Steve Marriott
b. 30 January 1947, London, England, d. 20 April 1991, Essex, England. As a child actor, Marriott appeared in THE FAMOUS FIVE television series in the late '50s and made a West End theatre debut as the Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart's Oliver! in 1962. That same year, Decca engaged him as an Adam Faith soundalike for two unsuccessful singles. Next, as singing guitarist in the Moments, he had another miss with a sly cover of the Kinks’ You Really Got Me for the USA market. Then followed Steve Marriott and the Frantic Ones (amended to just the Frantics). This venture was, however, less lucrative than his daytime job in an East Ham music equipment shop where, in 1964, he met fellow mod Ronnie Lane (bass) with whom he formed the Small Faces after recruiting Kenny Jones (drums) and ex-Moment Jimmy Winston (keyboards). Knock-kneed and diminutive, Steve emerged as the outfit's public face, attacking the early smashes with a strangled passion revealing an absorption of R&B, and an exciting (if sometimes slipshod) fretboard style that belied the saccharine quality of such songs as Sha-La-La-La-Lee and My Mind's Eye. With Lane, he composed the unit's later output as well as minor hits for Chris Farlowe and P.P. Arnold. 
On leaving the Small Faces in 1969, Marriott, as mainstay of Humble Pie, acquired both a solitary UK Top 20 entry and a reputation for boorish behaviour on BBC's TOP OF THE POPS before building on his previous group's small beginnings. In North America, by 1975, he earned a hard-rock stardom accrued over 22 USA tours when Humble Pie disbanded. He put himself forward as a possible replacement when Mick Taylor left the The Rolling Stones, played concerts with his All-Stars (which included Alexis Korner) and recorded a patchy solo album before regrouping the Small Faces, but poor sales of two ‘comeback’ albums blighted their progress. A link-up with Leslie West was mooted and a new Humble Pie released two albums but, from the early '80s, Marriott was heard mostly on the European club circuit, fronting various short-lived bands, including Packet Of Three, with a repertoire that hinged on past glories. Shortly before he perished in a fire in his Essex home in April 1991, Marriot had been attempting to reconstitute Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. Frampton was among the many famous friends attending the funeral where the Small Faces’ All Or Nothing was spun as Steve Marriott's requiem.