Music 4

The British Rock Explosion: What the Yardbirds did for music.

Part 2

Originally named ‘The Metropolis Blues Quartet’, before Eric’s arrival, they played slow country blues, a far cry from the frenetic R&B that became ‘The Yardbirds’ trademark. The venues they played usually consisted of local coffee bars around the Richmond and Kingston areas in Surrey. Up until June 1963, the line-up consisted of Keith Relf (vocals, harmonica), Paul Samwell-Smith (lead guitar), Jim McCarty (drums) and Laurie Gains (rhythm guitar) before Eric, after watching them at a gig one evening, suggested a line-up shake up. Samwell-Smith switched to bass as Tony Topham became lead guitar while Chris Dreja took over from Gains on rhythm.

Once resident band ‘The Rolling Stones’ left the infamous Crawdaddy club in Richmond, former Stones manager and club owner Giorgio Gomelsky signed ‘The Yardbirds’ to replace them. As ‘The Yardbirds’ began to pull in the crowds again, problems began to arise with 16 year old band member Tony Topham. Tony’s parents thought his education had began to suffer due to the time he was putting into the band and the hours he was spending at the nightclub. In October ’63, Topham left to head back to Art School leaving the band without their lead guitar. But just when all seemed lost, Keith Relf remembered a decent guitarist that went to the very same art school as him…

Eric Clapton turned up for a Yardbirds rehearsal at the South Western Hotel in Richmond where Chris Dreja observed that he was “…obviously so much more talented and advanced as a guitarist…The whole thing went straight into a new dimension.” Initially, there were creative and image perception differences. Eric’s Ivy League look clashed with the long-haired rebellious theme of the rest of the group and the fact that some band members found Eric moody and unapproachable did not bode well for the future. However, once Keith, Eric and Chris began flat-sharing, the band relationship strengthened dramatically as the group dynamic established itself. Chris thought that he and Eric had developed a more brotherly relationship through living together and as Eric took Chris under his wing, they began visiting a store on Shaftesbury Avenue, where Eric would act as an advisor in the re-moulding of Chris’s new Ivy League image.

By this time, The Yardbirds had firmly won over The Rolling Stones’ fans at the Crawdaddy club. Eric, due to his musical mystique, had become the obvious star of the show. Introduced on stage as ‘Slowhand’ by manager Giorgio Gomelsky (Eric has always believed that this was a play on his name: slowhand clap-ton), Eric’s playing and Ivy League look gave him a star-performer quality that would follow him throughout his career. Before 1963 was over, The Yardbirds recorded a live album with Sonny Boy Williamson II, a Mississippi born blues artist, who was touring Europe during what is commonly now known as ‘The British Blues Craze’ period. Then in early 1964, when the Yardbirds had began playing at Oxford Street’s own ‘Marquee Club’, their recorded the second live album, ‘Five Live Yardbirds’:. This would be the album that would cement their place in British R&B rock history.

Dan G.

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