23: Faces, Small Faces, and Humble Pie

In music, it’s not uncommon that many bands are intertwined with others. When bands toured in the beginning there are normally two or three others that are on the same local circuit. Like most people who are into the same hobbies, you befriend them. This is one of those stories where not only one of the bands became popular but the two bands that were formed from the breakup of the first were also successful. This week the Beat Marches On to 8th March 1969 when the Small Faces officially break up.

It’s not uncommon for bands to do this. You would often find the bass player from band x is now in band y or the guitarist from band y has now gone to perform with band z. A lot of the time the bands do not improve. But the other two bands that formed out of the demise of The Small Faces, proved more successful. The best way for me to describe this is to break down and talk about the bands individually.     

The Small Faces

Whilst active the Small Faces were one of the biggest bands around in the UK. Formed in the mid-1960s as a four-piece in London, they led the way in the Mod movement along with fellow London band The Who.

They were formed in a music shop when singer Steve Marriott met Ronnie Lane who was buying a new guitar for his current band and was looking for a new singer. Marriott volunteered his services as he was looking for a new band after his previous couple stumbled at the blocks. The two were joined by drummer Kenney Jones and organist Jimmy Winston who was later to be replaced by Ian McLagen.  

After a couple of duds their third and breakout single, “All or Nothing” went to number one on the UK charts. Using the momentum from the new-found success of the band the record label wanted a follow-up single quickly so when asked manager Don Arden gave the label an unfinished demo for them to release as a single. The band were angry because the song wasn’t finished and was given to the label without their permission. They decided to start looking elsewhere for management.

They went looking for a new manager in 1967 after severing ties with Arden. They went looking in the direction of Rolling Stones producer and one-time manager Andrew “Loog” Oldham who had just launched a new record label called Immediate.

Oldham agreed to manage the band and signed them to his label. Immediately there was a difference. Their touring schedule significantly decreased (they were performing up to three concerts a night under Arden) this allowed the band to experiment in the studio which was becoming the norm with the new wave of psychedelic-style music.

The change worked for the Small Faces as they produced another hit. The song “Itchycoo Park” didn’t do as well as “All or Nothing” but still peaked at number three in the UK charts. Heavily influenced by the psychedelic sounds of Cream and Jimi Hendrix, the band didn’t like the single at first due to it not representing the band’s sound.

During the summer of 1967, the world of popular music changed when The Beatles released Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was a concept album, and nothing had been done like this before. After its release, many bands tried to imitate and create their own version of the album. The Small Faces were one of these acts to copy them and they did to critical and commercial acclaim. They released Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (ONGF) in 1968. It was recorded over five months and used at least four different studios (maybe more but there’s no evidence)

Although the success of ONGF made the band ever popular in the UK the band couldn’t break into the American market because of the obscure English references in the album. This was strange because similar British bands such as The Kinks and The Who were successful across the pond during this period. The lack of international success started to bring tensions within the band.

The band again started to become distant with their manager Andrew Oldham as again a single was released without their permission. This time it was a single that was claimed to be a joke recording called “Lazy Sunday”. It did peak at number two in the UK, but the band didn’t like the betrayal.  

As the summer of love came to an end the tensions were getting unbearable. Wanting to bring in a second guitarist Marriott was constantly arguing with the band. He had befriended a young guitarist from a teen pop group called The Herd called Peter Frampton who wanted to be taken more seriously as a musician. The rest of the band rejected the addition of a second guitarist and Marriott started to get more distant from the group.

On New Year’s Eve 1968 Marriott left the band mid-way through an instrumental jam of Lazy Sunday at the Alexandra Palace. By March 1969, the Small Faces were no more.

Humble Pie 

Marriott wanted to play with Frampton one way or another and decided if his band didn’t want him then the frontman would leave and go into Frampton’s new band. So, he did. He knew that Frampton was forming a new band and called him to see if he could join him. Frampton accepted and along with Greg Ridley on bass and Jerry Shirley on drums, they formed Humble Pie.

Frampton’s vision of the band was to be a heavy blues band. He had the idea after he was introduced to the first side of an album by a new band, Led Zeppelin by his friend record producer John Glyn.   

The band rehearsed and practised in Marriott’s cottage for a few months before going on tour in the USA. During this tour, the band’s record label, Immediate (the same label that the Small Faces were signed to) went bankrupt. Not a great start for a band about to release their first single.

They hired a new manager Dee Anthony who was known to have ties to the mafia. He signed the band to a new label, A and M Records, and got the band to tour more than the record. The result of touring helped the band have their most successful release with Performance: Rocking the Filmore, which was a live performance from the famous venue in San Francisco.  

Marriott said he would take a back seat as this is Frampton’s band but with his powerful vocal performance, the limelight was thrust onto Marriott. This started to frustrate Frampton and they wouldn’t last long together. By 1971 Frampton left the band to pursue a solo career not long after the Filmore album release.

They bought in David “Clem” Clempson to replace Frampton and carried on but never got back to the heights of the Filmore album. As they continued throughout the early 1970s the band, especially Marriott, was wondering where the money was.

Starting to get suspicious Marriott was publicly blaming the band’s manager Dee Anthony for funnelling the earnings from Humble Pie to support Frampton’s solo which he also managed. This made Anthony upset. So, upset that he decided to pick up the singer and take him to a meeting. The meeting was a Gambino family meeting, one of the five mafia families in New York with future Don John Gotti in attendance. Marriott was quiet following the meeting.

 Although the record sales never matched those of the performance album there were some highlights for Humble Pie post-Frampton. Supporting Grand Funk Railroad in Hyde Park in London and the Shea Stadium in New York as well as blowing Alice Cooper off the stage in his hometown.

However, the live performances were not enough for the band to continue. The drug abuse of all members of the band, especially Marriott, was taking its toll and poor album performances on the chart made the record label give up on them. By 1975 the band was finished. Marriott still kept touring throughout the rest of the 1970s and 1980s but never reached the same heights as Humble Pie. His life came to an untimely end in 1991 when he fell asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand which set his cottage alight.  

The Faces

Once officially broke up, the rest of the Small Faces were caught in a difficult position. The rest of the band wanted to play together but knew the band wasn’t the same without Steve Marriott. They did release a single after he left but it didn’t do well in the charts. They needed a powerful singer again.

After forming in 1967 The Jeff Beck Group had split up just before the Woodstock festival in 1969. An action was later regretted by Beck after the success of the festival as the band were scheduled to play there. The remaining two permanent members of the band, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood were left in the wind by Beck’s decision.

Rod Stewart decided to make a solo album called “An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down” which is often a forgotten effort other than the song “Handbags and Gladrags” which was covered and featured the on hit UK show The Office. Stewart had Wood play guitar on the album and needed someone to play the piano and organ parts. Looking for work he brought in Ian McLagen.

McLagen convinced Wood and Stewart to join the rest of the remnants of the Small Faces to form a new iteration of the band. This time they dropped the “small” aspect from their name (Stewart and Wood were taller than Marriott and the other members of the band) and they started performing as The Faces.

The finished product became successful. Described as a dirty rock n roll band, a reputation they had on and off stage, they took a while to get chart recognition. The first couple of album releases failed to chart in the UK and US top 100 charts.

While in the band Rod Stewart was still pursuing a solo career and released a second solo album between the Face’s second and third albums. “Every Picture Tells a Story” launched Stewart’s career and featured Wood on the album and uncredited performances by the rest of the Faces. The single “Maggie May” launched Stewart’s career to new heights.

Rolling off the back of Stewart’s new solo success, the Faces released their third album “A Nod is as Good as a Wink…To a Blind Horse” which became the band’s best performance commercially peaking at number two and number six in the UK and USA, respectively. The single “Stay with Me” helped with the commercial success.

After the success of the previous album, there was a lull in productivity for the Faces. With Stewarts’ solo projects being more in demand than the band, frustrations were starting to grow. The next album “Ooh La La” was begrudgingly made two years after A Nod is as Good as a Wink” album and was mostly Ronnie Lane compositions. Shortly after the release, Lane quit the band forming Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance. Lane was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1977 and kept touring for 21 years.

They toured the album for the next 18 months with Japanese bassist Tetsu Yamauchi filling in for Lane. Critically the album was panned but did reach number one on the UK album chart off the back of Stewart’s solo career. With the singer’s solo career getting more popular with every release the writing was on the wall. The single “Ooh la la” became a fan favourite and has been used in film soundtracks in the last 20 years.  

In 1975 Stewart announced the band had split after Ronnie Wood had replaced Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones. Weirdly Wood was going up against Steve Marriott in the audition. Rumour has it that Wood only got the gig because Marriott had a better singing voice than Stones singer Mick Jagger and was scared the limelight would be taken away.

The Faces did reunite for a couple of reunion gigs in 2009 without Stewart and Lane. They had Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall and ex-Rolling Stone bass player Bill Wyman replacing them. The last time any played together was in 2014 when Stewart, Wood and Jones played together at the singer’s private 70th birthday party.

      The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for three years specialising in Sports(especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987

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The websites used for research were:

Small Faces | Biography & History | AllMusic

Humble Pie: the story of quarrels, cocaine and unfulfilled potential | Louder (loudersound.com)

Rod Stewart band: Why did Faces break up? | Music | Entertainment | Express.co.uk

There is a video on Amazon Prime Video about Steve Marriott called Humble Pie: The Life and Times of Steve Marriott. 

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