Being a bit too young at the time though, I dearly, dearly would have loved to have seen the Small Faces live. I've seen a number of live performance videotapes of them and they were certainly not a studio-bound band. Whilst it’s true that certain effects in the studio such as phasing and backwards guitars could not at that point be properly reproduced on stage due to synchronisation issues, the rest of their performance certainly could, based on what I have seen so far.
I did get to see Steve Marriot at least 25 times after the demise of Small Faces, via Humble Pie, the Official Receivers, Steve Marriot's Packet of Three, and Steve Marriot's Next band. And from time to time he would do absolutely blistering versions of 'Watch you Gonna Do About it', 'All of Nuffink', and so on. Nevertheless it would have been truly wonderful to have seen Small Faces in their prime.
Other memorable gigs which I missed, have to include Jimmy Hendrix at the Albert Hall, and Jimmy Hendrix at the Seville Theatre. Sadly I never got to see Moby Grape, nor indeed Spirit, nor Love, nor Jefferson Airplane. The last, even today represent one of my all time favourites and Grace Slick looked precisely what she was, unobtainable, aloof, cool, infinitely sexy and a voice that could not only kill, but was to kill for. Unfortunately on their occasional sporadic appearances in the UK, I was either in another country or in the wrong city.
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Happily for me I got to see a few of those gigs you sadly missed, Howard. Hendrix at the Royal Albert Hall (second show on 24/2/1969) was sensational. Apparently much better than the earlier RAH gig. Rarely has a trio made so much noise with so little equipment. ‘Wild Thing’ was the closing song; Hendrix vainly tried to push over his Marshall stack with his guitar whilst a hapless roadie kept pushing back the amps from behind the stage.
Jefferson Airplane, in all their 60s glory, played a free open air concert on Parliament Hill, Camden, September ’68. The heavens opened during their set and we got soaked, but no matter; Grace Slick sang ‘Somebody To Love’ and ‘White Rabbit’ – and that was enough. Iconic.
Whilst not the original line-up, Love played at my college’s Summer Ball – a great coup. They always were a seriously underrated band. Arthur Lee was a legend – now sadly missed.
Only saw Humble Pie once. Another free concert in Hyde Park. They opened for the headline act, Grand Funk Railroad, and completely blew them off the stage. Very few acts could have followed them that day; certainly not a hyped-up outfit like Grand Funk.