Next to The WHO, Brit invasion combo SMALL FACES were England’s best-loved mod act of the mid-to-late 60s, all four faces Steve Marriott (vocals and guitar), Ronnie Lane (bass), Ian McLagan (keyboards), and Kenney Jones (drums) all as went known after the band’s first split (late ’68) as they were in their mod-cum-psychedelic heyday. If one was to pick out three or four classics from glory days, one would have to pick `Sha-La-La-La-Lee’, `All Or Nothing’, `Itchycoo Park’ and `Lazy Sunday’; all Top 5 hits, the latter one of the many gems from their ambitious chart-topping concept set, OGDENS’ NUT GONE FLAKE.
Formed in East London in mid 1965, by Pioneers alumni Ronnie Lane and Kenney Jones, the pair invited like-minded R&B fans Jimmy Winston (on organ) and soulful frontman Steve Marriott (a former child actor who’d played the role of the Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart’s stage musical, Oliver!) into the fold.
After a successful residency at Leicester Square’s Cavern Club, the stylish SMALL FACES were snapped up by manager Don Arden, who prised out a deal at Decca Records. As potential usurpers to The WHO’s mod crown, the quartet’s debut single `Whatcha Gonna Do About It’ (penned by producer Ian Samwell but procuring guitar riffs via SOLOMON BURKE’s `Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’) cracked the Top 20. With its roughshod R&B and amid the ensuing attention the band received (although a second group-penned 45, `I’ve Got Mine’ flopped), Winston was kicked out after shamelessly trying to promote himself as the lynchpin of the group; all four were seen promoting the song in the crime movie, Dateline Diamonds. Ian McLagan was drafted in as a replacement, the band smashed into the Top 3 with the Kenny Lynch/Mort Shuman-scribed `Sha-La-La-La-Lee’. Despite the cliched boy-meets-girl lyric, the record was a wildly exhilarating rush of amphetamine pop and suddenly SMALL FACES were big news.
After another Top 10 single (`Hey Girl’) and a critically acclaimed eponymous Top 3 debut album, SMALL FACES (1966) {*7}, the band were being mentioned in the same breath as The BEATLES and The ROLLING STONES. Indeed, in August ‘66 they deposed the Fab Four’s `Eleanor Rigby’ at the top of the charts with `All Or Nothing’. The album itself was made up of group compositions (including the part-template for LED ZEPPELIN’s “Whole Lotta Love”, `You Need Loving’, a re-working of a similarly-named WILLIE DIXON cut), a handful of Kenny Lynch numbers and a SAM COOKE cover, `Shake’. Pity then, it didn’t include the group’s fifth Top 10 entry, the pseudo-psychedelic and WHO-like `My Mind’s Eye’, or indeed, its lowly-placed follow-up `I Can’t Make It’ or flop parting gift to Decca, `Patterns’, a track thought not worthy of inclusion on odds and ends collection, FROM THE BEGINNING (1967) {*7}; check it out for all their five hits, plus `My Way Of Giving’, `That Man’ and covers of DEL SHANNON’s `Runaway’, DON COVAY’s `Take This Hurt Off Me’, SMOKEY ROBINSON’s `You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’ and Holland-Dozier-Holland groovy cut `Baby Don’t You Do It’.
Come spring ‘67, the SMALL FACES had already signed up with Andrew Loog-Oldham’s Immediate stable of stars (P.P. ARNOLD and The NICE were two other acts on the roster), releasing `Here Come The Nice’. The single marked a change in direction and, in keeping with the times, was vaguely psychedelic. After a similarly adventurous second album proper, that bore a decidedly unadventurous title yet again (SMALL FACES (1967) {*8}), the band released arguably their most well-known track, the slightly twee, deeply dippy `Itchycoo Park’. Unceremoniously missing from the said set, the trippy LSD-infused record had moments of sharp tunes (re-vamped versions of `(Tell Me) Have You Seen Me’ and `My Way Of Giving’ rolling over from the aforementioned and clashing compilation) courtesy of vaudevillian `All Our Yesterdays’, `Green Circles’, the sleepy `Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire’ and `Something I Want To Tell You’.
