Steve joined ‘Big Heaven’s Band’ and our music has become a little bit poorer than before. Undoubtedly, Steve was a talented musician and songwriter but quite underrated…. though not by those who knew. In a world where the real talented musicians are not getting the recognition, they deserve we often see untalented & amateur wannabe musicians taking all the fame & fortune. It’s the damn system which does not care if you are really talented or not… only for the things you can offer, just to be another money bringer.

SHY was never a band that gained a huge reputation… they should have been a major household name… they had the whole package… the songs, the players, the attitude… everything and although they had a loyal fanbase, mainly in Europe and Japan. They became widely known mostly to rockers that wanted to revel in some tasteful, innovative and original music.

Steve Harris was the driving force behind Shy; he was the soul, the mind and the heart of the band. Am I exaggerating? Of course, not… nearly every tune is signed/penned by Steve and even those songs offered by the other members had Steve’s trademark as well. His playing was so different… his solos were amazingly classy & melodic, while having a bit of melancholy in them. He played with passion, he played from the heart, he played for the song. Shy was one of those bands that could make you long to hear the solo of the song and sometimes that solo did steal the show!

I can only speak as a fan… I never had the chance to interview Steve; the interviews were mostly done by Tony Mills. Steve did do interviews but preferred to stay behind the scenes… he preferred to stay out of sight… that is what a gifted, balanced & conscientious musician should be like. You do not need to be in front of the lights so as to be known… your work can speak for you and so did for Steve.

When I got in touch with Steve’s beloved wife, Deb, I never thought I could find such a kind, gentle and helpful person such as her. Deb Steve Harris is the one and only person that can speak for Steve… she knew Steve better than anyone, they were so hooked together and that is obvious when someone sees the photos and talks with Deb. She legally took his name to add to her own in 2012 as a lifelong tribute on what would have been Steve’s 47th birthday.

The lines below are coming straight from the heart; Deb did us all a favour and wrote down some things about the way Steve used to be as a person and as a musician. Along came the band members who spent some valuable times with Steve in the studio and on the road. Each one of them will say how they cooperated with Steve and tell us about not only his musician side but also about the human one.

SHY History:

Formerly known as Trojan, SHY featured vocalist Tony Mills, Steve Harris on guitars, Paddy McKenna on keyboards, Mark Badrick on bass and drummer Alan Kelly. Their first album, called “Once Bitten… Twice”, was released in 1983. Initial reports from Kerrang! were incredibly positive, however, a reporter was increasingly sarcastic to the band in the interview that would follow. After the release, Mills ditched his David Bowie-esque make up, and Mark Badrick was replaced by former Trouble bassist Roy Davies.

Shy made their major label debut on RCA Records with 1985’s “Brave the Storm”. This release gained much success despite the single “Hold on to Your Love” being disqualified from the charts, as early copies included a shrink-wrapped T-shirt. Reviews from Kerrang! were this time more positive, comparing Mill’s soaring vocals with those of Geoff Tate, vocalist of Queensrÿche.

In the eighteen months that preceded the band’s third album, Shy made a name for themselves touring with Bon Jovi, Meat Loaf, Twisted Sister, Gary Moore and UFO. The band’s 1987 album, “Excess All Areas”, was recorded in Holland with producer Neil Kernon. The album featured Shy’s biggest hit, “Break Down the Walls”, with the opening riff written by Don Dokken. The album reached Britain’s top 75, with Metal Hammer magazine being particularly appreciative, suggesting that Steve Harris could give Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora a run for his money.

The year 1989 saw the release of the album “Misspent Youth” on MCA. The album, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, was promoted with American and European tours. By 1994, Mills had been replaced by Madam X vocalist, John “Wardi” Ward and the band’s 1994 album, “Welcome to the Madhouse” was released.

The band released a live album in 1999, recorded in Europe, and two albums containing previously unreleased songs, “Let the Hammer Fall” and “Regeneration”.

