Day Webb Humble Pie

Every Album, Every Song
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-78952-468-0
Verlag: Sonicbond Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 128 Seiten

Reihe: On Track

The hard-rocking British supergroup was fronted by Steve Marriott, possessor of what is generally regarded as one of the finest ever rock and blue-eyed soul voices. They achieved global success in the early 1970s and earned themselves a reputation as one of the best live bands of the era. However, this enormous success was to be short-lived and the group initially disbanded in 1975. There were to be subsequent reformations and reunions, but the heady days of the early 1970s were not to be repeated. Ultimately, in rock music appraisals, the band are often overshadowed by their contemporaries - the likes of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Faces, Free and Bad Company - but Humble Pie's influence on the rock and metal bands that followed in their wake cannot be denied.
This book examines all of Humble Pie's recorded output in detail, covering every chapter of the band's musical story, from the early carefree and democratic days of genre experimentation through to their halcyon period of hard-rocking R&B. The various subsequent reformations and reunions are also covered in detail, bringing the band's story into the 21st century and offering fans, old and new alike, a fully comprehensive look at the band's musical legacy.

Robert Day-Webb graduated from the University of Birmingham and subsequently worked in the publishing industry for sixteen years, undertaking a wide variety of editorial and writing roles. A self-confessed music, movie and TV buff, Robert has also had several personal reflection essays published in a number of music and TV-related anthology books and, more recently, saw his first solo book published: Badfinger On Track (Sonicbond, 2022). He currently lives in Gloucester, UK, with his wife, Marie, and their two children, Joshua and Lauren.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Day Webb, Robert

Leseproben

Prologue

Steve Marriott was born in London’s East End on 30 January 1947 and, even as a young boy, exhibited an innate and precocious talent for entertaining people. He fell in love with music from an early age, enjoying the likes of Lonnie Donegan, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, although his favourite artist was probably Buddy Holly during his pre- and early-teen years. Steve was around ten years of age when he began to play the ukulele and about a year later, he started playing the guitar. Shortly afterwards, he put his first band together. However, it was on the stage that young Marriott would first make his mark, appearing in Lionel Bart’s acclaimed musical Oliver! at the tender age of just 13. Steve was part of the Oliver! cast for about a year and he even appeared on the accompanying official soundtrack album (released in 1960), singing three songs.

Having been well and truly bitten by the showbiz bug, young Marriott subsequently enrolled at the famous Italia Conti drama school and enjoyed a budding career as a child actor in the early 1960s, appearing onstage, on the radio, and in numerous TV shows and films, before deciding that an actor’s life was too unfulfilling and that a career in popular music was what he truly desired. The talented Eastender soon realised his ambitions when he managed to release his first solo single (via Decca Records) during the summer of 1963. Sadly, it wasn’t a hit for the young superstar- in-waiting. However, undeterred by this minor setback, the young Marriott subsequently enrolled in bands such as The Moonlights (sometimes Moonlites), The Frantiks (sometimes Frantics) and The Moments, whereupon Steve gained valuable performance experience via regular live work. The Moments even got to cut a single, although, as with Steve’s previous solo single, it wasn’t a hit.

During the early 1960s, Steve developed a passion for American R&B music including the likes of Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown and Bobby Bland. It was no surprise then that the type of material being performed by Steve’s aforementioned bands included a fair bit of R&B mixed in with more standard rock ‘n’ roll. By the beginning of 1965, though, things had stalled somewhat and Steve ultimately found himself without a band and a solo career seemingly going nowhere. However, as fate would have it, it was at this juncture that Steve now encountered three guys with whom he would go on to form the Small Faces – Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston (although Jimmy would go on to be replaced by Ian McLagan by the end of 1965). The Small Faces proved to be pretty much an instant success, starting off as a raw-sounding R&B/Mod pop unit before transforming into a fully- fledged psych-pop hit band, enjoying a wonderful run of hit singles and albums from 1965 through to 1968.

However, during the course of 1968, despite the Small Faces enjoying a hugely successful summertime number-one UK album (Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake), Steve found himself getting increasingly frustrated and unhappy within the confines of the band. He was fed up with the band being viewed as a teenybopper group and with his own status as a teen pin-up. He was also becoming unconvinced of the live performance capability of the band (especially after a disastrous Australasian tour in early 1968 where they were blown offstage by touring partners, The Who). Added to this, there were also increasing internal band tensions and troublesome financial issues to contend with too. Steve’s musical interests were also changing – he was becoming less interested in psych-pop and more stimulated by the earthier sounds of American blues, soul and roots music. It was therefore inevitable that something had to change…

