THIS weekend sees The Small Faces receive one of the most coveted awards the music world has to offer. Close to four-and-a-half decades after they split up, the group are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, joining an elite club of legends.
Only half a dozen acts are chosen each year by the US-based institution, and what makes the inclusion of four unassuming east London lads particularly special is that it’s the first time in its 30-year history the hall of fame has opened its doors to a band that never played live in America.
“It’s a great honour,” says drummer Kenney Jones. “It’s not as well-known in this country, but in America it’s like a music biz knighthood. It used to bug me that we didn’t get in earlier, I thought they’d forgotten about us. Every year I’d see the list of nominees and wonder: ‘What’s going on? Where are we?’
“I assumed we’d shot ourselves in the foot by never going over there, but Mac (keyboard player Ian McLagan) couldn’t get a work permit because of a minor drugs conviction. Trivial by today’s standards, but it left us stuck at home.
“It hit us hard, because there was a feeling we could have done really well in the States, that we would have slotted right in, our sound was so attuned to America’s own music. There was no YouTube or internet, of course, so if you didn’t go over there and play you might as well not have existed.” To be continued HERE
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