New Faces and Fleetwood Mac Live 1970 Vinyl!

Out now from http://www.1960s.london

The Faces Live 1970 Volume One 

1. Three Button Hand Me Down (McLagan, Stewart)
2. Shake, Shudder, Shiver (Ronnie Wood, Ronnie Lane)
3. Had Me A Real Good Time (Ronnie Lane, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood)
4. Pineapple And The Monkey (Ronnie Wood)
5. It’s All Over Now (Bobby Womack, Shirley Jean Womack)
6. I Don’t Want To Discuss It (Dick Cooper, Beth Beatty, Ernie Shelby)
7. Wicked Messenger (Bob Dylan)
8. Devotion (Ronnie Lane)
9. I Feel So Good (Big Bill Broonzy)

Personnel

Rod Stewart – lead and backing vocals

Ronnie Lane – bass, backing vocals, lead vocal

Ronnie Wood – lead guitars, backing vocals

Ian McLagan – Hammond organ, electric and acoustic pianos, backing vocals

Kenney Jones – drums and percussion

Recording Details

1 recorded for Dave Lee Travis on March 10^th, broadcast March 15^th

2 & 4 recorded for Top Gear March 9^th, broadcast March 28th

3 recorded for Top Gear on September 15^th , broadcast on September 19th

5 – 9 recorded for John Peel’s Sunday Concert, Paris Theatre on June 25^th, broadcast July 5^th

Sleeve notes

The Faces formed when three-quarters of the Small Faces (Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones) hooked up with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, recently escaped from the Jeff Beck Group. We are very fortunate that their considerable live prowess was so extensively documented by the BBC. Ken Garner’s authoritative “In Session Tonight’ lists six radio sessions recorded between March 1970 and October 1971, to which can be added a further six In Concerts, several irreverent appearances on Top Of The Pops and Disco 2 and a televised Sounds For Saturday appearance. The excellent Five Guys Walk Into A Bar box set contains 16 songs recorded for the BBC, leaving many strong tracks unreleased.

One of  the reasons that the Faces were on the BBC so much was because they were John Peel’s favourite band – during one concert he publicly applied for a job as a Faces roadie so he could see them live every night. Ironically the opening song Three Button Hand Me Down was recorded for the Dave Lee Travis show. This was the standout track on the rather tentative Faces debut LP First Step (March 1970, and is the first of many songs to refer to the band’s sartorial elegance, or lack thereof. Shake, Shudder, Shiver is a rare duet between Stewart and Lane, whilst Had Me A Real Good Time would be the catchiest track on second LP Long Player when it was released in February 1971. Instrumental Pineapple And The Monkey features McLagan’s organ extensively and shows the Faces’ love of Booker T and the MG’s. McLagan’s organ also features extensively in an uproarious version of It’s All Over Now, which owes as much to the Rolling Stones as to the Womacks.

Northern Soul favourite I Don’t Want To Discuss It kicks off side two. First released by Little Richard it was subsequently covered by Delaney and Bonnie and by the Elektra-signed Rhinoceros, which is where Rod Stewart heard the song. He was sufficiently impressed to include it on his second solo LP, Gasoline Alley. The success of Stewart’s solo career would eventually cause the demise of the Faces but at least to begin with the band were the ideal musicians to portray his solo recordings in a live setting. The version of Dylan’s Wicked Messenger here is livelier than on First Step, finishing with an impressive Ronnie Wood guitar solo. The ballad Devotion is the first inkling of Ronnie Lanes interest in the teachings of Meher Baba. Finally there is a lengthy I Feel So Good, a song Stewart knew from his beatnik busking days. The call and response structure enables Stewart to get the audience clapping and singing along, an indication of a band growing more confident in their performing abilities.

The Faces would never quite manage to recreate their live exuberance in a recording studio. But these recordings come close, and the band would get even better…listen out for Volume Two!

Sleevenotes: Nod Zasgood

Fleetwood Mac BBC Sunday Concert 1970

1. Rattlesnake Shake (Peter Green)
2. Underway (Peter Green)
3. Stranger Blues (Clarence L Lewis, Morris Levy and Elmore James)
4. World In Harmony (Danny Kirwan and Peter Green)
5. Tiger (Ollie Jones)
6. The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown) (Peter Green)
7. Coming Your Way (Danny Kirwan)
8. Great Balls Of Fire (Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer)
9. Twist and Shout (Phil Medley and Bert Berns)

All tracks recorded live at the Paris Theatre, Lower Regent Street, London on April 9^th 1970 and broadcast on April 19^th 1970 as part of the BBC Sunday Concert series, this performance hosted by David Symonds.

Personnel

Peter Green – guitar, vocals

Jeremy Spencer – guitar, maracas, piano, vocals

John McVie – bass

Mick Fleetwood – drums

Danny Kirwan – guitar, vocals

Sleevenotes

This stunning recording by Fleetwood Mac was one of a series of Sunday Concert specials which ran every week in 1970 and 1971 and less often thereafter. Usually introduced by John Peel the series included artists such as David Bowie and The Faces.

By the time this concert was recorded Fleetwood Mac had travelled a long way from their blues-boom roots. Jamming with the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East had left its mark and some songs now incorporated sections for improvisation. Songs from the bands most recent LP then Play One (released the previous September) proved particularly suitable for this, whilst the rock’n’roll standards fronted by Jeremy Spencer provided some light relief. Combining these two strands made for an exhilarating performance.

Rattlesnake Shake makes for a propulsive set-opener, Jeremy Spencer’s maracas combining with Mick Fleetwood’s pulsebeat whilst the duelling guitars of Green and Kirwan underpin Green’s powerful lead vocal. The band step up the pace to fast shuffle around the four-minute mark before easing into the instrumental Underway, showcasing the more lyrical playing styles of Green and Kirwan. “Play the blues” says nobody but they do anyway, a strong version of Elmore James’ Stranger Blues featuring Spencer on slide and lead vocals. Then a thoughtful version of the under-rated instrumental World In Harmony, starting with more of Green and Kirwan’s guitar gliding a la Albatross before a raunchier mid-section and a harmonic conclusion.

Jeremy Spencer plays homage to Fabian through a raucous cover of his 1959 US hit Tiger. The mood shifts again with the ominous opening chords and vocal of Green Manalishi. Fleetwood is the star here as his unrelenting drumming carries the song through its many changes. The sinister lyrics foretell of the inner demons that Green would confront in his final days with Fleetwood Mac, leading him to quit the band he had formed. Danny Kirwan’s Coming Your Way lightens the mood with twin unison guitars and an unstoppable Fleetwood – there is even a mini drum-and-bass interlude with John McVie. Finally Spencer takes the helm for a brace of rocking covers – a piano-driven Great Balls Of Fire and a Twist And Shout that is taken more slowly than the Beatles version but is no less effective for that.

Peter Green would make his final appearance with Fleetwood Mac at the Camden Roundhouse on May 20^th 1970. He would never again reach the creative heights shown by the Fleetwood Mac singles of the late 1960s. In February 2020 Mick Fleetwood organised an all-star tribute concert at the London Palladium, which included a rare and very welcome appearance by Jeremy Spencer. After being becalmed for a few years Fleetwood Mac would re-invent themselves as a massively successful Californian pop-rock band, albeit one with a sturdy rhythm section.

But Tardis back to 1970 and you can hear Peter Green sing “Baby if you got the rock…” as the band crash in gloriously around him, providing both the rock and the roll. Do the shake!

Sleevenotes: Doctor Brown