This was the first appearance of The Small Faces in Stevenage.
They had only released two singles at the time - "Whatcha Gonna Do About
It" which had charted and "I've Got Mine" which hadn’t. The
line-up was Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane , Kenny Jones and
new keyboard player Ian McLagan. It cost 5 shillings to get in to
see them on this "Big Beat Night".
The crowd response was enthusiastic and luckily photos have
survived:
A
local paper, Stevenage News was in attendance but were not so
impressed. Their unnamed reporter wrote:
"They came. They saw. They conquered.
But oh! What a watered down victory. The Small Faces have no class at all. Even
as the stage swung them round into the Locarno Ballroom, the timing of their
short introduction refrain was way up the creek. They finished well before they
faced the large audience. But girls jammed against the cow gates in front of
the stage didn’t seem to mind. They screamed and they screamed and they
screamed. It is difficult to say what the Small Faces sang during their two
half hour spots. They wended their way through a variety of inaudible numbers
with the singer being drowned by the backing. The Small Faces have a long way
to go before reaching a decent standard of professionalism.”
Les Brown was there: " One of my most vivid memories was when the Small Faces played there. The ballroom was packed out and the girls were screaming and fainting and being carried out into the fresh air".
The undoubted appeal of The Small Faces led to them appearing again at the
Mecca in May and July 1966. The admission fee went up to six shillings on those
nights.
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