LANE-MARRIOTT
''THE LEGENDARY MAJIK MIJITS''
AUGUST 25 2000
35:23
1 Lonely No More 02:14
2 Chicken (If The Cap Fits) 03:47
3 Toe Rag 01:05
4 Bombers Moon 03:01
5 Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl 02:48
6 Last Tango In NATO 03:11
7 How Does It Feel? 02:39
8 That's The Way It Goes 02:41
9 You Spent It 03:30
10 Son Of Stanley Lane 02:09
11 Be The One 02:25
12 Ruby Jack 03:34
13 All Or Nothing...Reprise (Live From The Canning Row Gig) 02:12
Steve Marriott – guitar, vocals
Ronnie Lane – bass guitar, vocals
Mick Green – guitar
Mick Weaver – keyboards
Jim Leverton – bass guitar
Dave Hynes – drums
Sam Brown – backing vocals
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann (AllMusic)
Finally surfacing nearly 20 years after the fact, the great lost "Majik Mijits" album project is a duo recording made in the early '80s by the creative forces from Small Faces, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. (The Majik Mijits moniker is yet another reference to their diminutive size.) Marriott at the time was fresh out of reunions with Small Faces (a gathering that had initially included Lane) and Humble Pie; Lane, most recently a solo artist, was just starting to suffer the physical limitations associated with multiple sclerosis. They organized a band featuring bassist Jim Leverton, guitarist Mick Green, drummer Dave Hynes, and keyboardist Mick Weaver, and used Lane's mobile recording studio to cut an LP democratically sequenced with six songs each by Lane and Marriott (no collaborations), alternating one after the other. The result, not surprisingly, has moments when it sounds like Small Faces. In particular, Marriott's "How Does It Feel" could have been a Small Faces single of the 1980s. Typically, Lane's songs are sturdy, well-constructed efforts, while Marriott's are more varied, sometimes ("Toe Rag") even being comic throwaways. And why was the album not released in, say, 1982? Apparently, record companies either passed on it or required that the band tour to support it, which Lane was incapable of doing. So, instead, the tapes ended up in the possession of Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones before emerging in the new millennium. Now, they constitute a worthy footnote in the Small Faces story.
BIOGRAPHY (RONNIE LANE)
by Steve Kurutz (AllMusic)
As the former bassist for the Small Faces, and later the Faces, Ronnie Lane left both bands when he felt the spirit of the group had died, gaining him the reputation of an uncompromising artist, and allowing him the opportunity to release some fine solo material in the '70s.
An underrated singer and songwriter, Lane (along with guitarist Steve Marriott) co-founded the British mod group the Small Faces in the mid-'60s, helping to guide them to the top of British charts with his clever songwriting. After Marriott left, Lane jettisoned the group's mod reputation and, adding former Jeff Beck cohorts Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, Lane re-formed the group as the Faces, a loud, boozy rock band that achieved widespread success in the States (something the Small Faces could never do). Although Lane was the unacknowledged leader among the group members, audiences were drawn to singer Rod Stewart, and when Stewart's burgeoning solo career began affecting the quality of the Faces' albums, Lane jumped ship to form his own band in 1973.
Billing themselves as Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance, the bassist organized an ambitious tour dubbed the "Passing Show" that included a traveling circus complete with jugglers, clowns, and animals in 1974. Although the tour was an interesting moment in rock history, it was a financial failure from which Lane would never recover. For income, he continued leasing his mobile recording unit out to bands like Led Zeppelin, who used it to record their double-LP Physical Graffiti.
With Slim Chance, Lane released several albums with a folk-rock flavor in the mid-'70s that spotlighted his minstrel-esque songs and fragile voice. And in 1976, Lane teamed up with Ron Wood, releasing the movie soundtrack album Mahoney's Last Stand. The following year, Lane again collaborated, this time with longtime friend and fellow mod Pete Townshend, on the critically acknowledged classic Rough Mix. Contributing songs such as the acoustic-drenched "Annie" and "April Fool," Lane once again exhibited the depth of feeling in his songwriting that he had displayed so wonderfully with the Small Faces and Faces. Sadly, Lane was diagnosed with the debilitating disease multiple sclerosis in the late '70s, severely curtailing his musical output. He released the solo album See Me in 1980, and in 1983, friends such as Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Jimmy Page rallied around him, organizing an ARMS foundation benefit concert and tour, and donating the proceeds to the treatment of MS. In the '80s Lane relocated to Austin, TX, recording songs and occasionally fronting a local group called the Tremors, playing gigs around the city. In 1990, the bassist toured Japan, his last major tour, and later moved to Colorado where the climate was better suited to the treatment of MS.
