Guide to British Music of the 1960s
October 1997
Book Review
Quite Naturally The Small Faces
The popularity of the Small Faces at the moment is hardly in doubt. Look, for example, at the number of books that have been released recently. Just one of the 1997 releases is Quite Naturally. This has been compiled by Terry Rawlings and Keith Badman with help from John Hellier (of Darlings of Wapping Wharf Launderette), Ken Sharp and Kent Benjamin. This book takes a different approach to a band biography and is the most detailed of three recent releases. The Young Mod's Forgotten Story tended a bit too much towards pictures while Happy Boys Happy covered a wider subject range than the Small Faces, chronicling post break-up events as well as the 1960s years.
Quite Naturally is the closest you will find to a Small Faces diary and it finishes the day the band finally split. There is an incredible level of detail. If you need to know how much the BBC paid for sessions and TV appearances and when it was increased, then this is the book for you.
Even the most ardent Small Faces fan will find something new in the book. All the people involved with the Small Faces are covered somewhere as are the different bands and artists that they "bumped into" during the travels. A few myths are also dispelled such as why the band didn't tour America. There is more detail about what the group played live, dates of concerts and TV appearances.
It is clear that the band worked extremely hard in the few years that it was going. It is hardly any surprise when the opportunity to stop playing live as a teenybop band and concentrate on studio recording was so readily accepted.
The only criticism is really that Kenney Jones is spelt as Kenny throughout except for the interview section at the end. Otherwise, the attention to detail is meticulous.
ISBN: 1-95172-066-X
First published 1997 by Complete Music Productions.