Cherry Red [Release date : 28.02.25]

CD1 : Onto Victory (1980)
CD2 : Go For The Throat (1981)
CD3 : Pyramid Eye Chatanooga (live 1982)
CD4 : Annie’s Club Cincinatti (live 1983)
CD5 : Live At Winterland (1973)

Initially comprising of Steve (Small Faces) Marriott, Peter (The Herd) Frampton, Greg (Spooky Tooth) Ridley and Jerry (Apostolic Intervention) Shirley, Humble Pie came together as a band in 1969.

Their second coming kicked off in 1980 with a military themed album cover and title, On To Victory.

Prior to this, Peter Frampton had gone solo, and ultimately, in 1979, after 9 albums, the band broke up.

Two years later, a confluence of events put Marriott and Shirley back together.

The powerful and ultra successful Leber & Krebs music management team had been working with Jerry Shirley. They told him that with a strong demo, they could land a record deal for a reconstituted (with Marriott) Humble Pie.

The duo immediately set to work. “Steve came to upstate New York, where I was living.” remembers Shirley. “We wrote ‘Fool For A Pretty Face’ in a weekend. One of the proudest things of my time with Steve is that we did genuinely co-write that song, because I already lyrics for the first verse, and the chord sequence, and Steve added the rest. It was a genuine 50/50 arrangement.”

Joined by Brits, guitarist Bobby (Jeff Beck/ Van Morrison) Tench and Anthony “Sooty” Jones on bass, they wrote, recorded and released an album’s worth of songs, eventually titled On To Victory.

The tracks ‘Fool…’, ‘Saving It’ and ‘Infatuation’ are arguably among the career best songs written by either The Pie mk1 or mk 2. No surprise the album sold in decent numbers.

On a roll now, they hit their stride with the follow up album, Go For The Throat. ‘Teenage Anxiety’ and ‘All Shook Up’ were the sound of a born again rock band.

But, as is the way of these things, fate again intervened, and Pie Mk2 dissolved in the face of Marriott’s burgeoning health problems.

Subsequently, Shirley hooked up with “Fast Eddie” Clark in Fastway, leaving Marriott, post surgery, to beat a new path.

That led to Pyramid Eye (CD3) in 1982, in actuality a solo album from a recovered Marriott. A solid collection of rootsy, soulful songs, laid down with local musicians, clearly influenced by the musical history of his new home city, Atlanta.

The Live set on CD4, recorded at Annie’s Club in Cincinatti, is essentially a Small Faces / Humble Pie Best Of. With ‘Watcha Gonna Do About’, ‘30 Days In The Hole’ and ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ proving their durability once again.

(These tracks were provided by Humble Pie aficianado, Iain McGonigal, who apart from writing the liner notes for HP Official Bootlegs, has also curated a Steve Marriott cover CD on a recent issue of Uncut magazine. Very generously, he has also been kind enough to assist with reviewing this boxset.

Finally, all roads lead back to CD5 and 1973’s classic album, Live At Winterland, San Francisco.

Recorded for The King Biscuit Flower Hour, this was the band at their peak. There’s a lot of moving parts, but every piece shines.
BGVs were provided by world beating vocal trio, The Blackberries.

The Music Media all fell into line:
“A Classic Rock fan’s dream”.
“A stellar performance”.
“This baby rocks. The sound is fantastic”.
“All the essential music from the Humble Pie catalogue”.
“The band built their reputation on legendary live shows, like this one”.

Say no more.

RIP Steve Marriott. ****

Review by Brian McGowan and Iain McGonigal

Feature (Rock Rewind, April 2024)

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 24 March 2025

HARRI LARKIN Too Close To The Sun (Robot Distro)
SANDNESS Not Your Dog (Rockshots Records)
DOCTOR BLACK Drag Me Down (indie)
COHEED AND CAMBRIA Goodbye Sunshine (Virgin Music Group)
LEONI JANE KENNEDY Closer (indie)
SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 24 March 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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