Always remembered as a kindred spirit and talented musician who was able to write songs that cut to the core of human emotion, in June of 1997, the disease that had curtailed Ronnie Lane's music finally took his life. In 1999, there appeared a compilation featuring a number of rarities and outtakes titled April Fool.
BIOGRAPHY (STEVE MARRIOTT)
by Jason Ankeny (AllMusic)
The frontman for British hitmakers the Small Faces and Humble Pie, singer/guitarist Steve Marriott was born January 30, 1947 in London; a successful child actor, he played the role of the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver! as a teen, but by the mid-'60s, he was working in a local music shop. There he met bassist Ronnie Lane, agreeing to jam with his band the Pioneers; Marriott soon joined the group full-time and, after adopting a sound influenced by American R&B and a look inspired by Mod fashions, they rechristened themselves the Small Faces. Though best-known in the U.S. for their hit "Itchycoo Park," at home, the Small Faces enjoyed much greater success, reeling off a series of smashes including "All or Nothing," "My Mind's Eye," and "Lazy Sunday" as well as the 1968 classic LP Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. The chart popularity of "Lazy Sunday" rankled Marriott, however -- he'd recorded the song as a joke and it was released despite his objections -- and when the more thoughtful "The Universal" failed to crack the Top 20, his dissatisfaction only increased.
Marriott's tenure with the Small Faces ended after he stalked offstage during a New Year's Day 1969 performance; he soon recruited ex-Herd guitarist Peter Frampton to form the hard rock combo Humble Pie, and after months of woodshedding at Marriott's Essex cottage, the group issued its debut single, "Natural Born Boogie," cracking the U.K. Top Five. The LP As Safe as Yesterday Is followed, but again American success eluded Marriott until the release of the 1971 Humble Pie live album Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore, which went gold. Although Frampton left the band soon after, 1972's Smokin' was a smash, reaching the U.S. Top Ten; subsequent efforts failed to achieve the same heights, however, and Humble Pie disbanded in 1975. After the release of the solo Marriott, in 1976, he joined in a Small Faces reunion, then four years later re-formed Humble Pie with original drummer Jerry Shirley; after two LPs, the group again dissolved. Marriott spent the better part of the decade in seclusion, but was planning to reunite with Frampton when he lost his life in a house fire on April 20, 1991.
''THE LEGENDARY MAJIK MIJITS''
AUGUST 25 2000
35:23
1 Lonely No More 02:14
2 Chicken (If The Cap Fits) 03:47
3 Toe Rag 01:05
4 Bombers Moon 03:01
5 Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl 02:48
6 Last Tango In NATO 03:11
7 How Does It Feel? 02:39
8 That's The Way It Goes 02:41
9 You Spent It 03:30
10 Son Of Stanley Lane 02:09
11 Be The One 02:25
12 Ruby Jack 03:34
13 All Or Nothing...Reprise (Live From The Canning Row Gig) 02:12
Steve Marriott – guitar, vocals
Ronnie Lane – bass guitar, vocals
Mick Green – guitar
Mick Weaver – keyboards
Jim Leverton – bass guitar
Dave Hynes – drums
Sam Brown – backing vocals
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann (AllMusic)
Finally surfacing nearly 20 years after the fact, the great lost "Majik Mijits" album project is a duo recording made in the early '80s by the creative forces from Small Faces, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. (The Majik Mijits moniker is yet another reference to their diminutive size.) Marriott at the time was fresh out of reunions with Small Faces (a gathering that had initially included Lane) and Humble Pie; Lane, most recently a solo artist, was just starting to suffer the physical limitations associated with multiple sclerosis. They organized a band featuring bassist Jim Leverton, guitarist Mick Green, drummer Dave Hynes, and keyboardist Mick Weaver, and used Lane's mobile recording studio to cut an LP democratically sequenced with six songs each by Lane and Marriott (no collaborations), alternating one after the other. The result, not surprisingly, has moments when it sounds like Small Faces. In particular, Marriott's "How Does It Feel" could have been a Small Faces single of the 1980s. Typically, Lane's songs are sturdy, well-constructed efforts, while Marriott's are more varied, sometimes ("Toe Rag") even being comic throwaways. And why was the album not released in, say, 1982? Apparently, record companies either passed on it or required that the band tour to support it, which Lane was incapable of doing. So, instead, the tapes ended up in the possession of Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones before emerging in the new millennium. Now, they constitute a worthy footnote in the Small Faces story.
BIOGRAPHY (RONNIE LANE)
by Steve Kurutz (AllMusic)
As the former bassist for the Small Faces, and later the Faces, Ronnie Lane left both bands when he felt the spirit of the group had died, gaining him the reputation of an uncompromising artist, and allowing him the opportunity to release some fine solo material in the '70s.
