40 Years Ago Today: The Faces on BBC2

On April 1st, 1972, BBC2's "Sounds for Saturdays" aired a 43-minute performance by The Faces, then at the peak of their powers and popularity.

The Line-up:

Ronnie Wood (gtr, bvoc)
Rod Stewart (voc)
Ronnie Lane (bass, voc)
Ian McLagan (keyb, bvoc)
Kenny Jones (dr)


Here now is the concert in its entirety.

  .
- Three Button Hand Me Down (Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
- Maybe I’m Amazed (Paul McCartney)
- Too Much Woman-Street Fighting Man-Too Much Woman (Ike
Turner-Mick Jagger/Keith Richards-Ike Turner)
- Miss Judy’s Farm (Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
- Love In Vain (Robert Johnson)
- Stay With Me (Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
- I’m Losing You (Norman Whitfield/Eddie Holland/Cornelius Grant)

After the BBC2 show and four gigs around the UK, The Faces went on a short US tour. They spent much of 1972 on the road playing both Faces and solo Stewart tunes. "Maggie May" would usually invoke some kind of a stage rush. Stewart tried not to overshadow the rest of the band. As he told a reporter from Rolling Stone : "We're a band, and I want people to realize it's a band up there.The other guys in the band are strong, too, in what they do. I wouldn't be in this band if I didn't think they were equally strong."

Dave Marsh of Creem describes The Faces on stage:

Stewart bounds across the stage with his Groucho walk, leaning into the mike and crooning like some obscene parody of Bing Crosby; Wood has all the perfectly timed and intuitively choreographed moves of the best British guitarists; Lane tromps about like a drunken sailor. McLagan and Jones don't do much, but they provide the backbeat that's a necessity as backdrop for the theater.

   "Stay With Me" began climbing the charts that summer reaching  #6 in the UK and #17 in the US. But when Stewart's Never A Dull Moment came out in July, and hit #1 in the UK and #2 in the US, tensions in the band grew. Ronnie Lane left in May of 1973. After some time off and one more album, Ooh La La,  The Faces officially broke up in late 1975.