Chart entered : 19 March 1969
Chart peak : 36
Another great British voice was soon to be lost to the charts when The Small Faces called it a day. This too was a farewell single of sorts although Immediate released it without the band ( who had already split up ) having a say.
The Small Faces were one group that undeniably split up at their peak. Original keyboardist Jimmy Winston had been edged out after the first two singles by manager Don Arden. He says it was because Arden wanted to end the arrangement with his brother who took 10% of the band's appearance money for being their road manager though he admits relations with the other members could have been better. The crap about him being too tall was a line spun by Arden afterwards. Whatever the truth his replacement Ian McLagan was a much more accomplished player whose Hammond playing became an essential part of the group's sound. Their last album the concept LP "Ogdens Nut Gone Flake" had been a critical and commercial success. What finished them was a proposal by Steve Marriott to bring his friend ex-Herd frontman Peter Frampton into the band. Frampton's inclusion would have made it easier to reproduce the more complex material on stage but, no doubt fearing a change to the balance of power in the group, the other three members refused. Steve chewed on this for a while then stormed off stage at a gig on New Year's Eve 1968 yelling " I quit". Frampton claims he was then asked by the others to replace him but this has been strongly denied by Ian McLagan and seems highly unlikely in the circumstances.
"Afterglow Of Your Love" was an alternate version of a track from "Ogden's..." The Marriott / Lane song is a raucous blues rock number pointing the way towards Free . It's simple romantic lyrics ensure it makes perfect sense out of context and it's got a strong chorus to justify Steve's blistering vocal. The fact that it was culled from an album that had been out nearly a year and there was no one around to promote it depressed its chart performance but it's certainly top notch.
Immediate subsequently released a double LP "The Autumn Stone" compiling the singles with some live and unreleased material but it didn't chart.
What the other three did next will be covered fairly shortly in another post so for now we'll concentrate on Steve until we get to 1975. He got together with Frampton, former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and teenage drummer Jerry Shirley from a band called Apostolic Intervention to form Humble Pie . Ian McLagan was involved in some early rehearsals but decided not to join. Despite the rhythm section not coming from top rank bands and The Herd's very brief moment in the sun, Steve encouraged the talk of it being a supergroup with three frontmen so Steve, Pete and Greg shared vocal duties on the first single , the hard rocking "Natural Born Bugie" . It reached number 4 in the charts in August 1969 and the album "As Safe As Yesterday Is" made a respectable showing at 32.
All seemed well but the band had already made their first big mistake in signing for Immediate. Loog Oldham's creditors were putting the squeeze on and so a second Humble Pie album "Town And Country" , comprising not necessarily completed acoustic songs was rushed out in November 1969 in a desperate attempt to raise some cash. To make matters worse the band were touring in America at the time so could do nothing to promote it. The gamble failed. Immediate went belly up and the so-called supergroup had a flop album before they were a year old.
They were signed up by A & M and had a new manager Dee Anthony who had firm ideas that they should stick to hard rock for the American market. He also saw Steve as the natural front man and had little time for the triple headed idea. The next single "Big Black Dog" in July 1970 fitted the template, hard unyielding blues rock with no melodic sweeteners to soften the attack. Like all their subsequent singles it failed to chart in the UK. The album which followed ,"Humble Pie", was an uneven affair starting off with the tremendous heavy soul of "Live With Me " and then failing to produce anything of similar quality. "One Eyed Trouser Snake Rumba" is not as smutty as the title suggests , just a routine cock rock stomper and "Only A Roach" sung by Shirley is a silly ode to cannabis that should have stayed a B side. "Theme from Skint" is Marriott's satire on the Immediate debacle. It's good that Steve could find humour in financial difficulties as there were more on the way but it's all over the place musically starting out as a drowsy country ballad before heading back into Small Faces territory. It too failed to chart anywhere though the band were bolstered by their burgeoning reputation as a great live act.
