Steve Marriott was the
eternal street kid, the ‘spitting image’ token cockney, even as a
teenager! After his stage debut in the West End musical
‘Oliver’ and appearances in early black and white episodes of
‘The Famous Five’ he was chucked out of school (for setting fire
to it!) Subsequently your Steve spent more time listening
to Alexis Korner’s record collection - and sleeping on his couch -
than coming to terms with any career move. Eventually, after a
spell with his band, ‘The Moments’, he formed ‘The Small
Faces’ with a music shop acquaintance, Ronnie Lane, drummer Kenney
Jones and organ grinder Jimmy Winston who had far more road
qualification than musical ones - he owned a van! (He was
soon replaced by Ian McLagan).
The Small Faces first
success was the mod-soul ‘Watcha Gonna Do ‘bout It’, followed by
‘Sha-la-la Lee’. For three years, a career with
wonderful singles continued, ‘All Or Nothing’, ‘Here Come The
Nice’, ‘Itchycoo Park’, ‘Tin Soldier’ etc. and live
appearances based on rhythm and blues, mod image and smashed hotel
rooms!
When their legendary,
chart topping, concept album ‘Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake’, complete
with in-between-track banter by cockney compere Stanley Unwin, could
not be reproduced on stage, the Small Faces realised that they had
treated studio and stage separately for too long and to make matters
worse, they were seen as one hit wonders in the States, which they
never cracked.
Disillusioned, Steve
Marriott left the Small Faces, who would soon enlist Rod Stewart and
Ron Wood. In January 1969, Steve joined Humble Pie which
he had initially helped Peter Frampton to form as a trio with
ex-Spooky Tooth member, Greg Ridley and young Jerry Shirley.
Far from having lost his
idealistic view on music making in general, the new outfit started to
work on loads of songs and sounds in Steve’s country cottage in
Essex. Two albums worth of material were recorded, hard
rock stuff with Faces stage character as well as acoustic numbers in
the vein of the Small Faces final release. ‘The Autumn Stone’.
When Steve was finally brought out of old contracts, stuff began to be
released on, Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham’s ‘Immediate
label’.
Humble Pie first had a
hit with ‘Natural Born Bugie’ then two albums appeared, the
harder, ‘As Safe As Yesterday Is’ and the more acoustic ‘Town
And Country’. Concerts were legendary for their
Springsteen-like length, the wealth of material was presented in a
quieter, country half and a toe-tapping ‘Town’ finale.
Humble Pie’s appearances in Amsterdam’s ‘Paradiso’ built their
reputation on the European circuit.
