Small Faces

The Small faces. 4 outstanding studio albums and gone. There's been noone like them since. The 2 Immediate albums are the pick but everyone needs to own all 4 plus the post split Autumn Stone compilation and rarities.

This is an incredibly underrated and influential band. They were the first "mod" group, which later gave birth to the manchester brit pop movements. You wouldn't have bands like The Jam, Oasis, Stone Roses, or The Smiths if these guys didn't pave the way first. They may have existed, but they would appear different or appear later in history. Steve Marriot is THE greatest white singer when it comes to soul and R&B. He's like the white James Brown, and this shows more in Humble Pie, the band he made after Small Faces split. Listen to "You Need Loving" from their first album and you will see exactly where Robert Plant from Led Zepplein got most of his influence. Whole Lotta Love is very close to a straight ripoff of this song (which is turn, a cover of Willie Dixons's song he wrote for Muddy Waters, but Steve Marriot made it his own). This band may seem like a copy cat of all the other hit 60's bands at first, but they truly were unique and have that particular feel that just works like the Beatles or the Who. It's just a certain groove that works and just feels genuine despite the simplicity of some of the songs. They were just as heavy as the Who were. If they got together just 1 year earlier and stayed together instead of breaking up in 69' they would have been as big as The Who or the Stones.

Due to a typo the band were was shown as The Small Faece on a concert flier, there were useless that night

When Steve Marriott in late 1968 decided to leave the Small Faces and the group subsequently disbanded, they had already begun recordings for the successor to their legendary masterpiece "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake".

"The Autumn Stone" became to some extent this successor, and the album which was originally a double album, contains some of these “post-ONGF” recordings. The album that was first released in 1969 by Immediate and never approved by the group members was a mixture of old and new - demos and live recordings.

Immediate had obtained a license to include the group's big hits for Decca such as "All or Nothing", "My Mind's Eye" and "Whatcha Gonna Do About it." The later Immediate hits were naturally also obvious choices for such a release, but most interesting were, of course, the previously unreleased songs, some of which presumably would have been found on what would have been the group's third studio album for Immediate. These include for an exciting interpretation of Tim Hardin's "Red Balloon" and Steve Marriott's own "The Autumn Stone" - both tracks show the group on their way in new directions - more subdued and complex melodies.

"Call it Something Nice" is a classic Small Faces at its best. Instrumental tracks "Collibosher" and "Wide Eyed Girl on the Wall" are fine numbers, for which vocals may have been intended. The singles "The Universal" and "Wham Bam Thank You Mam" also have been the logical inclusions on the album. On some CD re-releases the B-side "Donkey Rides a Penny a Glass" is included.

It seems that there are still unreleased recodings with the group, including a cover of "Be My Baby" and a version of "Groovy" with Steve Marriott lead-vocals. This is a song group also recorded with PP Arnold for her debut album.