Next up came the abrasive `Tin Soldier’ Top 10 hit (one of a handful on US-only LP, THERE ARE BUT FOUR SMALL FACES (1968) {*7}), after which the band began working on their psychedelic masterpiece, OGDENS’ NUT GONE FLAKE (1968) {*9}. An engaging blend of trippy R&B and cockney charm, the album’s influence was far reaching and it gets re-issued with the same tireless regularity as the OCEAN “WELLER” SCENE namedrop the band. Once again, SMALL FACES would omit a hit single, this time `The Universal’ not making the grade. Housed in a tobacco box-like sleeve, the concept album was split into two sides, the first opening with their instrumental title track and followed by belated posthumous Top 40 hit `Afterglow (Of Your Love)’. Marriott’s cockney/barra-boy swagger on the stage-musical-like `Rene’ and smash hit, `Lazy Sunday’ were quintessential cuts balanced by the rolling R&B soul of `Song Of A Baker’. Side two (entitled after its starting track, `Happiness Stan’) was marked by the hit-or-miss link-ups to South African-born/British-based “gobbledegook” comic, Stanley Unwin. Without these intro intrusions of mind-warp, songs such as `Rollin’ Over’, `The Hungry Intruder’, `Mad John’ and its cockney counterpart sing-a-long `HappyDaysToyTown’ (think KEITH MOON fronting Monty Python), the record just might’ve earned a bit of respect in the foreboding American market.
Timeless as it was, “Ogdens” (or indeed “Unwins”) proved to be the SMALL FACES’ swansong, the band split, with STEVE MARRIOTT flouncing off to form HUMBLE PIE before embarking on a solo career. With a couple of covers from folkie TIM HARDIN (`If I Were A Carpenter’ and `Red Balloon’) and one from Ed Cobb (`Every Little Bit Hurts’), SMALL FACES departed on a high note via double-lp compilation, THE AUTUMN STONE (1969) {*7}. Meanwhile, Jones, Lane and McLagan ditched the psychedelic overtones, recruited RONNIE WOOD and ROD STEWART, re-billing the band The FACES – lad-rock was born here!
There was a SMALL FACES reunion in 1976 (Rick Wills superseding the solo RONNIE LANE), initially only to mime videos for both hit re-issues of `Itchycoo Park’ and `Lazy Sunday’. Although the band had a deal with Atlantic Records, no commercial success was forthcoming on funky soul sets, PLAYMATES (1977) {*3} – featuring a cover of `Lookin’ For A Love’ – and 78 IN THE SHADE (1978) {*4}; the latter was highlighted by some guitar work from the late Jimmy McCulloch who died of a heroin overdose a year later aged 26.
Jones went on to join The WHO, while Marriott re-formed HUMBLE PIE, but any chances of a further reunion were dealt a fatal blow in April 1991 when he was the tragic victim in a fire at his Essex home. After a respectable, if hardly commercial solo career, RONNIE LANE finally succumbed to multiple sclerosis in 1997. A sad end for two pioneering musicians who, through both SMALL FACES and The FACES, heavily influenced the course of popular music; stand up BLUR, PULP, OASIS, PRIMAL SCREAM, The BLACK CROWES, etc.
Having trod the boards as a solo artist and seasoned session player (from The ROLLING STONES to BILLY BRAGG, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, et al), McLAGAN met his maker on 3rd December 2014 after suffering a stroke.
Formed in East London in mid 1965, by Pioneers alumni Ronnie Lane and Kenney Jones, the pair invited like-minded R&B fans Jimmy Winston (on organ) and soulful frontman Steve Marriott (a former child actor who’d played the role of the Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart’s stage musical, Oliver!) into the fold.
After a successful residency at Leicester Square’s Cavern Club, the stylish SMALL FACES were snapped up by manager Don Arden, who prised out a deal at Decca Records. As potential usurpers to The WHO’s mod crown, the quartet’s debut single `Whatcha Gonna Do About It’ (penned by producer Ian Samwell but procuring guitar riffs via SOLOMON BURKE’s `Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’) cracked the Top 20. With its roughshod R&B and amid the ensuing attention the band received (although a second group-penned 45, `I’ve Got Mine’ flopped), Winston was kicked out after shamelessly trying to promote himself as the lynchpin of the group; all four were seen promoting the song in the crime movie, Dateline Diamonds. Ian McLagan was drafted in as a replacement, the band smashed into the Top 3 with the Kenny Lynch/Mort Shuman-scribed `Sha-La-La-La-Lee’. Despite the cliched boy-meets-girl lyric, the record was a wildly exhilarating rush of amphetamine pop and suddenly SMALL FACES were big news.
After another Top 10 single (`Hey Girl’) and a critically acclaimed eponymous Top 3 debut album, SMALL FACES (1966) {*7}, the band were being mentioned in the same breath as The BEATLES and The ROLLING STONES. Indeed, in August ‘66 they deposed the Fab Four’s `Eleanor Rigby’ at the top of the charts with `All Or Nothing’. The album itself was made up of group compositions (including the part-template for LED ZEPPELIN’s “Whole Lotta Love”, `You Need Loving’, a re-working of a similarly-named WILLIE DIXON cut), a handful of Kenny Lynch numbers and a SAM COOKE cover, `Shake’. Pity then, it didn’t include the group’s fifth Top 10 entry, the pseudo-psychedelic and WHO-like `My Mind’s Eye’, or indeed, its lowly-placed follow-up `I Can’t Make It’ or flop parting gift to Decca, `Patterns’, a track thought not worthy of inclusion on odds and ends collection, FROM THE BEGINNING (1967) {*7}; check it out for all their five hits, plus `My Way Of Giving’, `That Man’ and covers of DEL SHANNON’s `Runaway’, DON COVAY’s `Take This Hurt Off Me’, SMOKEY ROBINSON’s `You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’ and Holland-Dozier-Holland groovy cut `Baby Don’t You Do It’.
