Customer Reviews

British Invasion: Small Faces - All or Nothing, 1965-1968

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This DVD is absolutely brilliant! Really, you need know no more - just go out and buy it - you will not be disappointed!

If you want to know more - it is how all music reviews of a band should be made. Band members are interviewed and provide fascinating insights into how the band was formed, how the music was written and the message behind the songs. Interspersed, are full clips of the songs themselves - all their hits plus the Ogden's songs in colour (the other clips are in black and white). The beauty here is that if you do not want to listen to the interviews between the songs, you can just select "play songs" and you will get the song clips playing one after another - the best of both worlds. There are also extra interviews, including a touching one with Ronnie Lane some time prior to his untimely death.

So, as I said, get your copy now and join the many "in the know" who have had endless pleasure from watching this DVD. (It is one of a series of four [Gerry & The Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits and Dusty Springfield being the other 3] - lets hope there are lots more to come). This company "does it right".

This is a keeper and it probably includes most of the video footage of Small Faces. Loved the archived interviews with Steve Marriott (1984 and 1985) and the shots of Ronnie Lane during his last video'd interview in 1988 (one year before I met him at a Rolling Stones' concert). I almost forgot how much Lane sang lead vocals in this band, particularly in the color footage. The contemporary interviews with Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones were great, too. I laughed out loud when McLagan talks about how they were as good as The Who live, probably around 1965 or 1966 - he's probably right. McLagan says that by the time Small Faces toured with The Who in Australia - I think it was around 1967 - Small Faces were past their live-performance peak, and were overshadowed onstage by The Who. I had always heard that Marriott didn't want to tour the U.S. when he was in Small Faces because he lacked confidence in his guitar playing, but McLagan talks about how a manager in England selfishly kept the band away from the U.S. Marriott must have lacked some confidence (it's silly, he was great on guitar) because he wanted to bring in Peter Frampton as a second guitarist, which McLagan, Lane and Jones quickly vetoed.
It's a great DVD that also allows the viewer to watch the live and mimed footage without the interspersed interviews.
We need to see more of these on other deserving bands like Mott the Hoople, Free, Faces and early Bad Company.

A GREAT DVD!!! An evocative watch for me, I was born in 1951 and lived in London during the reign of the Faces, for me there were them & the Stones, the Beatles and the Who were pale, middle of the road & safe compared to the boys! Only the Kinks were as adventurous, and you could argue they burnt out quickly too.

Who else could produce Ogden's Nut Gone Flake and belt out soul like this? Take risks like these and have so much fun doing it? They say if you remember it you weren't there, thank god this reminds me.

If you buy one DVD this year, buy this and hear where "Whole Lotta Love came from.

"All Or Nothing" is right; The Small Faces gave it their all and got little back to show for it. But here you finally get it all and it's all good!

Unknown to most Americans, The Small Faces blasted a swathe through 60's Britain that resonated from The Who to Led Zeppelin, from the Mod scene to Psychedelic Soul. It was still echoing in both Punk and the Paisley Underground, reverb-ing on into many Britpop bands: The Sex Pistols covered "Whatcha Gonna Do About It"; Paul Weller and The Jam reincarnated as them to spark the Mod revival, as would Oasis again later.

The early band had fierce energy that used R'n'B like an attack. The raw footage from their Marqee Club debut crackles with threat and verve. They were as brutal as The Who and even better dressers. Steve Marriott's full-throttle gutbucket blues growl opened the door for every Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, and Robert Plant after him. Their interpolation of Muddy Water's "You Need Love" as "You Need Loving" is the crystal clear blueprint for Zep's "Whole Lotta Love".

They made the arc into Psyche with textural songs like "Itchycoo Park" ('It's all too beau-ti-ful') and "Green Circles". Their mastery of the studio led to kaleidoscopic songs that reward deep listens. Their masterpiece was "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake", which is represented here with a walloping nine song extravaganza, narrated by the hilarious cockney surrealist Stanley Unwin. These guys were also fun and funny and it shows everywhere. New and archival interviews with everyone pace the disc with great insight, laughs, and some regrets.

The Small Faces were done in by those twin evils of Rock, drugs and managers. They didn't tour America and their catalog was lawyered off the radar for decades. But all that changes with this powerhouse disc. Get the band who gave their all. Here comes the nice, baby!

This is how a DVD retrospective should be done. Outstanding quality in both sound and video, full of insightful interviews with band members and classic clips. As stated in previous reviews, you have the option to listen to the interviews, or simply watch the performances. Rounded out with well done packaging and an informative, attractive 20 page booklet, this is a treat for fans of The Small Faces. I am particularly partial to the Ogdens segment (in color, btw...) but the whole experience is terrific.
My hope is that these same people can get the rights to the Yardbirds and Kinks archives. Those bands deserve a similar treatment.

The entire "mod" scene can be traced, more or less, to the band which America got so little knowledge of at the time: The Small Faces. This video documentary serves to right that "small", really large, injustice. The Small Faces were, I feel, the birth of the mod scene that in America The Who were more the face of.

