AFTERGLOW
KENNEY JONES: It's sad because he (Marriott) still had a lot
in him. He was getting himself together. He was off the booze.
He was in great shape. He was in L.A. working with Frampton on
Humble Pie. I was looking forward to hearing it because he wouldn't
have entered into an arrangement like that unless he had songs
to back it up.
KEN SHARP: Had you been in contact with Steve before he died,
and how did you hear the news?
IAN MCLAGAN: No. I had nothing to say...I'd pretty much avoid
him. When Steve came to your house, he'd pretty much stay until
there was nothing left to drink, you know -- 3-4 days. Back in
those days we was still doing coke, and after a couple of days,
Kim, my missus, would have just had enough. Just dread it. So
I avoided him. And it turned out he was in L.A. recording with
Peter Frampton, and I was doing a gig at the Coconut, and a geezer
popped a bit of paper in my hands in-between songs, and said Steve's
in town and wants you to call him -- here's his number. It was
a Thursday or Friday night. And I thought, oh great, file that
under I Won't Use This Number, and I never called him. He flew
back the next day or something, and then died the day after that.
Fucking tragedy. I don't have regrets though, 'cause I would still
not get in touch with him, you know. Glyn Johns said when I spoke
to him some time after that said when I asked about Steve "...yeah,
he's a fucking cunt. I fucking hated him..." and that's a
bit sharp. I didn't hate him at all, he was just too much. God
bless him! If he was in this town today, I'd change my name three
times at this hotel, I'd still be avoiding him.
KEN SHARP: What do you think he'd be doing now? Would you guys
have gotten back together?
IAN MCLAGAN: Hopefully he would have been in the studio and had
a band with a name you could tell your parents, unlike Packet
of Three or something. No, no, fuck no we wouldn't have done anything.
I mean, it's a blessing really that we can't. The Faces is a different
thing. Steve would never just be cool -- he would try and do "Itchycoo
Park" in a spitting frenzy on stage! It was fucked!
KENNEY JONES: I would have loved for the band to have gone off
and played Ogdens' on stage in its entirety, with Stanley
Unwin narrating it on-stage. One of the great things that's pushing
me to do the animated version, because I thought "am I tampering
in a sacred area here?" And I thought, no one's stopping
me, and Steve's sort of up there pushing me to do it, in weird
sense that he wants me to do it. 'Cos one of the things I've thought
is that if the Small Faces was still together as a band, we would
absolutely have reworked Ogdens'. And I know that for a
fact -- very much like The Who have reworked Tommy. Tommy
wouldn't have come about if it hadn't been for Ogdens',
you know.
KEN SHARP: First, what I did want to ask you about is everyone
from Blur to Paul Weller to Oasis, Supergrass - many different
people, there's such a resurgence of interest in the Small Faces,
in fact the band is probably more popular now than in 1996 than
they ever were, what's that like for you -- is that a good feeling?
IAN MCLAGAN: It's a very good feeling. We were just in London
in November and December last year, and just...there were so many
articles that I was cursing..."dammit, why aren't we gettin'
paid." There was some act that had "Itchycoo Park,"
it was the third time "Itchycoo Park" had been a Top
Ten hit in England. M People. I dunno, you'd hear this crappy
version of "Itchycoo Park," frankly, and it just pissed
me off thinkin' there's Ronnie sittin' at home in Colorado, y'know,
and all that money never goes to him, y'see. There was an idea
that alot of bands were gonna put out a Small Faces tribute album
out, but I, um, hope they don't do it, in fact I've suggested
they don't because we don't get any money out of it, Ronnie doesn't
get anything out of it. It's a nice idea, but let's see if we
can get our publishing back first, cause that money is just going
to the same thieves who've thieved from us all the time, y'know.
Andrew Oldham, Tony Calder, and Pat Meehan, and the record companies
that we're still negotiating with to do a settlement.
