FILTER REISSUES
Spare the Rod
Fascinating early material sees a reluctant singer find his voice.
By John Harris.
Faces ★★★★
Early Steps
Stepping out: Faces (from left) Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Kenney Jones, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, 1969.
RHINO. CD/DL/LP
THE HESITANT birth happened in the summer of ’69, in a south London rehearsal space used by The Rolling Stones. Still reeling from the way that Steve Marriott had suddenly quit the Small Faces and thereby left them in a hole, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones had recruited Ron Wood to join them on guitar and then spent pleasurable but somewhat aimless hours jamming on old R&B numbers. Wood’s friend and former Jeff Beck Group colleague Rod Stewart tentatively watched – quietly wanting to join in, happy to accompany them to a nearby pub, but partly kept at bay by a biting mistrust of what three of his soon-to-be-colleagues called “LVs” (ie, lead vocalists). Soon enough, the inevitable happened: