Review: New Box, ‘Faces At The BBC’ – At Last A Live Set Befitting This Great Band

“And our second group for this evening are the excessively rowdy Faces…” – John Peel

The Faces have just released a new box set, Faces At The BBC, which collects almost all of their performances on the BBC from 1970 to 1973. Apparently there’s a three song set they played on one of the programs that can’t be found (yet). With eight CDs (and a Blu Ray) this box has some, ahem, heft. Between this Faces set and Pete Townshend’s recent 14 CD live set and Neil Young’s Archives Vol. III on deck at 17 CDs… these box sets may be the death of me.

I’m not sure the Faces were as big here in the U.S. as they were in the UK, which is a shame. They are one of my absolute favorite bands. Originally known as the Small Faces – Steve Marriott (guitars/vocals), Ronnie Lane (bass/vocals), Ian McLagan (keyboards), and Kenny Jones (drums) – they had a string of pop rock and psychedelic hits in the mid to late 60s. When front man/guitarist Steve Marriott split to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, the Small Faces found themselves at loose ends. They quickly recruited guitarist Ronnie Wood who had recently been fired from his job playing bass guitar for The Jeff Beck Group. Rod Stewart, who had also departed Jeff Beck as well, started hanging around the Small Faces rehearsals probably to drink with Woody after they were done. It wasn’t long before he’d be coaxed into the rehearsal room and into the band. His solo debut The Rod Stewart Album (aka An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down) while excellent (and boasting Ronnie on guitar) wasn’t tearing up the charts. Pretty soon both gents had joined the band to replace the hole left by Marriott’s departure and a new band – with two new members a head taller than the original three – was born. They dropped the “Small” and became simply the Faces. Their debut LP still said “Small Faces,” which feels like record company skullduggery to me… oh, the music business.

he Faces were a loose, boozy band. I’m not sure there’s another band that more perfectly represents the B&V ethos than these guys. They usually had a full bar set up on stage. Instead of an opening act, they’d come out and serve drinks to the patrons. Sadly, in their early days the BBC didn’t consider them a “serious enough” band to play their music on air. Enter influential DJ John Peel who became as enamored with the band apparently as much as I am. He started having them on his live concert programs. I didn’t grow up in London and I was only starting grade school so I missed out on a lot of this but it appears there was a real camaraderie between Peel and the Faces. You could have almost called this set “John Peel and the Faces at the BBC.” It says in the liner notes that the Faces were the only band Peel invited to his wedding… and they showed up. I’m guessing there was an open bar.

Peel’s having these guys on the various “live in concert” shows on the BBC helped break the Faces to the big time. There are performances from various BBC shows: Top Gear, In Concert, John Peel’s Sunday Concert, Sounds for Saturday, and others. I think Peel’s putting the Faces on the map at the BBC helped break them in the UK in a way it didn’t happen in the US. People were too confused by Rod Stewart’s solo career which was running parallel – a Faces album then a Rod solo album, rinse, repeat. I did a radio show once and played some Faces and a friend approached me and said, “I didn’t know Rod had a band called Faces?” However, having Rod’s solo material increased the band’s material quite a bit.

The Faces have put out a couple of box sets including the excellent Five Guys Walk Into A Bar and the deluxe packaging of all their LPs with bonus tracks with 1970 – 1975 You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything. And each of those boxes contain some tracks from the BBC shows so there is some overlap – if I’m counting correctly, it’s about a dozen songs that are on the boxes that you can find here. But having the complete shows puts those live tracks into context…and yes, I’m a complete-ist. Sadly, prior to this I’m not sure the Faces ever had a true, compelling live document of their performances. They released the contractual obligation LP Coast To Coast: Overtures and Beginners, but it never captured their true spirit. It was billed to “Rod Stewart/The Faces.” They did mostly Stewart songs and a few covers. I used to tell people that I considered it a great live album as it captured a great band – albeit when chemistry was falling apart, Ronnie Lane had left – until I heard bootlegs of some of their great performances…

All of that has been rectified with this wonderful 8-disc box of their live performances on the BBC. It runs mostly chronologically although I think considerations had to be made to fit everything on CDs in a neat running order. The first six discs run 1970 to 1973, then the last two backtrack to ’70 to ’71. I’m guessing much of this has been bootlegged but I have never had any of the BBC stuff on bootleg so it’s new to me. Some of these recordings do sound like very good to excellent bootlegs. It’s a bit distorted in places, but that seems to fit the Faces onstage ethos. Since there are multiple performances from multiple years you’ll find similar set lists – songs are repeated several times – but I like hearing how the tunes developed over time. Clearly Rod’s solo track “You’re My Girl (Don’t Want to Discuss It)” was a favorite of Peel’s. They play it almost every show.

While they do play some Rod solo stuff this is mostly Faces material on the early discs. It’s telling that they only play “Maggie May” one time on this entire set. There are so many treats here. I love every version of the Temptations’ cover “I Know (I’m Losing You)” complete with Kenny Jones’ drum solo. They also cover Robert Johnson’s (by way of the Stones) “Love In Vain.” One of those versions was on Five Guys Walk…but I think they chose the wrong one. They also cover Ike & Tina Turner‘s “Too Much Woman For A Henpecked Man” and I loved it! All of their big hits are here including “Maybe I’m Amazed” (yes, the song by Paul McCartney), “Bad And Ruin,” and “Stay With Me.” I am sad that “Oo La La” is not here.

I think the thing that surprised me was how powerful they were as a band. Ronnie Wood’s guitar is delightfully nasty, Rod’s voice powerful, the rhythm section is tight and McLagan’s keyboards stab at you on the high end… it’s all wonderful. At one point I looked up and thought, “Wait, is this Zeppelin?” The utter enjoyment these guys seem to be having is fabulous – and frankly expected from this good time band – but the strength and muscularity of the playing was something I hadn’t anticipated. How’d I love to travel back in time to hear “Miss Judy’s Farm” done like this. As you move through the chronology of the discs, Rod’s solo stuff becomes more and more prevalent, but that kind of parallels how their career went as Rod’s solo star ascended. It’s no coincidence that Rod’s best material was from those early Mercury Records days when he was also in the Faces, but I digress. I loved the Blu Ray, but I’ll be honest I usually never go back and watch the Blu Rays on these box sets… but that’s just me. I mean it’s cool stuff to see, all satin jackets and scruffy beards. These guys were formidable.

This is a must have for any Rod or Faces fans. Finally, a live album befitting the band. If the sheer heft of this is too much for you, it might be fun to cherry pick your favorite live tracks and put together a playlist for an “ultimate Faces concert setlist” kind of thing. I’m probably going to have to amend my Favorite Live At the BBC list to include these guys in their rightful place by the Stones, Beatles, Hendrix and the Who as wonderful BBC gigs.

Alas, we lost the Faces too soon. The late Ronnie Lane quit and went solo… formed a band Slim Chance that is criminally overlooked and did a joint album with Pete Townshend. Kenny Jones ended up joining the Who after Keith Moon passed. Ronnie Wood joined the Stones. The late Ian McLagan played in sessions from everybody from the aforementioned Stones to Bob Dylan. And Rod, well, we know what happened to Rod… do we think he’s sexy? If this box is too pricey for you, I’d urge you to stream this fabulous live experience wherever you stream your music.

Cheers!

Reproduced with thanks to the excellent BourbonAndVinyl

Article first published on BourbonAndVinyl on September 18th 2024 by  kcorsini

To read more great blogs go to

https://bourbonandvinyl.net

Main Photo Barry Plummer