Peter Frampton was born on 22 April 1950, near the town of Beckenham (Greater London). Growing up on a musical diet comprised of the likes of Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and Adam Faith, the young Frampton also found himself particularly drawn to the likes of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and The Shadows (his father would also introduce the sounds of the very influential jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt, to the youngster). Frampton started playing guitar when he was just eight years of age and ended up joining his first band before he was even a teenager. Peter continued to pursue his musical ambitions and ultimately ended up joining pop group The Herd in the summer of 1966 (as lead guitarist and singer). The Herd enjoyed a couple of hit singles but after pop music magazine Rave named Peter as their ‘face of ‘68’, jealousy began to rear its ugly head within the ranks of The Herd. However, there were also other issues for Peter concerning being a member of The Herd. They, like the Small Faces, were very much viewed as a teenybop band at the time with a sizeable following of screaming female fans. Although this had probably been fun at first, Peter soon came to resent his pop idol image and the musical restrictions subsequently placed upon the band – they were, of course, now expected to keep churning out lightweight pop songs. In addition, there were also the usual troublesome financial and management issues to deal with too. Therefore, by the summer of 1968, Peter was feeling particularly unhappy and frustrated with his Herd membership. Again, as with Steve Marriott, something had to change…

Jerry Shirley was born on 4 February 1952 (London, UK) and started playing the drums at the tender age of nine years old. Jerry’s early rock ‘n’ roll musical heroes included Buddy Holly, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, and Ray Charles, but the youngster also greatly admired, and was heavily influenced by, jazz/swing drummers such as Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Jerry played in bands from around the age of 12 years old and, by 1965, he was the drummer in a Who/Small Faces-influenced band called Little People. It was circa 1966 when Jerry first met Steve Marriott ( Jerry’s Little People had supported the Small Faces live). They became good friends and it was Steve who helped the Little People get signed to Immediate Records in 1967 (the Small Faces’ record label at that time). Steve (and his co-writing bandmate, Ronnie Lane) also donated the track ‘(Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me’ to Jerry’s band to record as a single. The band, by this time rechristened The Apostolic Intervention (by Immediate label boss, Andrew Oldham), issued the single during Spring 1967 (it had also been produced by Steve Marriott), but it unfortunately flopped. However, thanks to Steve’s support and encouragement, a strong bond had now formed between the two musicians and this would soon lead to something very special …

The Cumbrian-born Greg Ridley (23 October 1947) was another lad who had started playing professionally at an early age. He had learned to play the bass guitar in his mid-teens and had subsequently cut his professional teeth playing in bands such as Dino & The Danubes and The Dakotas. In 1964, he joined The V.I.P.s, a Northern soul/R&B band, who managed to release several singles. The V.I.P.s then morphed into Art, a more psych/prog-focussed musical unit that released an album in 1967. The short-lived Art then further morphed into Spooky Tooth, an altogether more earthier-sounding blues-rock band. It was with Spooky Tooth that Greg was involved in the creation of two critically acclaimed albums before a fateful New Year’s Eve gig at London’s Alexandra Palace, 1968 …

Circa 1967, Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton first became acquainted (after the Small Faces and The Herd had toured together) and a mutual admiration for each other’s obvious musical talents led to the pair becoming good mates, despite their obvious chalk-and-cheese personalities (Steve tended to be louder, brasher and more extrovert, whilst Peter tended to be gentler, quieter and more reserved). Throughout 1968, Steve and Peter started hanging out together more and more, and when Peter informed Steve of his frustrations and general dissatisfaction with The Herd (circa mid-1968, The Herd’s latest single had flopped in the charts and Peter’s relationship with his bandmates continued to deteriorate), Steve offered to help Peter start a new band (although Steve also tried to get Peter into the Small Faces during this time too, arguing that his addition to the ranks would enhance the overall sound of the band. However, despite being admirers of Frampton’s obvious talents, none of the other Small Faces were keen on him actually joining, feeling that they were just fine as a four-piece. However, Peter did actually end up playing a couple of gigs with the Small Faces as a guest, circa Autumn 1968, but that was it).

To help kickstart Peter’s new band formation, Steve put Peter in touch with his young drumming pal, Jerry Shirley, around late Summer (at this point, The Apostolic Intervention had folded after the failure of their debut Immediate single and Jerry was now playing with a band called Wages of Sin). Peter and Jerry met up shortly after at Steve’s Essex cottage and got on extremely well but it was a little while before there was any further progress with this new band and so Jerry kept on working with Little Women (Wages of Sin had changed their name by this point!). At this juncture, it should also be noted that there was certainly no intention of Steve joining the pair in their new venture. However, as mentioned earlier, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Steve, too, was also becoming extremely frustrated within the confines of the Small Faces. Similar to Peter and his...