Come spring ‘67, the SMALL FACES had already signed up with Andrew Loog-Oldham’s Immediate stable of stars (P.P. ARNOLD and The NICE were two other acts on the roster), releasing `Here Come The Nice’. The single marked a change in direction and, in keeping with the times, was vaguely psychedelic. After a similarly adventurous second album proper, that bore a decidedly unadventurous title yet again (SMALL FACES (1967) {*8}), the band released arguably their most well-known track, the slightly twee, deeply dippy `Itchycoo Park’. Unceremoniously missing from the said set, the trippy LSD-infused record had moments of sharp tunes (re-vamped versions of `(Tell Me) Have You Seen Me’ and `My Way Of Giving’ rolling over from the aforementioned and clashing compilation) courtesy of vaudevillian `All Our Yesterdays’, `Green Circles’, the sleepy `Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire’ and `Something I Want To Tell You’.
Next up came the abrasive `Tin Soldier’ Top 10 hit (one of a handful on US-only LP, THERE ARE BUT FOUR SMALL FACES (1968) {*7}), after which the band began working on their psychedelic masterpiece, OGDENS’ NUT GONE FLAKE (1968) {*9}. An engaging blend of trippy R&B and cockney charm, the album’s influence was far reaching and it gets re-issued with the same tireless regularity as the OCEAN “WELLER” SCENE namedrop the band. Once again, SMALL FACES would omit a hit single, this time `The Universal’ not making the grade. Housed in a tobacco box-like sleeve, the concept album was split into two sides, the first opening with their instrumental title track and followed by belated posthumous Top 40 hit `Afterglow (Of Your Love)’. Marriott’s cockney/barra-boy swagger on the stage-musical-like `Rene’ and smash hit, `Lazy Sunday’ were quintessential cuts balanced by the rolling R&B soul of `Song Of A Baker’. Side two (entitled after its starting track, `Happiness Stan’) was marked by the hit-or-miss link-ups to South African-born/British-based “gobbledegook” comic, Stanley Unwin. Without these intro intrusions of mind-warp, songs such as `Rollin’ Over’, `The Hungry Intruder’, `Mad John’ and its cockney counterpart sing-a-long `HappyDaysToyTown’ (think KEITH MOON fronting Monty Python), the record just might’ve earned a bit of respect in the foreboding American market.
Timeless as it was, “Ogdens” (or indeed “Unwins”) proved to be the SMALL FACES’ swansong, the band split, with STEVE MARRIOTT flouncing off to form HUMBLE PIE before embarking on a solo career. With a couple of covers from folkie TIM HARDIN (`If I Were A Carpenter’ and `Red Balloon’) and one from Ed Cobb (`Every Little Bit Hurts’), SMALL FACES departed on a high note via double-lp compilation, THE AUTUMN STONE (1969) {*7}. Meanwhile, Jones, Lane and McLagan ditched the psychedelic overtones, recruited RONNIE WOOD and ROD STEWART, re-billing the band The FACES – lad-rock was born here!
There was a SMALL FACES reunion in 1976 (Rick Wills superseding the solo RONNIE LANE), initially only to mime videos for both hit re-issues of `Itchycoo Park’ and `Lazy Sunday’. Although the band had a deal with Atlantic Records, no commercial success was forthcoming on funky soul sets, PLAYMATES (1977) {*3} – featuring a cover of `Lookin’ For A Love’ – and 78 IN THE SHADE (1978) {*4}; the latter was highlighted by some guitar work from the late Jimmy McCulloch who died of a heroin overdose a year later aged 26.
Jones went on to join The WHO, while Marriott re-formed HUMBLE PIE, but any chances of a further reunion were dealt a fatal blow in April 1991 when he was the tragic victim in a fire at his Essex home. After a respectable, if hardly commercial solo career, RONNIE LANE finally succumbed to multiple sclerosis in 1997. A sad end for two pioneering musicians who, through both SMALL FACES and The FACES, heavily influenced the course of popular music; stand up BLUR, PULP, OASIS, PRIMAL SCREAM, The BLACK CROWES, etc.
Having trod the boards as a solo artist and seasoned session player (from The ROLLING STONES to BILLY BRAGG, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, et al), McLAGAN met his maker on 3rd December 2014 after suffering a stroke.