Mills agreed to return to the band in 2000. By 2002, Shy had recorded and released an album featuring Mills, which was called “Unfinished Business” and saw Man drummer Bob Richards replacing Kelly.

In 2005, Shy released “Sunset and Vine” on the MTM Music label. In addition to Mills, Harris and Davis, this album featured Mills’ ex Siam colleague Ian Richardson on rhythm guitar and keyboard player Joe Basketts, who had previously worked with Mills on his solo album. SHY release their last and self-titled album “SHY”, with Lee Small on vocals in 2011.

Discography:

• 1983 Once Bitten…Twice…
• 1985 Brave the Storm
• 1987 Excess All Areas
• 1989 Misspent Youth
• 1994 Welcome to the Madhouse
• 1999 Regeneration
• 1999 Let the Hammer Fall
• 1999 Live in Europe
• 2001 Breakaway (EP)
• 2002 Unfinished Business
• 2005 Sunset and Vine
• 2006 Reflections: The Anthology 1983-2005
• 2011 SHY

Personal Info:

Steve Harris was born in Bournville, England on 19th April 1965, but conceived in New York, USA and distantly related to the late great horror writer James Herbert… not many people know this!

He began playing guitar at the age of 12 and as a school boy paid for professional guitar lessons. After a couple of lessons, his guitar tutor ‘disappeared’ along with the advance payments – so Steve decided to teach himself guitar! And what an excellent job he did! His first guitar was a cream Shaftesbury semi-acoustic telecaster…. he played it without an amp, that didn’t come until later! Westone, Les Paul, Kramer Baretta, Fernandes and Epiphones followed. His amp was the Marshall 6100 30th Anniversary.

Blessed with this and from a young age, Steve knew where he intended to go and when asked by his careers teacher what he was going to do after leaving school he told her ‘be a Rock Star’. She laughed and discouraged this ridiculous idea. As he was good at art, he was encouraged to pursue this and so after leaving school, Steve decided to go to Bournville Art College, but only fabric design was available! This didn’t appeal in the slightest to an axe man! So, he briefly worked in a catering warehouse, but his mind was made up as to where he would soon be and in 1984 after showcasing for major labels SHY signed a record deal with firstly RCA followed by MCA / Universal. I met Steve soon after the first deal was signed and we clicked from the start… we were virtually identical in our likes and dislikes, in our beliefs and morals and we shared the same ‘slightly mad’ sense of humour… or ‘alternate’ as he used to call it. This was the start of 27 happy years together. We got engaged on Steve’s 21st birthday and married two years later on 19th August 1988.

I can honestly say, hand on heart that Steve put his life and soul into SHY and was the most determined, self-driven, dedicated and self-sacrificing person I have ever met, (along with my late Grandparents)… never allowing a day to pass when he didn’t pick up a guitar and when Steve was in the studio he was so practiced he could play his parts and solos ‘off the bat’ his live performance was just the same as in the studio…. note-perfect. I have been told by more than one record producer what a pleasure and how easy he was to work with. ‘A real pro with it all worked out’. However, he always strived to do better and would often tell me he wanted to re-record his solos even though we all knew they were brilliant! He was a perfectionist and I’m pretty much the same tbh, I mean if you set out to do something, anything, there’s only one way to do it.

At Steve’s tribute show which took place in 2013, there was two sets. One with Tony Mills (RIP) performing SHY classics and the other with Lee Small performing tracks from Steve’s swan song, the self-titled “SHY”. From beyond the grave, Steve was able to perform his own guitar solos from this album with thanks to modern technology and the skills of Alex Cooper and Phil Docker who used Steve’s harmonies from the demo versions that were note for note perfect and the timing spot on…. and voila, he was going to be there and play his masterpiece live! I still can’t put into words how I felt that night with Steve ‘being present at his own tribute show’, I was there but wasn’t there. The event raised over £4,500 for his Memorial Fund that we donated to The Brain Tumour Charity.

