The Small Faces
Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Small Faces
- For the Scottish film, see Small Faces (film).
Origins
Steve Marriott was born and raised in the East End of London; he became a noted child actor and appeared as The Artful Dodger in an early London stage production of Oliver! and appeared in two films in his early teens, one with Peter Sellers.
Lane and Marriott met in their mid-teens in 1965 while Marriott was working at the J60 Music Bar in Manor Park; Lane came in with his father Stan to buy a bass guitar, struck up a conversation with Marriott, bought the bass and went back to Marriott's house after work to listen to records. The core of the band was born that afternoon and evening.
Recruiting friends Kenny Jones and organist Jimmy Winston (born Jimmy Langwith), they rapidly progressed from rehearsals to ramshackle pub gigs to semi-pro club dates, and while not yet the crack live outfit they became -- Marriott was still learning guitar -- his explosive, sandpapery soul-belter voice attracted rising attention. They were spotted by singer Elkie Brooks who was struck by Stevie's vocal prowess and recommended them to a local club owner, Maurice King. Impressed, he began finding them work in London and beyond.
They were kicked out of their first out-of-town gig -- a workingmen's club in Sheffield -- after only three songs. Despondent, they literally walked into the mod-oriented Mojo Club nearby, offered to perform for free and played a blistering set that had the locals screaming for more and started a strong buzz. During a crucial residency at Leicester Square Cavern, they were strongly supported by Sonny & Cher, who were living in London at the time and had first spotted them in Sheffield.
The band appeared in a 1965 adventure movie crime musical, called Dateline Diamonds, about their manager (Kenneth Cope) smuggling diamonds out of the country with the help of a former Army man (William Lucas). Some of the scenes were filmed on Radio London's boat. It was released as a supporting feature to Doctor in Clover, on 3rd April 1966.
The Decca years
They signed a management contract with impresario Don Arden and they were in turn signed to Decca Records for recording. They released a string of high-energy mod/soul singles on the label.
Their debut single was 1965's "What'cha Gonna Do About It", a Top15 hit. The follow-up, "I've Got Mine", failed to chart. Jimmy Winston was soon released from the band. Most common explanations for his dismissal are a clash of personalities with Marriott or a lack of musical talent, though rumours persist he was released at least in part because he compromised the band's integrity of image by being too tall. (Indeed, the group took their name from a remark by a female friend of Marriott's who noted that the band members had "small faces". The name stuck in part because of the mod slang usage of the word "face" to mean a popular, trendsetting individual.) Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan, whose keyboard talents and dimunitive stature fit with the groove of the band perfectly. The new line-up hit the charts with "Sha-La-La-La-Lee", a major hit in England. Their first album, Small Faces was a considerable success. They rapidly rose in popularity with each chart success, became regulars on British pop TV shows, and toured incessantly up and down the country. Their popularity peaked in August 1966 when "All or Nothing" hit the top of the UK charts, which proved to be their only Number One.
But by 1966, despite being one of the highest earning live acts in the country and scoring several Top 40 hits, the band had almost nothing to show for their efforts. After a messy confrontation with the notorious Arden (who tried to face down the boys' parents by claiming that the whole band were addicted to heroin) they broke with both Arden and Decca.
The Immediate years
They were almost immediately offered a deal with the newly formed Immediate label, formed by ex-Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Given a virtual open account at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, the band progressed rapidly, working closely with engineer Glyn Johns. Their first Immediate single was the daring "Here Comes The Nice", which was clearly influenced by their drug use, and (to the band's delight) managed to escape censorship despite the fact that it openly referred to speed (amphetamines). A second self-titled album followed which, if not a major seller, was very highly regarded by other musicians and would exert a strong influence on a number of bands both at home and abroad.
Their mid-1967 single "Itchycoo Park" (a satire on hippiedom) is one of their best-remembered songs and was a major hit in the United States. It was also the first British record to use phasing, an effect developed by Olympic engineer George Chkiantz in 1966. It was followed by the barnstorming soul-rock epic "Tin Soldier" (originally written by Marriott for singer P.P. Arnold); it remains one of their best-known singles and a fan favourite.
