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The DVD is a chronological
journey through the Small Faces career with clips of
most of the singles and some album tracks. Some of these
are played live and others mimed. The German Beat Beat Beat
live tracks and mimed Beat Club tracks are
already easily available but there are some real gems
here that were either unavailable or hard to obtain.
This is the most complete collection of Small Faces live
video or promotional films that has been put together.
However, there are some gaps for those who are expecting
the definitive collection of all Small Faces visual
material. For example, one of the Beat Beat Beat live
tracks, All or Nothing, is not included as are
some of the Beat Club mimed tracks. There is other Small
Faces live material available such as from the French
television programme Surprise Partie. Promotional films
are also not included for Lazy Sunday, Get
Yourself Together, etc.
Also missing is Tin Soldier featuring PP Arnold
on backing vocals, a real gem.
A longer transcript of
Ronnie Lane's final interview is included. Parts of this
have been shown before but this is a more complete
version of the interview. Ronnie had already been
diagnosed with MS and this is clearly evident in the
interview. The interviews that have been recorded for
this DVD do add to the story and do not simply
regurgitate earlier content. The original keyboard
player Jimmy Winston is included although he only
features playing guitar on the mimed Dateline Diamonds clip of
I've Got Mine. Unfortunately, there do not seem
to be any clips available of Jimmy playing on the debut
single What'Cha Gonna Do About It.
The band's
dissatisfaction with the commercial direction of Sha
La La La Lee and Hey Girl is evident even
though they did write the latter. This was quite
unrepresentative of what the band was about on stage. A
series of clips from the first appearance at London's
Marquee is a complete contrast. Albeit truncated, these
clips show just what a hot R&B band the Small Faces
were. However, the singles tended more towards the
commercial side with All or Nothing making number
1 in the UK. Another performance from the Morecambe &
Wise Show is I Can't Make It which, played live,
is very powerful and shows the combination of a
commercial song with the band's live power.
Kenney and Mac talk about
the move from Don Arden to Andrew Loog Oldham's
Immediate Records. Despite the problems that later
appeared, the band was allowed much more studio time
where they could experiment. Ronnie Lane echoes these
sentiments and notes: "We didn't make any money from
Immediate Records. I don't know anyone who did." My
Way of Giving shows how the sound is starting to
change.
At the same time the band
became more "daring" with songwriting. Despite its
obvious drug references, Here Come the Nice
passed the BBC censors. The follow-up Itchycoo Park
is arguably the band's best known song and one which
also has druggy overtones. Ian McLagan notes his dislike
of the song and notes that the song is anti-education.
Green Circles is a superb Ronnie Lane song. the
clip from Beat Club attempts to add psychedelic effects
although the zooming in and out of green circles does
lose impact in black and white!
One of the rare pieces of
footage is a mimed version of I'm Only Dreaming.
At a time when b-sides were often fillers this is a real
stand-out moment and a song that is widely viewed as one
of the best Small Faces tracks today.
When Tin Soldier
was released everything came together. Every band member
played to his peak. Mac notes that he is playing three
sets of keyboards "and that's just the intro." The
importance of engineer Glyn Johns is also noted as he
achieved the best sounds. Tin Soldier also
demonstrates just how good a songwriter Steve Marriott
was. The mimed clip is from Beat Club which is a
pity as there are better versions available. However,
the undoubted quality of the song and the passion of the
Small Faces' playing still comes across in a major way.
Even after hundreds of listens, this is a song that
still makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand
on-end.
While on the road, Andrew
Loog Oldham released Lazy Sunday as a single.
This horrified the band who saw it as a joke and not
reflective of their style, after it it was the follow-up
to the storming Tin Soldier. There is no doubt
that Lazy Sunday is a superb record. However, in
terms of musical development it set the band backwards
and may ultimately have contributed to the band's split.
However, then came Ogdens Nut Gone Flake. Mac
tells the story of the unusual sleeve with the
references to smoking dope. The title track is a mimed
version from French television. This shows the band with
Marriott on keyboards but where is Mac?
The final tracks are
taken from the BBC show Colour Me Pop. These appear to
be live but may in fact be mimed but with a "live"
microphone that captures some adlibs. The second side of
the album is played in its entirety with narration by
Stanley Unwin. The narration was certainly recorded
fresh for the programme as it is not the same as on the
record.
How do you follow that?
With difficulty. The next single was The Universal
which was little more than vocals and guitar. After
Tin Soldier and Ogdens Nut Gone Flake this
was somewhat of an anticlimax. Steve walked out on the
band during a gig at Alexandra Palace on 31 December
1968 although the band did fulfil some contractual
obligations in Europe during 1969.
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