But going back to Steve, my husband and friend, as an introvert and very private man, ‘fame’ was never the goal… maybe ‘fortune’ (lol)! His only wish was for us to live a comfortable and happy life. He loved songwriting, performing and recording… he disliked ‘personal attention’, partying and ‘the social side’ of being in a band. He would rather go for a walk in the countryside than attend parties, something he never did. He was a keen and knowledgeable ornithologist and an authority on the world of horror and Sci-fi movies and the owner of a vast film library. Apart from being an accomplished musician Steve was a happy go lucky guy who was confident in all that he did, he was a true gentleman and deeply loved. SHY fans tell me how he was always available to them for a chat at gigs, I have never heard a bad word spoken about him by anyone. I miss Steve every moment of every day because I know how awesome he was to be around and the void he has left is immeasurable. Steve wrote the song “Somebody” from “Welcome to the Madhouse” about me. We brought great joy to each other.

(written by his beloved wife Deb)

Highlights of Steve’s Career with SHY include:

• Signing a major record deal at the age of 19
• Playing his home city’s Birmingham Odeon Venue 5 times by the age of 21
• Fernandes sponsorship.
• Opening for the late great Gary Moore on the 1987 ‘Wild Frontiers’ tour, Gary being a massive inspiration.
• Being applauded from the side of the stage in Hamburg by another of his musical influences, Michael Schenker,
• Spending time with Bob Kulick at his Hollywood home after they met on the Meat Loaf ‘20:20’ Tour when SHY was support.
• Being praised by Brian May when SHY toured with Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson on the Hunter Ronson ‘YUI ORTA’ Tour.
• Recording “Excess All Areas” in Blaricum, Holland with producer Neil Kernon with songwriting prior to this in Los Angeles. I was able to get time off work and join him for a week in Holland, which was a wonderful experience for me… on one occasion we were out walking and bumped into Adrian Vandenberg, I was introduced and got a hand shake!

Tributes to Steve from Members of SHY at Steve’s Funeral:

Joe Basketts – Keyboards:

“I have always been completely in awe of Steve’s talent. His playing has it all for me – incredible speed, beautiful melody and emotion which transforms musical notes into something, which means much more. Sometimes it is so mesmerizing that it can send you into a kind of trance if you let it. When we were playing live, I had to train myself not to get too involved in Steve’s solos after one gig where, at the end of his solo, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten I was on stage and had stopped playing completely.

In his life, Steve managed to achieve a balance that not many of us manage. Strong willed without being aggressive, supremely talented but modest, decisive but not arrogant, knowledgeable but not conceited, Steve always had a clear vision about what he wanted, and enough respect to get it without having to ask twice. Despite being one of the quietest members of the band (except when he was playing), it was Steve’s opinion that everyone sought. If someone played a bum note it was always Steve, we looked at to see if he had noticed. And he always had. His eyes would briefly lock with yours and then he’d move on and that was enough, you didn’t do it again!

Steve was more than just a fellow musician to me. Kind, patient and excruciatingly funny, he was a great friend and a wonderful human being. I will miss him very much. His passing creates a huge hole in all of our lives, but the legacy he leaves behind is a lifetime of achievement that most musicians could not begin to aspire to. I consider myself very lucky to have been a tiny part of it.”

Roy Davis – Bass Guitar:

The early 80’s was a fantastic period for the Birmingham music scene, there were great venues and great bands. Word was spreading about a brilliant new young band that everyone was talking about… especially the guitar player… that band was SHY and the guitarist was a young kid called Steve.

I went to see the band at gig called Posers… a room above a pub in Erdington… all the rumours were right… the band were terrific and the guitarist was destined to become a rock “great”.

In those days Steve’s clothes and guitar were designed to merge as one, a brilliant image… but that’s all it was, image, because apart from his playing, which was outrageous, there was nothing flash about him what so ever…. he was, and stayed all is life, a truly humble, unassuming, genuine nice guy. There are not many people in this world… in fact I don’t know of one other, where no one… not one single person has got a bad word to say about them… Steve was the one!

Obviously, over the years I got to know Steve really well, when you’re on tour or spending months recording, you really do get know everyone’s little idiosyncrasies, all the little things that drive you mad… and honestly, he had none… in fact that was probably the thing that drove you mad! On tour, he was known as the band’s banker… the rest of the band would be spending money and he would quietly be saving his… we would run out and go to Steve for a loan until the end of the week… he didn’t moan… he laughed!

Over the years Steve’s reputation grew and grew and he was highly respected as a great player, but because the band never reached the heights that were expected, Steve’s fame never reached the heights it should have, and I have said on many occasions, if he had had any ego what so ever, any notion of self-promotion, he would have been more famous than many lesser players who have become household names.

In short, it has been a true privilege to be involved in the music and the life of a truly great human being

Bob Richards – Drums:

Steve’s solo’s were perfectly structured in melody dynamics and content, he spent many hours working them out, therefore they were exactly the same every time we did the show – and they were perfect to boot. I will always be grateful to Steve for asking me to be part of SHY for the past 10 years – I have worked with many world class musicians in my life and he was one of them – a truly humble and honest man.

Tony Mills (vocals):

Tony Mills was unable to attend Steve’s funeral, but he wrote this about Steve on Facebook:

I don’t suppose it’s widely known that Steve Harris was not only a talented musician, but he was also a keen ornithologist and a talented artist. Steve would take the opportunity wherever we were in the world to escape from the noise and choose the silence to study and achieve commendable drawings from his love of wildlife.

I still remember a story he told me from Denmark, where he was out in the… middle of nowhere in Denmark at Puk Studios, working with the talented producer, Simon Hanhart. On his day off, he took to the forests to pursue his art and found much to study. He told me he wandered quite a way and settled himself somewhere, and out of the blue came a guy with a shotgun, shouting about something he didn’t understand, but it seems he had wandered onto someone’s land and had to make a sharp exit!

In the UK, Europe and America, Steve crafted some wonderful examples of his ability. It would be great someday to see his work exhibited in one fashion or another. The world should see that. A talented hand, but in many more ways, than one. God bless him.

(Unfortunately, Tony Mills passed away on September 18th, 2019, at the age of 57, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in April 2019.

Lee Small – Vocals:

Rewind back to the mid 80’s, & the big ghetto blasters that used to play all those prized cassettes we all had.

Well, I had one back in the day and had a spell of buying all my albums on cassettes so I could play them on this monstrosity, taking it down the garden as I sunbathed in a ridiculous pair of tiny retro shorts & annoying my neighbours with my sounds whenever we had a rare bit of sun (Charles Hawtrey eat your heart out!).

My favourite tape back then was an album called “Excess all Areas” by a band called SHY, I think I must have worn it out, as It was played & played again, unravelling itself a million times along the way, which I used to carefully put back together with the aid of a pencil & the patience of a saint, till it was ready to go all over again.

It was one of the first albums I had heard that was playing tuneful very catchy commercial rock music, that would easily have fitted in on daytime radio, where rock music never got played much, a great compliment indeed to the writer of these songs.

To me apart from how very good the tunes were, the other thing that stood out by far was the wicked guitar playing, a kid called Steve Harris, who happened to be the songwriter too. He could make that guitar talk and had everything, from emotion, speed, all the flashy, fancy tricks under the sun, but most of all, he had feel. A special gift that comes from within, from the soul, which is priceless, as kids today won’t find that on any tuition DVD, no one can teach that.

I dreamt of becoming a guitar hero and sat trying to copy his guitar parts to pinch for myself, but failing miserably every time. Steve made it sound so easy, but really had a unique talent that was so hard to emulate, he had a special gift indeed. No books taught you to play Rock or Heavy Metal guitar back then, or especially how to play guitar solos, the only thing you would find on shelves in Music Shops would be Bob Dylan style folk chord sheet music, so this was a testament to how good a player this Bourneville kid was!

