Have Me A Real Good Time: The Faces Before During and After [Hardcover]

Credit where credit is due. This is an exhaustive (but very readable) trawl of the individual and collective careers of those people belonging to The Faces, Small Faces, The Jeff Beck Band, The Birds and other very minor bands throughout the 60's and 70's which for me personally, define a - if not the - golden period for British music and musicians.

This also exposes - inevitably - some of the worst excesses, tactics and jealousies of the music business and those involved, including Don Arden, Andrew Loog Oldham and all the primary musicians - so we can safely say that the title, particularly for the principle characters involved, is very appropriate - they DID have a real good time!

The Faces on a good night were one of the best bands you could see - period. On a bad night, they were bad - period. In mitigation, they came up the hard way - second time round with huge debts - by sheer hard work and dedication to their craft - and imbibing - at a time when they were needed - when a lot of bands were getting too serious and too far up their own posteriors!

The Faces were going along quite nicely - until Maggie May came along. It must have been difficult for all the parties involved to have this scenario where an individual within a band had more success as a solo artist while at the time pursuing a parallel career with that band. With his solo material, Stewart had the personal control in the studio and could dictate; in The Faces he was one fifth of five players who, at their best created some memorable and lasting music. This was never replicated however, to any great and consistent degree but, their third album " A Nod Is As Good As A Wink" came the closest to this. I honestly believe that all the really excellent Faces studio tracks could be put onto a cracking double album and their live album, "Overtures And Beginners", released in 1973 wasn't really a true representation of The Faces 'live'.

Rod Stewart always had a reputation for short hands and long pockets - this book backs it up. In fairness mind, he did help with the medical bills for Ronnie Lane towards the end of Lane's life. His first four albums were done very quickly (and relatively cheaply) and were his best albums to date. He has never improved on any of them.

Kenney Jones, always the quiet one - finally came good (a quote from his first wife Jan Jones) and is now a very rich man. He also fought long and hard along with Mac to get monies owed to them out of the ashes of The Small Faces.

Ian McLagan is a very good musician, particularly on piano and organ and has been one of those musicians who bands want to use his services, whether in the studio or on the road. Despite all those years passing and his excesses, he is still here working doing what he loves doing, playing music. He has also been a true and sincere advocate for perpetuating the name of Ronnie Lane. Indeed, he still performs a number of Plonk's songs in his live act.

Ronnie Wood is a very under-rated musician; his prowess on electric and slide guitar is overlooked, he has (long ago) since added pedal steel guitar and latterly saxophone, keyboards and drums to his repertoire but, as well as the guitar, he is and always has been a very good and very melodic bass player. Just listen to the bass work on "Truth" (The Jeff Beck Band) and the early Rod Stewart albums and specifically those Stewart/Wood compositions. Check out too, the bass on Keith West's "On A Saturday" (Teenage Opera album) - that is also Ronnie Wood. As The Faces implode towards the end he shows up as the go-between, trying to keep the peace and keep the band on the road.

But, it is Ronnie Lane who was the heart of The Faces (even in the opinion of Stewart) and one suspects, The Small Faces. Steve Marriott (what a voice AND front man!) always got the plaudits but, in view of his relatively minor success with Humble Pie and Lane's success with The Faces (and his own solo albums too) implies to me personally that Lane was the better craftsman with regard to songwriting. I saw "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" with Hart, Simpson and O'Lochlainn et al and they were probably the best live act I have ever seen. They were incredibly gifted musicians and had a really excellent stagecraft and no-one better than Ronnie Lane.

If I had any criticism and they are very minor, it would be little errors such as spelling 'stories' instead of 'storeys' (floors), "he would of done" instead of "he would have done" - that's a quote from Glyn Johns and on one piece the author says that Stewart and Wood sing but, as it is a Lane song ('Devotion" as I recall) it is clearly Stewart and Lane singing.

All in all though, a really good and enjoyable read of well over 400 pages - it took me three days - and for diehard fans, there is an excellent bibliography (detailing all their gigs, record release dates, interview sources) at the end.

Credit where credit is due - Andy Neill has done a sterling job in his research and he certainly gives a lot of credit to those who have helped him. Incredibly some characters in this tale even kept diaries !

Recommended for Faces fans and for those who are interested in the personalities and dynamics of what keeps a band going and some very good reasons why they don't and eventually fall by the wayside.

I've been waiting for years for someone to bring a book out about my favourite band of all time.
The faces are so under rated I thought it would never happen. This book is what I've been waiting for.
An excellent book which is a must have for any faces fan. It's really in-depth and tells it like it was.
No glossing over and a really intelligent book. The author has done an excellent job and any faces fan won't be dissapointed. What are you waiting for? BUY IT NOW.

This is a superb book, as much a page-turner as any novel or thriller you'll ever read. If you grew up in the Sixties and Seventies you'll love seeing those great days brought back to life before your eyes - the author has done a superb job, without the help of some major players (about which he is charitable as, to paraphrase him, they have their own book to do). The ones who do contribute, Jones and Maclagan especially, are very honest and don't often come out looking good. There are annoying stories of hotel destruction and irresponsible behaviour which served to let no-one but the fans down - these boys had talent to waste and boy, did they waste it. You pull your hair out sometimes thinking about the great music they COULD have made if egos, money, drink and drugs hadn't got in the way. Poor old Plonk Lane is revealed as a naive soul, always making the wrong decision but optimistic to the end. Rod Stewart's reputation as a skinflint and an egomaniac is reinforced, but a very kind side of him is also revealed as the tale resolves itself. If you've never heard a note of Faces music, you'll still enjoy this book.