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Lazy send-off
The Small Faces’ last word was fumbled first time around but has, 56 years on, been generously overhauled, thanks to their drummer.
By Jim Irvin.
Rise and fall: Small Faces in autumnal mood.
George wilkes/Getty
THE FIRST terrible shock of my young pop-life was hearing that the Small Faces had split, just as I’d learned to treasureOgdens’ Nut Gone Flake. They’d achieved a considerable amount in what was effectively only a three-year recording career, their potential was clearly massive. Their label, Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate Records – close to collapse itself, thanks to two deals in the US that had soured – scooped up some unreleased tracks and a live recording in pursuit of fast cash as anIn Memoriam, but the band vetoed its appearance in the UK. So here, Immediate releasedThe Autumn Stone, an attractively packaged double ragbag of unheard and unfinished songs, old hits and live recordings. It looked generous, but turned out to be rather flimsy – you could squeeze the second album onto one side of vinyl – and a weirdly unsatisfying way to mark a great band’s demise.