I remember seeing SHY play over the next couple of years live, blowing me away every time and Steve coming over on stage looking every bit the star he so rightly was, all the budding players in the room so envious indeed.

Over the coming years in desperation for a record deal, I used to imagine putting the best band I could together, picking the best players from the local music scene, like people do fantasy football teams now. Steve Harris would always be my number one choice as a guitar player, if only I could find him or contact him somehow, I would think.

So, let’s fast forward that old cassette player to 2006 and a chance email to SHY from myself about a vacancy for a new vocalist, I never imagined hearing anything back from such a great band, so when I did and got an audition I was buzzing. I was so nervous that I had to pop into a nearby pub to down a double brandy to steady my nerves before my audition, walking in trying to look unfazed by it all, but underneath I was shaking in my boots.

As I walked in, the first person to leap across the room holding out his hand to greet me was Steve Harris, I will never forget that gesture, everyone else soon followed. All went well and I landed the job I so desperately wanted. Two months later, in January 2007, we started writing for the new album. Steve had penned some amazing songs once again. I began travelling once a week to Steve & Deb’s home to work on melodies & lyrics, we bonded instantly, as we both shared a great passion for classic films, we were both so similar. We worked on songs for 3 hours and talked movies for another two! I would say to him “have you seen this film or that?”, and Steve out of nowhere would produce it, he had a massive film library, the ultimate DVD collection. I would leave for home each week with a big bag of DVDs to watch, then go home the next, with another one and so on.

It was a wonder I managed to write any lyrics at all, as all I did was watch horror movies.

When recording my parts for the album, Steve never missed a session, he was there every time supporting me. I don’t think I had ever met such a talented nice guy before, and probably never will again. He was so unique, and to all of us in SHY will always be remembered as a genius.

During 2011, I had to go back in the studio to repair vocals that had got lost when moving all the album files to Birmingham, Steve had become ill the year before & could no longer make it in anymore. His presence was noticeably missed by me, as in the past if he wasn’t sure with the line I had just delivered, he would ask me to try various ways of delivering it, until we found the right take, he was a true pro.

When working on his own parts, Steve would know them off by heart, he could play them with his eyes shut! So, when he went in to record, everyone knew he would nail it! Every time.

My memory of him is in Sable Row studios with engineer Andy Faulkner’s festival cowboy hat on! Or Steve sitting on the ledge Classic Rock mag in one hand, Sausage n’ Chips in the other! Lol… Rock n’ roll Indeed! Good times…

On stage, he was the true Rock Star. Throwing shapes and enjoying every minute of the set, it was an honour to be up there next to the talented man that was “My friend Steve Harris”.

A wonderful songwriter, a phenomenal guitar player, but most of all a beautiful human being. So humble, with no ego and almost felt uncomfortable when anyone complimented him, replying, “That’s very kind, thank you” and almost blushing.

Steve, wherever you are, it was such an honour to play a small part in your musical legacy. You have certainly left your mark in this world and I am sure in the years to come, some budding Steve Harris’ will be sticking on SHY records to learn your licks. The biggest honour by far for me, is knowing I was a friend of yours… I cannot thank you enough for everything, we all love you mate, until we all jam again, I will miss you my dear friend…

The Steve Harris (SHY) Memorial Fund:

After Steve’s passing, Deb set up The Steve Harris (SHY) Memorial Fund at The Brain Tumour Charity that raises funds by various means for research into Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) brain tumours. At the time of writing £35,520 has been raised. Deb said: “Steve has a platform and it’s my job to use it to raise awareness of brain tumours and support others who receive a GBM brain tumour diagnosis. It would be wrong not to”.

To donate to The Brain Tumour Charity in Steve’s memory click here.

Deb also runs a Facebook page to share memories of Steve, their everlasting love, his career with SHY and to raise awareness of the disease and to fundraise. Check out the FB page here.