3/27/2023 0 Comments Windsor oxford deluxe tangerine![]() Page made his debut with the band at London’s Marquee club on 21 June 1966. Page agreed to join the band, initially on bass, but once Dreja was proficient enough to switch to four-string, he took a dual lead guitar role with Beck. He promptly quit the band to move on to what would become a highly successful role as a record producer – working with Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Paul Simon and Jethro Tull among others. He had also been involved with Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label in a house producer role.Īfter a disastrous May Ball gig on at Queen’s College in Oxford, Paul Samwell-Smith decided he had endured quite enough. Page himself had carved a considerable niche as the one of the most in-demand session players on the London studio scene – contributing to countless hits of the day. On that occasion he passed the job on to his good friend Jeff Beck. He had been asked to join Relf, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty – when Eric Clapton vacated the lead guitar role after less than 18 months. Page was already well known to The Yardbirds and their management. The rumours of a new group emerging from this recorded liaison seeped into the music press, with the NME’s Tailpieces column of 15 July reporting “rumours suggest two Yardbirds and two members of The Who may combine for new group” – with John Entwistle being the other proposed member. It was around this time that the assembled players hatched a vague plan to form a permanent group – Keith Moon’s comment at the time of them going down like a “lead balloon” (or Zeppelin) would register with Page. Recorded on 16 May at IBC studios in London, those assembled included his friend and highly-respected session man Jimmy Page John Paul Jones, another player of some repute on bass The Who’s Keith Moon on drums and studio musician Nicky Hopkins on piano. In May 1966, Beck had assembled a heavyweight line-up to record an instrumental that would become known as Beck’s Bolero. Relf would release two solo singles during 1966 – a cover of the Elusive Butterfly hitmaker Bob Lind’s Mr Zero, released in the UK in July, followed later in the year by Shapes In My Mind. Decisions by both vocalist Keith Relf and Jeff Beck to record solo material had also dented their solidarity. Now under the management of Simon Napier-Bell, the band were subjected to a heavy workload playing countless gigs across the UK and Europe – often for little financial reward. They were about to release what would become a much-acclaimed album, The Yardbirds (also known as Roger The Engineer, a reference to the record’s audio technician Roger Cameron, who featured in a cartoon on the cover), but beyond the studio, squabbles were taking their toll. Managed in their early days by Giorgio Gomelsky, Eric Clapton had passed through the ranks and Jeff Beck’s arrival in 1965 signalled a run of hit singles that included Evil Hearted You, Shapes Of Things and Over Under Sideways Down. Such disappointments were becoming commonplace for the once highly successful R&B outfit. A gig scheduled for the Isle of Man the previous Thursday had already been cancelled. Alas, due to the illness of guitarist Jeff Beck, they were forced to pull out. This was to have included an appearance by The Yardbirds, by now regulars on the bill after appearing at the two previous festivals staged in the previous location of Richmond, Surrey. Twenty miles south west, ardent music fans were gathering for the sixth annual National Jazz and Blues Festival at the Royal Windsor Racecourse. O n the evening of Saturday, 30 July 1966, national celebrations were underway to mark England’s World Cup Final victory after Bobby Moore and co triumphed 4-2 over West Germany at Wembley Stadium in north west London. ![]()
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