Their career peaked with the classic psychedelic LP Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake in 1968, which featured an innovative round cover, the first of its kind, designed to resemble an antique tobacco tin. The two-act LP consisted of five original songs on Side One and a whimsical psychedelic fairy tale on Side Two about the adventures of 'Happiness Stan'. It was narrated by Stanley Unwin, although original plans to have Spike Milligan narrating the album were dashed when he turned them down. Critics raved, and the album sold well, but they were confronted by the practical problem that they had created a studio masterpiece which was all but impossible to recreate on the road. The album did however yield another hit single: "Lazy Sunday", a bright and breezy music-hall style song which many years later was to inspire Blur's "Parklife", it was successful in spite of being released against the band's wishes.
Marriott abruptly quit the band at the beginning of 1969, frustrated at their failure to break out of their pop image and their inability to reproduce the more sophisticated material properly on stage, and already looking ahead to a new band, Humble Pie, with Peter Frampton. The last song released during the band's career was the folksy "The Universal" in the summer of 1968, recorded by adding studio overdubs to a basic track Marriott cut live in his back garden with acoustic guitar, taped on a home cassette recorder, complete with barking dog. Its subsequent lack of success in the charts (it reached number 16 in the UK Top 40) devastated Marriott, who then refused to write music for the following few months.
A posthumous album, Autumn Stone, was released later in the year, and included the major Immediate recordings, a rare concert performance, and a number of previously unreleased tracks, including the classic Swinging Sixties instrumental "Wide Eyed Girl on the Wall" and the frolicking "Donkey Rides, A Penny, A Glass", co-written by Ian McLagan. The final single, "Afterglow", was released in 1969 after the band had ceased to exist, and with nobody to promote it, it only just grazed the UK Top 40.
Lane, Jones and McLagan floundered briefly before joining forces with former Jeff Beck Group singer and guitarist Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. They released one LP as The Small Faces before becoming simply The Faces and later Rod Stewart & The Faces. Following the breakup of the Faces in 1975, the original Small Faces lineup reformed briefly to film videos miming to the reissued "Itchycoo Park" (a Top 10 hit for the second time), and "Lazy Sunday" (which went Top 40 again). The group tried recording again together but Lane left after an argument. Unknown to the others, he was just beginning to show the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, and his behaviour was misinterpreted by Marriott as a drunken tantrum.
Nevertheless McLagan, Jones and Marriott stayed together long enough, with ex-Humble Pie bassist Rick Wills taking Lane's place, for Playmates (1977) and 78 In The Shade (1978). Guitarist Jimmy McCullough also briefly joined the line-up after leaving Wings. Paul McCartney allegedly phoned Marriott and said "You can have him." The absence of Lane's bass playing and songwriting was all too noticeable, and the reunion albums were both critical and commercial failures. Nonetheless, their 1960s output remains among the most acclaimed British mod and psychedelia of its era, and despite the group's continued obscurity in the United States, the All Music Guide refers to them as "the best English band never to hit it big in America." [link]
UK Discography and Chart Positions
Singles
- "What'cha Gonna Do About It?", 6 August 1965, #14
- "I've Got Mine", 5 November 1965, did not chart
- "Sha-La-La-La-Lee", 28 January 1966, #3
- "Hey Girl", 10 May 1966, #10
- "All or Nothing", 5 August 1966, #1
- "My Mind's Eye", 11 November 1966, #4
- "I Can't Make It", 3 March 1967, #26
- "Patterns", 26 May 1967, did not chart
- "Here Come The Nice", 2 June 1967, #12
- "Itchycoo Park", 4 August 1967, #16
- "Tin Soldier", 2 December 1967, #9
- "Lazy Sunday", 5 April 1968, #2
- "The Universal", 28 June 1968, #16
- "Afterglow (of Your Love)", 7 March 1969, #36
Albums
- Small Faces (Decca), 1966
- From the Beginning (Decca), 1967
- Small Faces (Immediate), 1967
- Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (Immediate), 1968
- The Autumn Stone (Immediate), 1969
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.