Their first single of 1971 was the hard rocking "Shine On" written by Frampton where the band are boosted by the voices of P P Arnold and Doris Troy invited in by Steve to the sessions for the fourth album "Rock On" . It included "Stone Cold Fever " the last song written by all four original members and regarded as a hard rock classic although to me it sounds like an attempt to imitate Family with Steve trying on a Roger Chapman vibrato for size. The gentler "A Song For Jenny" ( his wife at the time ) provides some welcome respite from the all-out rocking although the lengthy "Strange Days" has quieter passages. The album didn't make the Top 100 in the US and Humble Pie's reputation as a band who found it easier to sell concert tickets than records was becoming set.
In October 1971 their heavy version of the Ray Charles hit "I Don't Need No Doctor" was a minor hit in the US. Despite this Frampton decided to quit the band partly due to growing friction with Steve whose cocaine and alcohol intake was changing his personality and partly to pursue a gentler musical direction. He was replaced by Clem Clempson. Ironically the double LP "Performance: Rockin At The Fillmore" a live recording of a concert at The Fillmore in May 1971 was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic. It contains only seven songs , the covers of "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" and Muddy Waters's "Rollin Stone" take up a side each but long songs were de rigeur at this time.
The first record to feature Clempson was the single "Hot n' Nasty" in May 1972 which also featured Stephen Stills on organ. It's OK but I think Free did this sort of thing a lot better; Humble Pie seem a bit one dimensional by comparison. It reached number 52 in the US. The parent album "Smokin " was their biggest success yet reaching number 6 in the States and 28 here. The second single from the album , "30 Days In The Hole" is Steve's whinge about being busted for possession and hammers away without getting close to a melody and didn't chart.. If nothing else Humble Pie proved how much Steve needed Ronnie Lane in order to write a memorable tune. A & M capitalised on the success by acquiring the rights to their first two albums on Immediate and whacking them out as the double LP "Lost And Found". It got to number 37 in the US charts.
The band recorded their next album "Eat It" at Steve's home studio in Essex. Steve brought in three female backing singers The Blackberries to fill out the sound. They had previously worked with Ike and Tina Turner and the lead single in January 1973 was a cover of their song "Black Coffee". Steve of course could match Tina's vocal attack but the song is a bit of a grind. The album was another ambitious double . Side One has four Steve-penned rockers including the next single "Get Down To It" which has some nifty Hammond work but the same limitations as noted above. Side Two has four R & B covers. Side Three is Steve on his own doing three acoustic songs (" Say No More" is OK, "Summer Song" is unlistenable ) then rounding it off with a rather episodic but interesting rocker "Beckton Dumps".Side Four is three numbers recorded live including a 13 minute version of "Road Runner". The album got to 13 in the US and 34 in the UK where it was their last chart entry.
For now the wheels started to come off. Unable to cope with Steve's cocaine addiction, his wife Jenny left him. The next album "Thunderbox" had a majority of covers including both singles "Oh La De Da" ( originally by the Staple Sisters ) and "Ninety-Nine Pounds". It peaked at 52 in the US. By this point the band were exhausted by five years of constant touring which didn't seem to be translating into money in the bank. They didn't want to tour again but were contractually obliged and knowing this the label , suspecting deliberate procrastination, grabbed what they had already put down and brought in Loog Oldham of all people to make it fit for release as the album "Street Rats" . Steve was particularly furious as some of it , like the title track, was meant for a solo album and most of the rest was made up of jammed covers like the single "Rock And Roll Music". Largely disowned by the band, the album scraped to number 100. As soon as the tour was completed they dissolved.
Steve voiced his suspicions that Dee Anthony had been diverting their earnings towards Frampton's new project but he was "persuaded" by some of Anthony's Mafia friends to drop the matter. He moved back to England with new girlfriend Pam to resume work on his solo album.