KENNEY JONES: Most of the Britpop bands in the young movement
-- some great bands comin' up now -- they wanted to help Ronnie
Lane so they're doing a tribute album to Ronnie -- a tribute to
the Small Faces. It's coming out on our record label, because
I don't trust the record companies after all we've been ripped
off. So, what we've done is to form our own label, Nice Records,
and it's coming out on that. And when you read the book, 'cos
I was reading this and I chuckled, I'd forgotten all about it
-- we rewrote the Lord's Prayer. When you find it in the book
it's amazing. And that's gonna be our motto: "For Nice is
the music, forever and ever, amen." Ronnie will get all the
proceeds. With a bit of luck, if the record sells we'll achieve
about 400,000 pounds for him. He deserves it. It'll be great.
Because his medical bills are incredibly high. I know we all send
money over -- all of us, and I'm tracking down royalties. Whenever
I find it, I send it over. And Rod and Woody send a few bob over
there to keep him sort of going, but it's not enough -- you can't
hide behind that. It's very commendable what they're doing, but
it's not enough, you know. The tribute record will help, but even
that is not enough. Ronnie's like a paraplegic, you know, it might
as well be the same thing as Christopher Reeve -- he can't move.
He can talk, and move his arm a bit. He can hardly talk. So what
he needs is a house that's like specially built. You ask, I mean
Christopher Reeve is going virtually broke because of his medical
bills. It costs millions! And that's the idea of going out and
reforming the Faces, and earn millions, and give it to Ronnie.
KEN SHARP: What I wanted to ask you was he (Kenney) looks at
the band real tearfully like it's ... I guess he doesn't see the
positive aspects, because you know he looks at it like: Steve's
dead, Ronnie's got MS, I mean, you're doing OK, he's doing OK,
but it's kind of like it was a gang of four kids who were great
pals, it broke up ... how do you feel? Do you have a different
angle?
IAN MCLAGAN: I think I must do. We were like a bunch of
four little characters who were in each others' pockets for like
four or five years. We were four very good friends but we would've
drifted apart anyway. That's what happens. Read my book -- you'll
know what it was like behind the curtains and between the sheets
youknowwhaImean - but I was there!!! But writers have no idea
what it was really like, you know. No one else was there but us
four, they do have a different angle, they're looking at it totally
from the outside, and they weren't into the Small Faces at the
time. They look back and see it quite differently than it really
was. Read the book!
KEN SHARP: But Kenney has the view -- I think when they met up
either to look at the book or they even talk about it in the book
-- where Kenny says I can't look at this anymore, like they left,
the meeting was very short because Kenney got really sad about
it, the fact that four mates that four of them can't even get
together anymore, one of them's already gone, you live in the
States, Ronnie lives in the States, there's a fragmentation, but
you still view the experience with a much more positive light.....
IAN MCLAGAN: We were four very lucky, very happy guys. I mean,
we were stoned out of our heads so much of the time. I mean, we
were listening to the best music, we were trying to play the best
music we could you know. We had nothing to do but have fun, youknowwhaImean,
I mean, what the fuck else do you want? We had girls everywhere
you look -- just, everything was perfect! Couldn't be better!
I don't look back at it at all sad. I'm sad that Steve's dead,
obviously, and that Ronnie's ill, but....and that we never got
paid, you know, but that wasn't why we did it -- we didn't do
it for the money in the first place. So when we do finally get
our money from these thieves, it'll be FANTASTIC!
KEN SHARP: It'll be great, you'll have a big party...
IAN MCLAGAN: Small party, yeah...
KEN SHARP: Let's set the record straight on royalties since 1970....
IAN MCLAGAN: No royalties ever from Small Faces records! Ever!
Penny One we have not received. Steve died without getting one
penny ever from publishing or recording. 12 - 15 million pounds
is what we've conservatively estimated we're owed. The legal fight
hasn't even been really started. We're negotiating with the record
companies, Decca, Charly, Repertoire, Castle Communications. Fuck
Immediate! We can't get to Andrew Oldham, Tony Calder, or Pat
Meehan. Sony have taken our stuff off the shelves. They're the
only ones who've really been fair. They've said, okay, we realize
you've been conned, we're not gonna deal with your stuff anymore.
