FLYING HOME WITH THE YARDBIRDS

MARQUEE NIGHTS WITH THE YARDBIRDS

Oh to be in Soho when Yardbirds were flying home to roost! If you wanted to spot our feathered friends in action back in the early Sixties, The Marquee Club in London was the place to perch. That’s why once a week, queues of fans stretched down Wardour Street, Soho, waiting patiently to be allowed into the cavernous gloom of a club The Yardbirds called home.

Plenty of other groups were keen to play a residency at the friendly venue that was also the HQ of the National Jazz Federation. The NJF ran annual festivals, operated a management agency, organised tours and had its own recording studio. The Marquee was always a hive of activity presided over by its urbane director Harold Pendleton and his lordly club manager John C.Gee.

A visitor back in 1964 would have discovered The Marquee was devoid of such facilities as a bar, although it did have rows of tip up seats in front of the stage. These were later removed as ever more fans packed into the former posh ballroom now plastered in chewing gum. The heat inside on a ‘good night’ resulted in frequent clamours for air conditioning. Such quaint ideas were ignored once a licensed bar was eventually installed. More sweat – more beer.

Melody Maker described the club in 1965 as ‘The melting pop of today’s hip music, where jazz, folk and pop meet on equal terms.’ It was where the Rolling Stones launched their career and The Who built a fan following for ‘Maximum R&B.’ Other exciting regulars were The Moody Blues, The Animals, Manfred Mann and the Mark Leeman Five. Later came the Spencer Davis Group, Jethro Tull, Free and Ten Years After.

ON STAGE

But it was The Yardbirds who were the best loved ‘blues revivalists’. Once inside the club their adoring fans waited impatiently for the moment when MC Hamish Grimes introduced ‘the most blues wailing Yardbirds.’

The Mod style lads waited nervously in the cramped corridor behind the stage known as a ‘dressing room.’ There was a narrow bench seat and a blank wall covered in graffiti, mostly consisting of rude remarks about other musicians. One memorable scrawl proclaimed that ‘Townshend is a nose on legs.’ In this confined space the guitarists tuned up and singers tossed their mane in front of a cracked mirror.

When the lads filed out on a stage they were given friendly cheers. Singer Keith Relf, frail looking with a blond fringe over his eyes, clutched a trusty harmonica. Eric ‘Slowhand’ Clapton, eager to solo, hoped to avoid breaking yet another guitar string. Chris Dreja, calm, controlled, was ready to glue the band together with his throbbing rhythm guitar. Slim, good-looking Paul Samwell-Smith was the bass player, ready to rock when not cooking up new production ideas.

At the back and prone to Goon-ish humour was drummer Jim McCarty, primed to keep up the fast and furious tempos required for tunes like ‘Too Much Monkey Business,’ ‘Smokestack Lightning,’ ‘I’m A Man’ and ‘Here ‘Tis’ that reflected the prevailing influence of Bo Didley, Chuck Berry and Howlin’ Wolf.

This was the material that was recorded at a Marquee session in March 1964 and can be heard on their subsequent ‘Five Live Yardbirds’ LP. Amidst the wailing harmonica, shouting vocals and tumultuous rhythms emerged the sound of Eric Clapton, whose solos back then were edgy and excitable. He was already outstanding but as Clapton gained confidence, so he became more frustrated.

FOR YOUR LOVE

This was because the group already had ideas about the pursuit of hit records, a concept that did not appeal to their resident blues purist. Their first important single ‘For Your Love’ would have far reaching effects. Graham Gouldman wrote the unusual tune and the band’s producer Paul Samwell Smith explained how the group hoped it would bring them a hit.

Said Paul: “We added harpsichord and bongos and the recording gets much louder at the end for a big climax. We used the extra instruments because the R&B sound is a bit dated now – it really is. On a club session you still can’t beat R&B, which is a lovely exciting sound. I love the harpsichord sound though!”

Just a few weeks after ‘For Your Love’ was a hit, calamity struck. ‘Clapton Quits Yardbirds – ‘Too Commercial’ ran the headline in Melody Maker. It was announced that Eric was to be replaced by Jeff Beck. Said Keith Relf: “It’s very sad because we are all friends. There was no bad feeling at all, but Eric does not get on well with the business. He does not like commercialisation. He loves the blues so much I suppose he did not like it being played badly by a white shower like us! Eric did not like our new record ‘For Your Love’. He should have been featured but he did not want to sing or anything and he only did that boogie bit in the middle. His leaving is bound to be a blow to the group’s image because Eric was very popular. Jeff Beck, who is very, very good, was recommended to us by session man Jimmy Page, who is the Guv’nor.’