Humble Pie were not the only band to dissolve in 1975. After a period of paralysed indecision Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane and Kenney Jones linked up with two members of the Jeff Beck Group to form the Faces. That tale is told elsewhere but we pick it up in 1973 when Ronnie Lane decided to quit the band, unhappy that the rest of the band were being sidelined by Rod Stewart's solo success.
Ronnie moved to rural Wales with his wife and consciously chose to immerse himself in rustic life. He built his own studio in a trailer on his farm. Although not intending to resume a conventional music career he formed a loose-knit band called Slim Chance initially including Gallagher and Lyle. Their first gig was in a circus tent on Clapham Common in November 1973 .The first single "How Come ?" , written by Ronnie and guitarist Kevin Westlake, was released in December and a hit early in the new year reaching number 11. It set the template for Ronnie's solo work with its seamless blend of country, folk and music hall influences and infectious tune.
The second single "The Poacher" , a personal anti-materialist manifesto disguised as a folk tale, only made number 36 which has usually been blamed on a cameraman's strike at Top Of The Pops the week they were due to appear. I'm not so sure it would have lifted the single that much higher; it's got a great sound ,though heavily influenced by Van Morrison , but there's no chorus to hook the casual listener. They did get to appear, with glorious incongruity, on Supersonic, Ronnie performing in a tweed jacket and neck tie while the techs offstage blew bubbles at him.
A month later the album "Anymore For Anymore" came out , a curious collection including the deeply affecting folk pop of "Don't You Cry For Me" , the hillbilly Dylanisms of "Bye Bye ( Gonna See The King )" and music hall oddities like "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" and "Bird In A Gilded Cage" .
The album only reached number 48 in the charts. Despite these warnings that he hadn't yet built a huge audience for his solo work and the amicable departure of Gallagher and Lyle to work on their own material, Ronnie embarked on his grand folly, a spontaneous tour of provincial towns as part of a travelling circus The Passing Show. Although miraculously circumventing council jobsworths, on one occasion by engaging some hippies to pose in uniform as a fire crew to go ahead , the tour was a money pit on a big scale; without any pre-publicity some gigs drew only fifty people . It had to be curtailed in August 1974 because Ronnie was broke.
With infinite reluctance Ronnie realised he would have to resume the game on the normal terms . After some desultory auditions, Ronnie put a new Slim Chance line up together , got himself a deal with Island and recorded a second album "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" . It was preceded by a single "What Went Down" which wasn't included on the LP. It's a likeable bluesy number although the jolly piano rolls don't really match the repentant lyrics. Though the album had to be completed in something of a hurry and consequently is filled out with covers like "Blue Monday" and "You Never Can Tell" and a re-worked Small Faces song "Stone" , there are some gems like "Give Me A Penny" which sounds like The Waterboys would a dozen years later and the mandolin-heavy "Tin And Tambourine ". It didn't trouble the charts when released in December 1974.
That same month Mick Taylor announced his departure from the Rolling Stones and they started looking for a replacement. There's an ongoing controversy over whether Steve auditioned or was even considered . His second wife Pam says that he did but failed to heed the advice not to sing and Mick Jagger vetoed him on the spot. It's hardly credible that Jagger would have been unaware of Steve's vocal prowess so I'm inclined to think the whole story's nonsense. Instead of course they invited Ron Wood to take the vacant slot, to the displeasure of Rod Stewart, and the end of The Faces was nigh.
In April 1975 Ronnie recorded a solo single without the band, a cover of "Brother Can You Spare A Dime " for a David Puttnam documentary on The Great Depression. He spent the rest of the year working on his next album. By the end of the year Immediate had got themselves into a position where they could re-release old material and chose "Itchykoo Park" . I'm not sure why ; perhaps they were aware that all the members were at something of a loose end with the dissolution of The Faces and sure enough they each accepted £1,000 to make a promo film in which, Jones excepted, they all look like they slept rough the night before.
