Guide to British Music of the 1960s

October 2009

DVD Review

All or Nothing - The Small Faces

British Invasion: All or Nothing - The Small Faces

Reelin' in the Years

Released: September 2009

This promises to be the best-ever compilation on DVD of the Small Faces. There are 23 complete performances filmed between 1966 and 1968 including the earlier tracks All or Nothing, What'Cha Gonna Do About It and Sha La La La Lee. As the band's musical style evolved Green Circles, Tin Soldier and Itchycoo Park had a very different feel. A real highlight of this DVD is the previously unavailable six-song suite from side two of Ogden's Nut Gone Flake from BBC's Colour Me Pop. New interviews with Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston are included between songs along with some archive interviews with Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott. The DVD includes a 24-page booklet with an essay by rock historians and previously unseen photographs.

Watch a trailer of the DVD

The DVD is a chronological journey through the Small Faces career with clips of most of the singles and some album tracks. Some of these are played live and others mimed. The German Beat Beat Beat live tracks and mimed Beat Club tracks are already easily available but there are some real gems here that were either unavailable or hard to obtain. This is the most complete collection of Small Faces live video or promotional films that has been put together. However, there are some gaps for those who are expecting the definitive collection of all Small Faces visual material. For example, one of the Beat Beat Beat live tracks, All or Nothing, is not included as are some of the Beat Club mimed tracks. There is other Small Faces live material available such as from the French television programme Surprise Partie. Promotional films are also not included for Lazy Sunday, Get Yourself Together, etc. Also missing is Tin Soldier featuring PP Arnold on backing vocals, a real gem.

A longer transcript of Ronnie Lane's final interview is included. Parts of this have been shown before but this is a more complete version of the interview. Ronnie had already been diagnosed with MS and this is clearly evident in the interview. The interviews that have been recorded for this DVD do add to the story and do not simply regurgitate earlier content. The original keyboard player Jimmy Winston is included although he only features playing guitar on the mimed Dateline Diamonds clip of I've Got Mine. Unfortunately, there do not seem to be any clips available of Jimmy playing on the debut single What'Cha Gonna Do About It.

The band's dissatisfaction with the commercial direction of Sha La La La Lee and Hey Girl is evident even though they did write the latter. This was quite unrepresentative of what the band was about on stage. A series of clips from the first appearance at London's Marquee is a complete contrast. Albeit truncated, these clips show just what a hot R&B band the Small Faces were. However, the singles tended more towards the commercial side with All or Nothing making number 1 in the UK. Another performance from the Morecambe & Wise Show is I Can't Make It which, played live, is very powerful and shows the combination of a commercial song with the band's live power.

Kenney and Mac talk about the move from Don Arden to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records. Despite the problems that later appeared, the band was allowed much more studio time where they could experiment. Ronnie Lane echoes these sentiments and notes: "We didn't make any money from Immediate Records. I don't know anyone who did." My Way of Giving shows how the sound is starting to change.

At the same time the band became more "daring" with songwriting. Despite its obvious drug references, Here Come the Nice passed the BBC censors. The follow-up Itchycoo Park is arguably the band's best known song and one which also has druggy overtones. Ian McLagan notes his dislike of the song and notes that the song is anti-education. Green Circles is a superb Ronnie Lane song. the clip from Beat Club attempts to add psychedelic effects although the zooming in and out of green circles does lose impact in black and white!

One of the rare pieces of footage is a mimed version of I'm Only Dreaming. At a time when b-sides were often fillers this is a real stand-out moment and a song that is widely viewed as one of the best Small Faces tracks today.

When Tin Soldier was released everything came together. Every band member played to his peak. Mac notes that he is playing three sets of keyboards "and that's just the intro." The importance of engineer Glyn Johns is also noted as he achieved the best sounds. Tin Soldier also demonstrates just how good a songwriter Steve Marriott was. The mimed clip is from Beat Club which is a pity as there are better versions available. However, the undoubted quality of the song and the passion of the Small Faces' playing still comes across in a major way. Even after hundreds of listens, this is a song that still makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on-end.

While on the road, Andrew Loog Oldham released Lazy Sunday as a single. This horrified the band who saw it as a joke and not reflective of their style, after it it was the follow-up to the storming Tin Soldier. There is no doubt that Lazy Sunday is a superb record. However, in terms of musical development it set the band backwards and may ultimately have contributed to the band's split. However, then came Ogdens Nut Gone Flake. Mac tells the story of the unusual sleeve with the references to smoking dope. The title track is a mimed version from French television. This shows the band with Marriott on keyboards but where is Mac?

The final tracks are taken from the BBC show Colour Me Pop. These appear to be live but may in fact be mimed but with a "live" microphone that captures some adlibs. The second side of the album is played in its entirety with narration by Stanley Unwin. The narration was certainly recorded fresh for the programme as it is not the same as on the record.

How do you follow that? With difficulty. The next single was The Universal which was little more than vocals and guitar. After Tin Soldier and Ogdens Nut Gone Flake this was somewhat of an anticlimax. Steve walked out on the band during a gig at Alexandra Palace on 31 December 1968 although the band did fulfil some contractual obligations in Europe during 1969.

     Track Listing from Documentary:
  • What'Cha Gonna Do About It
  • I've Got Mine
  • Sha La La La Lee
  • Plum Nellie
  • You Need Loving
  • Baby Please Don't Go
  • Hey Girl
  • All or Nothing
  • I Can't Make It
  • Tell Me (Have You Ever Seen Me)
  • My Way of Giving
  • Talk To You
  • Here Come The Nice
  • Green Circles
  • Itchycoo Park
  • I'm Only Dreaming
  • Tin Soldier
  • Lazy Sunday
  • Ogdens Nut Gone Flake
  • Song of a Baker
  • Happiness Stan
  • Rollin' Over
  • The Fly
  • The Journey
  • Mad John
  • HappyDaysToyTown
  • The Universal

Individual Sections:

Beat Beat Beat (Germany)

  • Hey Girl
  • What'Cha Gonna Do About It
  • Sha La La La Lee

Promotional Film

  • All or Nothing

Promotional Film

  • Hey Girl

Promotional Film

  • All or Nothing

Morecombe & Wise Show

  • I Can't Make It
  • All or Nothing

Swedish TV

  • Tin Soldier

???

  • Itchycoo Park
  • My Way of Giving

Swedish TV

  • Talk To You
  • Rollin' Over

Surprise Partie (France)

  • Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Beat Club (Germany)

  • Lazy Sunday

Colour Me Pop (UK)

  • Song of a Baker
  • Happiness Stan
  • Rollin' Over
  • The Fly
  • The Journey
  • Mad John
  • HappyDaysToyTown

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