An underrated singer and songwriter, Lane (along with guitarist Steve Marriott) co-founded the British mod group the Small Faces in the mid-'60s, helping to guide them to the top of British charts with his clever songwriting. After Marriott left, Lane jettisoned the group's mod reputation and, adding former Jeff Beck cohorts Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, Lane re-formed the group as the Faces, a loud, boozy rock band that achieved widespread success in the States (something the Small Faces could never do). Although Lane was the unacknowledged leader among the group members, audiences were drawn to singer Rod Stewart, and when Stewart's burgeoning solo career began affecting the quality of the Faces' albums, Lane jumped ship to form his own band in 1973.
Billing themselves as Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance, the bassist organized an ambitious tour dubbed the "Passing Show" that included a traveling circus complete with jugglers, clowns, and animals in 1974. Although the tour was an interesting moment in rock history, it was a financial failure from which Lane would never recover. For income, he continued leasing his mobile recording unit out to bands like Led Zeppelin, who used it to record their double-LP Physical Graffiti.
With Slim Chance, Lane released several albums with a folk-rock flavor in the mid-'70s that spotlighted his minstrel-esque songs and fragile voice. And in 1976, Lane teamed up with Ron Wood, releasing the movie soundtrack album Mahoney's Last Stand. The following year, Lane again collaborated, this time with longtime friend and fellow mod Pete Townshend, on the critically acknowledged classic Rough Mix. Contributing songs such as the acoustic-drenched "Annie" and "April Fool," Lane once again exhibited the depth of feeling in his songwriting that he had displayed so wonderfully with the Small Faces and Faces. Sadly, Lane was diagnosed with the debilitating disease multiple sclerosis in the late '70s, severely curtailing his musical output. He released the solo album See Me in 1980, and in 1983, friends such as Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Jimmy Page rallied around him, organizing an ARMS foundation benefit concert and tour, and donating the proceeds to the treatment of MS. In the '80s Lane relocated to Austin, TX, recording songs and occasionally fronting a local group called the Tremors, playing gigs around the city. In 1990, the bassist toured Japan, his last major tour, and later moved to Colorado where the climate was better suited to the treatment of MS.
Always remembered as a kindred spirit and talented musician who was able to write songs that cut to the core of human emotion, in June of 1997, the disease that had curtailed Ronnie Lane's music finally took his life. In 1999, there appeared a compilation featuring a number of rarities and outtakes titled April Fool.
BIOGRAPHY (STEVE MARRIOTT)
by Jason Ankeny (AllMusic)
The frontman for British hitmakers the Small Faces and Humble Pie, singer/guitarist Steve Marriott was born January 30, 1947 in London; a successful child actor, he played the role of the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver! as a teen, but by the mid-'60s, he was working in a local music shop. There he met bassist Ronnie Lane, agreeing to jam with his band the Pioneers; Marriott soon joined the group full-time and, after adopting a sound influenced by American R&B and a look inspired by Mod fashions, they rechristened themselves the Small Faces. Though best-known in the U.S. for their hit "Itchycoo Park," at home, the Small Faces enjoyed much greater success, reeling off a series of smashes including "All or Nothing," "My Mind's Eye," and "Lazy Sunday" as well as the 1968 classic LP Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. The chart popularity of "Lazy Sunday" rankled Marriott, however -- he'd recorded the song as a joke and it was released despite his objections -- and when the more thoughtful "The Universal" failed to crack the Top 20, his dissatisfaction only increased.
Marriott's tenure with the Small Faces ended after he stalked offstage during a New Year's Day 1969 performance; he soon recruited ex-Herd guitarist Peter Frampton to form the hard rock combo Humble Pie, and after months of woodshedding at Marriott's Essex cottage, the group issued its debut single, "Natural Born Boogie," cracking the U.K. Top Five. The LP As Safe as Yesterday Is followed, but again American success eluded Marriott until the release of the 1971 Humble Pie live album Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore, which went gold. Although Frampton left the band soon after, 1972's Smokin' was a smash, reaching the U.S. Top Ten; subsequent efforts failed to achieve the same heights, however, and Humble Pie disbanded in 1975. After the release of the solo Marriott, in 1976, he joined in a Small Faces reunion, then four years later re-formed Humble Pie with original drummer Jerry Shirley; after two LPs, the group again dissolved. Marriott spent the better part of the decade in seclusion, but was planning to reunite with Frampton when he lost his life in a house fire on April 20, 1991.
1 comment :
Nice my friend, Thank You, good stuff!
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