BECK’S BOOGIE

And so Jeff Beck entered The Yardbirds in the Spring of 1965 just as the group were entering the most successful phase of their career. It was Jeff; fleet fingered and prepared to experiment with new sounds, who contributed to the band’s first studio album ‘The Yardbirds aka Roger The Engineer’ (1966). A special anniversary edition is among the many Yardbirds CDs now made available by Repertoire. A highlight of this album was Beck’s boogie style guitar solos, strongly influenced by Les Paul.

By the mid Sixties The Yardbirds had gained several hits including ‘Still I’m Sad’, ‘Heart Full Of Soul’ and the brilliant ‘Shapes Of Things.’ But having played virtually every venue in the UK they had gone off to tour America, which proved an exhausting experience. Not long after Jeff joined the Yardbirds I spoke to him and Keith Relf and they revealed they were depressed and frustrated at their lack of exposure and recognition.

Said Keith in summer 1965: “People now expect each of our records to be different. But as far as publicity is concerned it’s completely up the spout and I don’t even know if it exists for us. We need publicity of a certain kind – about the music we are trying to play.”

Jeff Beck: “The Yardbirds have being going for 18 months now and nobody has been saying they are going to be the next big thing, like they do for other groups. We get very despondent when we try so hard.” Said Samwell-Smith: “We just came back from America where they didn’t really know us. And we should have had a tour here by now.”

Almost as a protest the group announced they were going to cut their hair short. “We are going to have radical haircuts,” Keith told, still sporting his Brian Jones style fringe. “Mine too,” said Jeff. “Long hair is so unmanageable.”

JIMMY JUMPS IN

It was Jeff who proved more unmanageable as the strain of long tours in America began to tell. Keith too underwent a crisis when he drank too much and made an exhibition of himself at a Cambridge May Ball. He shouted abuse at the society types who were ignoring the band and fell over. Jimmy Page, who was in the audience, was most amused by the whole thing. Not long afterwards Paul Samwell-Smith quit and Jimmy joined on bass. It wasn’t long before Chris Dreja took over the bass and Jimmy became the band’s second lead guitarist. It became known as the ‘dual stereo’ line up with Beck and Page hammering away up front and completely drowning out the vocalist.

Once again the group played at the Marquee and the twin guitarists created a deafening but entertaining spectacle. Few realised that they were creating the template for heavy rock and that one day The Yardbirds would implode leaving the way for Jimmy Page to create Led Zeppelin.

When Jeff Beck left the band in the midst of a US tour, it gave Jimmy the opportunity to front the group and hone such numbers as ‘Dazed And Confused.’ It also put him in contact with tour manager Peter Grant who helped him form Zeppelin, when The Yardbirds finally split up in 1968.

So the first time I saw Jimmy Page playing was with The Yardbirds in 1966 and again with Led Zeppelin for the first time, at The Marquee in 1968. It’s hard at this distance in time to remember exactly what they sounded like, except it was loud, exciting and fun. But then most nights at the Marquee were like that and The Yardbirds were always the most fun. It’s extraordinary to think how the careers of Clapton, Beck and Page blossomed in the aftermath. So are those days over, under and sideways down? Not when The Yardbirds are still touring and their classic albums are all coming out on Repertoire CDs.

The great Yardbirds CDs available include:
Over Under Sidways Down (REP 5135)
Heart Full Of Soul (REP 5136)
The Yardbirds (40th Anniversary Special Edition) (REP 5091)
The Best Of The Yardbirds Limited Edition (REP 5091)
Having a Rave Up (REP 4758)
Singles As, Bs & EPs (REP 5046)
Sonny Boy Williamson & The Yardbirds – Live At The Crawdaddy (REP 4776)
For Your Love (REP 4757)
Five Live Yardbirds (REP 4775)
The Yardbirds (40th Anniversry Special Edition) a.k.a. Roger The Engineer (REP 5088)
Over Under Sideways Down/Roger The Engineer (REP 4681)
The BBC Sessions (REP 4777)

The Yardbirds Official Website www.theyardbirds.com

Yep – it’s time for another Rave Up!

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 in Those Were The Days.

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