Sunday 4 March 2012

Small Faces 4 classic album deluxe reissues ... (and the best gig I never went to.)


On May 7th Universal Music will be releasing deluxe editions of four Small Faces studio albums. Namely Small Faces (Decca 1966), From The Beginning (Decca 1967), Small Faces (Immediate 1967) and the classic Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Immediate 1968). All releases will be expanded into 2-disc editions (3 in the case of Ogden's).

There are people who claim The Small Faces to be a greatest band of the '60s, better than The Who, The Rolling Stones and even The Beatles. These people mostly populate the Medway towns though so such claims should be taken with a contrary pinch of salt.

(Click over the jump for more on The Small Faces and the best gig I never went to)
News of these reissues set me reminiscing back to 1989/1990 when my pal Steve and, full of youthful enthusiasm and just into confident legal drinking age would venture out onto the mean streets of Hull in search of live music and cheap beer. Our main haunt being the legendary Adelphi Club. On the nights when their billing held little appeal we would venture down to The Jailhouse on Norfolk Street. They had a great resident band that played what would later be termed dad-rock, but played it so well and in such a lovely setting that we kept returning. The club later became The Blue Lamp, and is nowadays simply The Lamp. I mention this because Steve Marriott, ex-singer of The Small Faces, Humble Pie, and a genuine musical legend would regularly play solo gigs at this venue. In fact he played so often that we never got round to actually going there to see him, thinking (wrongly as it turned out) that we could always catch him again a few months down the line.

In April 1991 Steve Marriott tragically died in a house fire. The Jailhouse changed hands around this time too, had was refurbished and never quite the same. So we never did get to see him play live. A fact I regret to this day. It ranks up there with not going to see The White Stripes at Bridlington Spa 15 years later. But that's another story.

I look forward to these reissues though, and maybe the good folks of Medway have a point. Take a listen to the four songs below on the widget to see why your record collection needs The Small Faces.

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