When the single got to number 9 in the charts in early 1976 ( "Lazy Sunday made 39 as a follow-up ) the logical thing to do was to reunite but it took the failure of Steve's first solo LP "Marriott" and Ronnie's next Slim Chance album " One For The Road" to make it happen. The former is a schizophrenic affair with a British side of hard rock and an American side recorded with different musicians which is a funkier affair with a James Brown cover "Are You Lonely Babe. " Ronnie's all-originals LP kicks off with the superb wistful Celtic rock of "Don't Try 'n' Change My Mind" which sadly failed as a single. The title track and the highly ironic "Nobody's Listening " are also very good but it didn't do any business.
Ronnie was the last to join the reunion , rejecting the suggestion when Ian and Kenney came out to the farm but eventually agreeing when Steve was the visitor. In July 1976 they were in the studio rehearsing but two days in , Ronnie, already disgruntled that Steve and Ian had been writing together beforehand, threw off his headphones and told Steve that he hadn't written a decent song since 1969. There was some truth in this but unsurprisingly Steve didn't agree and thumped him. Ronnie returned to Wales forthwith. It's been suggested that Ronnie's behaviour was down to his as-yet-undiagnosed Multiple Sclerosis but I think it more likely he had second thoughts about the whole idea and deliberately provoked the confrontation to make an easy exit.
The band recruited Rick Wills who'd formerly worked with Frampton and Roxy Music to replace him and soldiered on although producer Shel Talmy also bailed out during the recording sessions. The first release was the single "Lookin For A Love" in August 1977 , a cover of The Valentinos hit from 1962 which is competent but uninspiring. The album which followed , "Playmates" has been given short shrift but it's not atrocious just rather pallid . Steve's voice has been affected by the heavy drug use , unrepentantly outlined in the opener "High N Happy" although his absence on "Tonight" ( I don't know whose vocal it is ) immediately relegates it to soft rock anonymity. Ian never seems to get out of first gear even on the songs he co-wrote with Steve. Ronnie gets a credit on "Find It" but there's not enough going on to justify its six minutes. In the summer of punk it just wasn't good enough. They went out on a short UK tour during which Steve suffered heart palpitations.
Ronnie might not have the general public's ear but he certainly drew the respect of his peers as someone who was doing the back to the country thing for real. Both Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend came calling at the farm . The former invited Slim Chance to support him on his European tour while Townsend invited him in on his solo project "Rough Mix". The resulting album was credited to them both. They only wrote the instrumental title track together mainly because Townsend doesn't write in tandem but Ronnie has only one less song on the LP. It's somewhat schizophrenic; the authorship of the individual songs is never in doubt but neither is holding anything in reserve . Ronnie's song "Annie" written with wife Kate and an intermittently involved Eric Clapton is an exquisite tear-jerking ode to their elderly babysitter. The sessions were marked by frequent arguments and occasional fights started by an increasingly belligerent Ronnie and at some point during them he learned the reason why; he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He and Kate kept it a secret for some years fearing that Ronnie wouldn't be able to secure a record contract if it were generally known. Townshend, well used to working with volatile characters , didn't need to know. Whether the news is reflected in any of the music I don't know but the lyric to "April Fool" - "I know we're not going anywhere / We used to roam so freely" certainly lends itself to such an interpretation. The album reached a disappointing 44 in the UK charts ( Ronnie's last appearance with new material ) and one place lower in the US. Townshend's string-driven opus "Street In The City " did no business as a single though with a clearly enunciated line like "Gonna lean back on my wall / And wait for her knickers to fall" he could hardly expect too much airplay.
