Thursday, April 21, 2005

Crackle and Pop 2

Small Faces



The Small Faces have sometimes been overlooked as one of the premier mod bands of the sixties, but they have been given their dues in this recent NME Originals on Mods. (For all things mod visit here!)
After The Who they were my favourite mod band and were a particular favourite of teenage girls everywhere due to there boyish good looks. (Steve Marriots trademark centre parting hairstyle was requested in many gents barbers!)
They had a string of excellent hits, fab clothes and groovy shoes, but were plagued by label problems that didn’t help their career and led to Steve Marriot leaving to join Peter Frampton in Humble Pie (bad, bad, move). The rest of them joined up with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood (both pinched from Jeff Becks group, he was not amused) to form The Faces, the ultimate good time band.
The Small Faces don't have much of a web presence, but a decent fan site can be found here, and Ian McClagan has his own website with stories pictures etc.
There is now at long last a cd collection that does them justice. “The Ultimate Collection” available from Amazon.uk, and (at a price) Amazon.com.

A favourite of mine is "I Feel Much Better” the “b” side to 1967's “Tin Soldier” Both tracks benefiting from the backing vocals of P.P. Arnold. (Who had a major hit of her own with “First Cut is the Deepest”). I think this was bought cheap after it had charted from the bargain bin of the local department store, the way I obtained most of my vinyl!

I Feel Much Better (mp3/vinyl rip/mono)

3 Comments:

At 4:42 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! That was great! Went straight out to Amazon.com (US) and found a much cheaper copy (only $18 instead of $38) and ordered it!
I've always loved these guys! Used to play in a band that played "Song Of a Baker" and "Rollin' Over" (imagine that for a Dallas band in the early 70's)! And actually sat down with the guitarist in the band and learned ALL of "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake".

Thanks for reminding me what I've been missing!

 
At 7:35 am, Blogger Wastedpapiers said...

Thanks for this. Always good to hear the Small faces. A friend of mine bought an old church hall in the middle of the Essex countryside back in the 70's near Ongar and was delighted to find his neighbour was none other than Steve Marriot! He never got invited round for tea though. Infact he hardly ever saw him as he was mostly away on tour.

 
At 1:40 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

cheers man,great fan of steves .Ogden,one of the all time greats.any merchandise on the market of the SF,s t-shirts etc

 

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