That's the solution temporarily...all of a sudden there was no
Small Faces stuff on the shelves, until we can deal with this.
It's kind of sad that with this whole re-interest that's happening,
and they're all banging out box sets -- get that fucking shit
out to just scrape money off the shelves and then run off with
it. Well, Decca, Castle, Charly, Repertoire, Sony, all these people,
we're gonna settle with 'em, whether they like it or not. We don't
even think they have the rights. We have the feeling that all
these people have been leasing stuff from people who don't even
have the rights in the first place. We're gettin' to the bottom
of it. If we can find out they don't have the rights, then we
can get the rights for ourselves. That would be the ideal situation
-- that we can get the rights for ourselves. Then we could put
it out on Small Faces records, and we could present it in the
best possible way -- real good vinyl, real good CDs, real good
quality cassettes, real good quality books. And put out the Decca
stuff exactly as it should have been. You know, when we left Decca
they put out that From the Beginning album, b-sides and
outtakes.
KENNEY JONES: We are hopefully in healthy discussions with Decca.
We are in litigation at the moment. We feel good about things,
that's all I can say right now. Our lawyers are talking to the
people at the top. We've sold hundreds of millions of records,
and not received a penny for it until now. If we'd had the money,
none of us would have been suffering, even now. Because none of
us is that well off, really. I'm as confident as I can be that
things are gonna work out. We've got a good investigator on it,
and everything that goes out comes to me now, and I put my legal
people onto them, and we'll eventually get around to them. They'll
never escape!
I can assure you that once we get all the rights, we'll make the
catalog far more interesting than it's ever been. I can assure
all the new fans, all the old fans, that once we get all the rights,
and can control the quality of the stuff the way it should be,
that everything will be done right and will be available. [Kenney
was as good as his word. Before his death in 1997, Ronnie Lane
got a small settlement that enabled the Lanes to buy a modest
house in Colorodo. In 2003, Small Faces released their first-ever
authorized, career-spanning CD. The lost millions will likely
remain lost, like sunken pirate's gold, but at least real progress
has been made.]
KEN SHARP: Do you think Steve was proud of the Small Faces? I
think it was his best work.
IAN MCLAGAN: Shit yeah, he was proud of it. I think so too, y'know.
See there was an innocence about it. When you try to get heavy,
you're just kicking yourself. You're pissing in the wind, it doesn't
work. You know, it was some of the best stuff I've ever played,
really, I look back and think -- that ain't bad! I can play it
better now here and there, but it was good. It was representative
of what I was capable of then, and it was done quick and fresh.
It's good and it's got a twenty-year old attitude. I can't play
like that now, I'm fifty now.
KEN SHARP: Are you fifty? You look great!
IAN MCLAGAN: Thanks, I feel alright most days! Gray is okay,
you know!
KEN SHARP: Who was the tallest person in the Small Faces?
IAN MCLAGAN: I dunno, Ronnie Lane? Me? We're all within a half
inch. I mean, I was 5 foot 5 and a half, but my license says 5'
6" because you're not allowed to have a half inch. So I said
can I be 5'5" or 5'6" and they said yeah, so I said
alright! I'll be 5'6", so when I moved to the States I gained
a half inch I don't really have!
Ken, Kent, and John would like to thank the following: Steve
Marriott, Ian & Kim McLagan, Ronnie & Susan Lane, and
Kenney Jones. Jody Denberg and Ed Mayberry of KGSR-FM in Austin,
Texas. Len Brown of Grenada Television in England. Terri Sharp.
For more information, we recommend a fabulous Small Faces
fanzine contact John Hellier at The
Darlings of Wapping Wharf Launderette E1, 99 Church Parade,
Canvey Island, Essex SS8 9RH, England.
