The Small Faces were a British mod group formed in 1965 by Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston (who was soon replaced by Ian McLagan). Heavily influenced by American Rhythm and blues, they later evolved into one of the UK's most successful psychedelic acts before disbanding in 1969.Despite the fact that they were only together four years, the Small Faces' music output from the mid to late sixties remains amongst the most acclaimed British mod and psychedelic music of that era. All Music Guide refers to them as "The best English band never to make it big in America."The Small Faces were belatedly awarded the Ivor Novello Outstanding Contribution to British Music "Lifetime Achievement" award in 1996 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.
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At home in England, their career peaked with the classic psychedelic album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake in 1968, widely regarded today as an all-time classic, which featured an innovative round cover, the first of its kind, designed to resemble an antique tobacco tin. It stayed at number one in the UK Albums Chart for six weeks.The two-act Concept album consisted of five original songs on Side One and a whimsical psychedelic fairy tale on Side Two with the adventures of "Happiness Stan" and his need to find out where the moon went when it waned. It was narrated by Stanley Unwin, though 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 virtually impossible to recreate on the road.Ogden's was performed as a whole just once, memorably live in the studio on the BBC's television programme, Colour Me Pop.After several months of break-up rumours in the British press, Marriott officially quit the band at the beginning of 1969, walking off stage during a live New Years Eve gig. Citing frustration at their failure to break out of their pop image and their inability to reproduce the more sophisticated material properly on stage, Steve was already looking ahead to a new band, Humble Pie, with Peter Frampton. On the subject of the group's breakup, Kenney Jones, in an interview with John Hellier (2001), said:“ "I wish we had been a little bit more grown up at the time, if we had played Ogdens’ live it would have boosted our confidence so much, we were labelled as a pop band, which definitely got up Steve’s nose more than we realised. I wish we had been more like The Who in the fact that when they have problems they stick together until they’ve overcome them, Steve just thought well how do we top Ogdens’ and he was off. Ogdens’ was a masterpiece if we had played it live we would have gone on to even greater things, I reckon we were on the verge of crossing the great divide and becoming a heavier band. â€[12]A posthumous album, The Autumn Stone, was released later in the year, and included the major Immediate recordings, a rare live concert performance, and a number of previously unreleased tracks, including the classic Swinging Sixties instrumental "Wide Eyed Girl on the Wall" and "Donkey Rides, A Penny, A Glass", co-written by Ian McLagan. The final single, "Afterglow (Of Your Love)", was released in 1969 after the band had ceased to exist, with nobody to promote it, it only reached the UK Singles Chart Top 40.[edit] Post-breakup projects, reunion and legacy
Marriott's next venture was with the rock group Humble Pie formed with ex "Herd" member Peter Frampton. The group was a huge hit in the U.S., though not in the UK. They split in 1975 due to financial problems and good old 'musical differences' and Marriott later formed Packet of Three. After the Small Faces split, Lane, Jones and McLagan floundered briefly before joining forces with former members of the Jeff Beck Group, singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood. They released one album as 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 line-up 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). The group tried recording together again 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 and the others as a drunken tantrum. Nevertheless, McLagan, Jones and Marriott stayed together long enough, with ex-Humble Pie bassist Rick Wills taking Lane's place, to create two albums Playmates in 1977 and 78 In The Shade in 1978 released on Atlantic Records. Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch also briefly joined the line-up after leaving Wings. Paul McCartney, who had found McCulloch increasingly difficult to work with, allegedly phoned Marriott and said "You can have him." The absence of Lane's bass playing and songwriting however was all too noticeable, together with the fact that mainstream music in Britain was rapidly changing direction, punk rock was established around this time, and the reunion albums as a result, were both critical and commercial failures.Kenney Jones became the drummer in The Who after Keith Moon's death in 1978.[13] Ian McLagan went on to perform with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones and most recent Billy Bragg. In 1998 he published his autobiography All the Rage. He now lives in the small town of Manor (pronounced 'Maynor') just outside Austin, Texas.On Saturday, April 21, 1991 Steve Marriott died in his sleep when a fire , caused by a cigarette swept through his home in Essex, England,[14] tragically just a couple of days after beginning work on a new album in America with his former Humble Pie bandmate Peter Frampton.Ronnie Lane died at his home in Trinidad, Colorado, on June 4, 1997, after battling multiple sclerosis for nearly 20 years
