Hi-Fi Choice - May

LABELLED WITH LOVE
Small Faces
The label’s house band and one of the cornerstones of UK psych-pop
Released from record
company Decca and
formidable manager Don Arden,
Oldham wasted no time in
signing Small Faces to Immediate.
Although the thorny issue of
cash would eventually be part of
the group’s undoing, at the time,
the creative freedom the label
gave songwriters Steve Marriott
and Ronnie Lane was priceless.
Small Faces’ first flowering of
their new direction was infectious
45 Here Comes The Nice. The
Small Faces LP followed: the
group’s second album, it barely
puts a foot wrong, home to
perfectly formed cuts such as
Get Yourself Together, My Way of
Giving and Green Circles. Retitled
There Are But Four Small Faces for
the US, follow up single Itchycoo
Park was added, along with
arguably the greatest Marriott-
Lane composition: Tin Soldier.
The follow-up album flew even
higher: Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
fused psychedelia, folk, music
hall and English whimsy –
courtesy of narrator of
gobbledegook Stanley Unwin –
and wrapped it up in an
innovative, fold-out circular
sleeve, which must have cost a
fortune to realise. This was a
major artistic leap forward and a
chart-topping LP but, unable to
shake their pop image, Small
Faces were no more by 1968:
Small Faces
enjoyed the label’s
creative freedom
Marriott unveiled his Humble Pie
project while the remaining
members joined ex-Jeff Beck
Group stalwarts Ronnie Wood
and Rod Stewart as Faces.
An excellent posthumous album
The Autumn Stone was released in
1969, rounding up key cuts, live
recordings and unreleased gems,
with final epic 45 Afterglow (Of
Your Love) a fitting full stop for
one of the swinging sixties’ most
fondly remembered groups.
The other fab four’s debut for Oldham’s imprint
overflows with infectious pop goodness
PP Arnold
The spectacularly groovy voice of The First Lady of Immediate
Patricia Ann Cole, otherwise
known as soul vocalist
extraordinare PP Arnold, began
her singing career in America,
joining the Ike & Tina Review
in 1964, but dropped anchor
in London in 1966 to go solo,
thanks to the encouragement
of one Michael Jagger.
She cut two excellent albums
for Oldham’s imprint: The First
Lady of Immediate, closely
followed by Kafunta, both 1968.
The former hoovers up her
most well-known recording –
soulful 45 The First Cut Is The
Deepest, also made famous by
Cat Stevens, among others – and
inexplicable near miss (If You
Think You’re) Groovy. An
explosive mod classic written
by and featuring Small Faces’
Marriott and Lane.
Kafunta sees Arnold placing
her distinctive stamp on some
of the biggest acts of the sixties,
including interpretations of The
Beatles (Eleanor Rigby), The
Stones (As Tears Go By) and the
Beach Boys (God Only Knows),
but the standout cut is her
irresistible cover of Evie Sands’
Angel Of The Morning.
Following the crumbling of
Immediate, Arnold released
a couple of strong singles on
Polydor, produced by Bee Gee
PP Arnold began
her career on the
Ike & Tina Review
Barry Gibb, and then threw
herself into stage and session
work – memorably contributing
backing vocals to Nick Drake’s
Poor Boy on his cult early
seventies LP Bryter Layter. More
recently, she collaborated with
Primal Scream as PP & The
Primes for a cover of the Small
Faces’ Understanding and
recorded an album with the
Blow Monkeys’ Dr Robert,
2007’s Five In The Afternoon.
Kafunta sees PP Arnold placing her
own soulful stamp on sixties classics
MAY 2016 95