As Ronnie came to terms with an uncertain future his former bandmates, now augmented by an extra guitarist , Jimmy McCulloch from Wings, persevered. A new single "Stand By Me ( Stand By You ) came out in the autumn of 1977. It's a pale reflection of former glories, a simplistic tune with Steve's voice a shadow of its former self. Another single "Filthy Rich" followed in July 1978. It's entertainingly awful, a re-tread of "Lazy Sunday" with Steve doing his Cockney geezer thing on a vulgar fantasy about the riches he never had with punk-ish vocabulary -"tits" , "arse" and "pissed" all feature. To cap it all there's a doo-wop break in the middle. Two flop singles didn't augur well for the album "78 In The Shade" and in fact they'd already decided to call it a day before it was released in August. Coming in at an economical 33 minutes it's a largely morose affair with self-pitying songs like "Too Many Crossroads" and "Let Me Down Gently". Ricky Wills gets a song on the record, the ordinary "Thinkin About Love". "Brown Man Do" breaks some sweat with its anti-racist sentiments but as the title suggests they're very clumsily expressed, a deficiency even more obvious on "Soldier Boy". It is probably a slight improvement on "Playmates" because Ian sounds more engaged. Otherwise it's most notable as the recording debut of 14-year old Sam Brown as a backing vocalist.
The dissolution could hardly have fallen at a better time for Kenney. The following month Keith Moon died and he crossed straight over to The Who as his replacement. Rick too got a good gig and we'll pick up his story some way down the line. Jimmy died of a heroin overdose just over a year later. Steve had to flee to America to escape a hefty tax bill; he had wrongly assumed that Dee Anthony had made the necessary payments. Ian had plenty of session work to keep him busy then in 1979 joined Ron Wood and Keith Richards touring outfit The New Barbarians for a lucrative US tour. As a spin-off Ian released a solo LP " Troublemaker" on which he played guitar and sang ( reasonably well ) as well as playing keyboards. Apart from the clumsy and interminable reggae number "Truly" which features all the New Barbarians line up it's a good-natured "me and my famous mates" rock and roll album which probably no one expected to break the bank. The opening track "La De Da" a Cars-like rocker with terrible lyrics - "I'm just a train in the tunnel of love" for example - was released as a single in January 1980.
In 1979 Ronnie was still well enough to record his final solo album "See Me". The single "Kuschty Rye" , his final co-write with Kate, is an infectious uptempo love song with superb string work again anticipating the Waterboys and Dexy's. Clapton was still on board and co-wrote "Barcelona " a charming sailing allegory with commendably subtle work from Clapton. On the whole it's less acoustic-based than his previous efforts with "Good Ol Boys Boogie" sounding like accordionist Charlie Hart has wandered into a Steve Miller Band session by mistake. A second single "One Step" was taken from it and released in January 1980. It was his last single and is an uncharacteristically slight pop song where Clapton's wailing sounds completely inappropriate.
Over in America, Steve, now completely broke, accepted an offer to reform Humble Pie with Jerry Shirley. The newcomers were bassist Sooty Jones and another guitarist Bobby Tench from the Jeff Beck Group who could sing as well. Their single in April 1980 "Fool For A Pretty Face" , a lean , well-produced rocker that sounds like AC/DC reached number 52 in the US and helped parent album "On To Victory" to reach number 60. They went on the road supporting Ted Nugent and Aerosmith on the Rock And Roll Marathon tour. They produced a second album "Go For The Throat" including a re-worked "Tin Soldier" which reached number 58 in the US charts as a single. Steve had again expanded the line up to include a trio of girl backing singers, one of whom was future UK chart-topper Robin Beck. This second Humble Pie was scuppered when the promotional tour had to be first postponed due to Steve breaking his fingers in an accident at his hotel and then cancelled altogether when he went down with a duodenal ulcer. The label responded by dropping the band.
