AN APPRECIATION OF Ronnie Lane

would like to thank all our fans for putting us in the UK charts
for the first time in many years with the 'Ultimate Collection'

mall Faces were formed in 1965, and when I heard 'What'Cha
Gonna Do About It' on the radio a month or so later I also heard
my future calling me, though I didn't realise it at the time. I'd
been in a blues band, The Muleskinners, and the somewhat jazzy
Boz People, but was on the lookout for a soulful band that really
wanted to make it big when Small Faces' manager Don Arden
called. It was November 1st, 1965.

y luck changed that day when I joined the band. Steve Marriott,
Ronnie Lane, and Kenney Jones and I got on so well from the start it felt
like we were brothers, mainly because we liked the same music, but
equally important we enjoyed each other's company and had the same
sense of humour. "This can't be happening to me" I thought. But it was.

t last I was in a band that wanted to play as much as I did,
and we never stopped working and playing together as long as the
band existed. We also loved to party, making it the perfect band in
my eyes. Although 'What'Cha Gonna Do About It' was a minor hit in
the UK, 'I've Got Mine' which followed it, flopped. The first single I
I played on was 'Sha La La La Lee', which got to #3, and started a run
on the charts, culminating in 'All Or Nothing' which knocked The
Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby' off the #1 spot in August 1966.          

ater in November 1966, 'My Mind's Eye' went to #4, but as
neither Decca Records or Arden could find their cheque books to pay
us our royalties, we dumped them both in early 1967 to sign with
Andrew Oldham's new label, Immediate Records. The songwriting
team of Marriott and Lane kept the hits coming through '67 and '68.
'Here Comes The Nice', a song about a dealer did well for us, but
'Itchycoo Park' was the world-wide smash we'd been waiting for.

ong being frustrated at the lack of studio time Decca allowed
us, Immediate gave us exactly that, and we recorded 'Tin Soldier'
soon afterwards. A hit in the UK, it only reached #73 in the States,
but I'm as proud of that as anything we ever recorded.          

ollowing up a hit is always tough, and every succesful recording
artist has to deal with it in their own way. Immediate forced our hand
by putting out 'Lazy Sunday' as our next single. Although the song
was a private joke, chronicling Steve's ongoing problems with his
neighbours, people seemed to like it enough for it to get to #2.          

s it climbed up the charts we couldn't have been more
depressed, but we had to promote it as well, and after Tin Soldier's
power and raunchiness it was merely a laugh, but the joke was on us,
even though it was just another facet of the many talents within the band.

onsequently, it was our second biggest hit, in chart terms at
least. It's strange to think that we were so hard up that Steve,
Ronnie and I were back living together again, this time in half a
rented house deep in the country. Steve recorded the basic track
of 'The Universal' in the garden on a cassette machine, and
everything else was added in the studio later.

ventually, when it only went to #16, he believed he was dragging
the band down so decided to leave. If that was the truth, it was no
reason to form Humble Pie, but all great men have silly moments,
and Steve was having one of his. This might have been the end of
the Small Faces saga if it hadn't been for fans like Paul Weller, who
raved about us and turned others on.

ince the band broke up our records have sold consistently,
and we'd all be rich boys today if the record industry wasn't
even more corrupt than politics. Apparently, if you want to
get paid in this line of work you have to sue, which means
you have to be rich in the first place. It's a sad fact that Steve
Marriott never saw a penny of his hard-earned dosh from
Decca Records, the company that pissed and moaned about
paying us a decent royalty, and in spite of not paying us at
all between 1965 and 1991.          

Well, that's my potted history of England's 'moddest' band of all time.

By the way...

Ronnie Lane's most recent CD, LIVE IN AUSTIN is one he would be very
proud of. It's released on Sideburn Records and received a FOUR STAR
review by none other than David Fricke in ROLLING STONE magazine.
He'd be very happy about that, and so will you when you hear it. Check
it Bubba! Read the review by clicking on the album cover below.

 

Now check out the best Small Faces site on the web, and tell my pal Martin Payne where you heard about it.