Friday 14th December

Ah, the Faces were THE band, for a while at least in the early seventies they were where it was at.  I saw them twice in concert, though I was a bit pissed both times, which considering the amount of alcohol the Faces consumed both on and off stage was probably the best way to see them.  Bands were much more fluid in those days, with personnel changing sometimes with each album.  The Small Faces had been very successful in the late 60’s but when Stevie Marriott left to become a superstar (or so he hoped) the band was left without a singer, even though Ronnie Lane wasn’t half bad.  In stepped Rod Stewart, almost unknown at the time and he was joined by Ronnie Wood, also practically unheard of, to beef up the guitar sound.  Well they transformed the band from fey whimsical popsters into a real good-time rock’n’roll band; the best in the land.  On record they never quite nailed it (spending too much time in the pub and not enough in the studio), although singles ‘Stay with Me’ and ‘Ooh La La’ were pretty good, but live they were unrivalled.  Rod, before signing with the band had also signed a solo record deal with a different record company and he fulfilled both obligations, so we had a series of Faces and Rod albums coming out in quick succession, and they were really all Faces albums as the same musicians played on everything from ‘First Steps’ to ‘Smiler’.  Eventually Rod became the biggest superstar in the world and just as the band were floundering Ronnie Lane started playing with the Stones.  Kenny Jones took over drums with the Who when Moonie died, and Ronnie Lane succumbed to MS and died a few years later.  Ian McClagen still makes music and has been trying to organize a Faces re-union for years, but either Rod is running scared or just too big a star to rejoin what he admits in every interview was the best band he ever sung in.