Back in Wales it had became clear that Ronnie could no longer maintain the rural lifestyle after suffering temporary blindness while driving a tractor. In a move that unwittingly mirrored the political and cultural trends of the time the family sold the farm ( though not the mobile studio ) in 1980 and returned to Twickenham. His marriage to Kate did not survive the ending of their rural idyll and he left her and the kids for a woman named Boo Oldfield. That was the situation when Steve returned to Britain in 1981. He looked Ronnie up and proposed they started working together despite the fact that Ronnie was now using a wheelchair. Ronnie agreed and the Majik Mijits project started. None of the songs were written together but they had enough for an album which was eventually released in 2000. It's under-produced of course but listenable. Ronnie's contributions comprise his last ( eventually ) released songs but none of them are very good and his singing on the closer "Ruby Jack" is painfully bad. Marriott's bitter "You Spent It" which works up a Tom Petty-ish country rock storm is the only track that really demands another listen.
Unsurprisingly accounts differ as to why it stayed in the vaults since there was record company interest from Island and Arista . Ronnie told an interviewer that Steve had stolen a £45,000 loan from Keith Richards to try and get Humble Pie up and running again. Steve's account was that he realised they couldn't tour because in his own uncertain state of health he couldn't look after Ronnie and simply walked away from the project.
1981 also saw the release of Ian's second solo album "Bump In the Night" referencing his own Bump Band with whom he tours when not busy with session work (i.e not very often ). I haven't heard much from it but I believe it was in much the same vein as the first one.
Steve returned to America with part of the Majik Mijits band and went out on the road again sometimes billed as "Humble Pie" and in Australia even "Small Faces" while Ronnie pursued various cares including snake venom treatment which only made him more ill and then hyperbaric oxygen which did have some positive effects.In 1982 he allowed his condition to become public knowledge.
In 1983 Boo arranged the Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall to raise money for more hyperbaric oxygen chambers. Ronnie was well enough to do some interviews and the line-up was a testament ( pre- Band Aid let's not forget ) to the esteem in which he was held ; Jimmy Page, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Steve Winwood, Kenney and Andy Fairweatherlow amongst others . Ronnie came on at the end to sing "Goodnight Irene". Most of the stars went on to play further concerts in the US. Buoyed by the success of the concerts Ronnie and Boo decided to move to Houston, Texas where he set up an American wing of ARMS in 1984 and he became a trustee of the charity.
Steve was coming the other way and began the twilight phase of his career , playing on the London pub circuit with a revolving set of musicians under the banner "Packet Of Three". Some live recordings have been issued but he never returned to the studio. With an admiring cheerleader in Paul Weller in his pomp ( although they seem to have avoided each other; I've never read that they even met ) there was never a lack of interest but Steve seems to have deliberately eschewed any return to the music business. Friends have said he was happy just playing gigs for cash at the end of the night. He did still do some gigging in Europe too.
In 1985 Kenney played with the Who at Live Aid . Steve made his own small contribution by appearing on a charity single , a version of "All Or Nothing" under the name The Spectrum. Old mates like P P Arnold and Chris Farlowe were involved but also such giants as The Lambrettas and The Purple Hearts which you would have thought he found faintly humiliating. Apart from that Ian was the only ex-member to release anything with an EP "Last Chance To Dance" which I've not heard.
Ronnie's bad luck continued. In November he raised concerns about how the money he'd raised was being spent. He had appointed an MS-afflicted attorney Mae Nicol to run the show but it appeared from day one that she had been diverting funds for her own benefit including "selling" her clapped out car to the charity for $7.000 dollars which was what finally caught Ronnie's attention. Ronnie ended up having to start his own charity the Ronnie Lane Foundation from scratch.
He moved to Austin where he became a favourite on the local gigging scene when his health llowed. He and Boo had split up by this point and he eventually married a local Latino woman in 1988.
Kenney remained a member of The Who until 1988 when he appeared with them on the BRIT Awards show. He was told his services were not required for the 1989 reunion tour.
In 1990 Ronnie left America for the last time when he did a brief tour of Japan in a band with Ian . That same year he made a vocal contribution to a track on the album "John and Mary " ( John being John Lombardo ex and future 10,000 Maniac ) which was his last recording.
The following year Steve was talked into a possible reunion with Peter Frampton. In February he flew to Frampton's house in LA and they worked on some new songs together. Despite a promise to stay clean during the sessions, Steve started getting stoned again. In April he flew back home and jet-lagged, went to bed with a cigarette. He died of smoke inhalation from the resultant house fire. Ronnie is supposed to have remarked "Lucky bleeder" when he heard the news. He made his last public appearance at a Ronnie Wood gig that year.
Also in 1991 Kenney formed a new outfit The Law with ex-Free singer Paul Rodgers. They were to be the only permanent members using guest musicians as the style of the songs demanded. I must confess that their existence entirely passed me by at the time but their eponymous album made number 61 ( the last appearance by any Small Face with original material ) in the UK. The single "Lay Down The Law" is shiny, vacuous, pre-grunge corporate rock which the enduring quality of Rodgers's voice can't save. The Chris Rea-penned "Stone" is notable for David Gilmour's appearance but it's still deadly dull. Disappointed by the public and critical response the band split up. Rodgers moved on in his perpetual quest to regain the ground he lost when Free split up while Kenney spent the net few years playing polo and trying to recover the Small Faces' unpaid royalties.
In 1993 the Lanes moved to Colorado where the climate might ease Ronnie's suffering, a year before Ian himself moved to Austin. Ronnie's condition deteriorated until he died of pneumonia in June 1997.
Ian remained an active musician lead his Bump Band from Austin and putting out albums when his busy schedule allowed.
In 2001 Kenney reunited with Rick Wills and along with singer Robert Hart formed The Jones Gang . They performed with Pete Townshend and Ronnie Wood at the Ronnie Lane Memorial Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2004 and finally got round to putting out an album "Any Day Now in 2005. It's a competent collection of Bryan Adams- style melodic AOR that might have done something if released a decade and a half earlier. It's most notable for Kenney coming out as an open Tory with the song "Mr Brown " ( actually written by Hart ) attacking the then-Chancellor in rather vague terms to a not-unpleasant semi-acoustic backing which further blunts the message.
In 2008 Ian and Kenney reunited with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart to discuss a possible Faces reunion. In January 2009 Stewart announced that it would not go ahead. In September the others announced there would be a reunion for a one-off concert for the Performing Rights Society Benevolent Fund with Bill Wyman standing in for Ronnie and a number of guest vocalists taking Stewart's place. This went ahead that October. This led on to the group recruiting the unlikely figures of Mick Hucknall ( the pick of the guests ) and Glen Matlock ( in place of the elderly Wyman ) for a string of festival dates in 2010-11.
In June last year Kenney said they were still hoping to tour with Stewart in 2014 but those plans were waylaid a few months later when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He looks to be in the clear now and is currently organising a concert for a rostate cancer charity.
And just in case you thought I'd forgotten him Jimmy Winston is still alive. Don Arden sort of kept his promise to launch Jimmy with a new band . He put together a new band, the Reflections featuring future Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye and got to put out a couple of singles, a raucous R & B cover of the Kenny Lynch song "Sorry She's Mine" already covered by The Small Faces on their debut LP and then his own song "It's Not What You Do" which has the right sound but the song's a dog. It should also be said that Jimmy as lead singer is no Steve Marriott.
The following year he shook off Arden and formed the band Winston's Fumbs and got a deal with RCA. Their only single was the wild psychedelia of "Real Crazy Apartment" which tries to cram in too many ideas in less than three minutes but is certainly interesting. It featured in Mike Read's bankruptcy auction in 2009 where it sold for £370.
After appearing in Hair in 1968 he had a brief career as an actor, of which a small role in the British eco-disaster film No Blade Of Grass ( 1970 ) was probably the highlight. In 1976 he got to put out another single "Sun Is Smiling" on NEMS but it's very obscure and I've never heard it. After appearing in The Sweeney in 1978 Jimmy dropped out of the entertainments business and these days sells sound equipment from his home in Essex. He occasionally attends Small Faces conventions.
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