Where to start? A good place is Steve Marriott. Steve was brash and loaded with talent that belied his stature. Add to that his band mates which were more than up to the task and you have what should have been one of the greatest bands of the British Invasion yet, in American at least, remain a somewhat obscure footnote. I say this because like many I came on board when these guys had already called it day and what surfaced was Faces with Rod Stewart replacing Steve Marriott.

"All Or Nothing" serves to document the loss we as Americans endured as this was one of the first truly groundbreaking great British Rock and Roll bands. I am somewhat amazed that someone, namely the BBC as well as others, had the foresight to document in video form this group when, at least in the U.S., video and music was pure novelty. There are some really fantastic performances with surprisingly good sound here. I must say I am delighted with this video. It sheds tremendous light on a time when some of the most original rock ever was created by a truly overlooked band. Everything here works. The narration isn't at all obtrusive and serves the music without overly analyzing it. I've had a double CD Small Faces collecion for years and now, I must say, I can appreciate it so much more after viewing this great document.

Like Velvet Underground and Big Star perhaps the public at large missed the big pictureat the time, but so many bands in the wake of The Small Faces were formed in their umbrella that the importance of this stuff is hard to comprehend. This video serves to correct that and as such is very enthusiastically recommended.

It's been along time coming for this way underrated British group. In the States they are a one hit wonder [Itchycoo Park], but what a hit! They sucked me in with that one & I've been a dedicated fan ever since. Searching high & low for everything & anything I could get my hands on.

This opens so many more doors to their talents. Steve Marriott shows why he influenced so many musicains with his powerhouse vocals, guitar & songwriting skills. Ronnie Laine also shows his considerable influence on the songwriting & vocals. What a team! This band ROCKS!

Half of these late 1960's videos are new to me, but the real treat here is the [almost] all live TV performance of side 2 of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake!! Priceless. I'm so glad this exists. This was the Small Faces entry in the psychedelic 60's competition & a fine entry it is. It's right up there with "Their Satantic Majesties Request", "Magical Mystery Tour", or "On The Threshold Of A Dream."

The other great thing about this DVD is you can watch the documentary or just play back the performances depending on your mood.

You must remember that this was recorded in the 60's & the video [or audio] quality is not up to current standards, but the historical significance of the Small Faces performances far out weighs these short comings. The band shines through.

P.S. Ronnie Laine, Kenny Jones & Ian McLagan became Faces [with Rod Stewart & Ronnie Wood] when Steve Marriott left. Steve went on to form Humble Pie.

The Small Faces were my favourite band when I first became interested in music. The first record I bought was Tin Soldier. I'd hardly ever seen video clips of their songs except for Lazy Sunday. The clips are brilliant. I love the live performance of the Happiness Stan tracks with Stanley Unwin. I've got pretty much every song from the dvd on vinyl and it was great hearing the songs again and actually seeing the band performing them. It reminds me of how good a band the Small Faces were and how good Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane were as song writers. It's a pity there weren't more interviews available with Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, but the Kenney Jones and Ian McLaglan interviews were very interesting. Overall, the whole program was brilliant.

The Small Faces were one the greatest bands of the 1960's, if not of all time. Sadly, due to horrible mismanagement and bad timing, if one knows them at all in the United States, it's usually through their hit single, Itchycoo Park. Which is a good tune, but they were so much more than just a one-hit wonder. In fact, the depth and breadth of their material, as well as the sheer volume of outstanding stuff they recorded and released is staggering, especially when one considers the short period of time they were together (just over three years) and their youth (the youngest was only 16 when they formed).

This DVD cannot make up for their lack of exposure in America of course, but trust me when I tell you it does help right a few wrongs. It nicely weaves full videos (which you can watch stand-alone if you choose) with interviews that tell the basic tale of a truly magical, electric, eclectic little band. Unfortunately, there is not enough quality life footage of the band to go around, but the filmmakers make good - and sometimes creative - use of what is available. For me, the Colour Me Pop Ogden's material alone is worth the price of admission. There's much more to be heard of course, and if you didn't know the band well before, you'll want to hear it all.

My one criticism is the very limited amount of interview material from the late songwriting team, Marriott and Lane. There is one sweet, heartbreaking interview with Ronnie Lane that is presented in full as an extra, but only brief snippets of interviews with the amazing Steve Marriott. There has to be more out there somewhere; they both lived into the 1990s. McLagan and Jones were key players and both have very good memories for details, but the lack of input from Ronnie and Steve is keenly felt.

All said, this is a must-have for anyone interested in 1960's British rock music and culture. And if you are already a Small Faces fan, you may want to buy two. Just in case you lose one.

All or Nothing 1965-1968 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin' in the Years Productions. It is a spectacular collection of footage that spans twenty-seven complete vintage performances, interviews with the principle band members reflecting on their time as seminal mod and psychedelic rockers, and superb vintage clips of the band creating in the studio, shopping on Carnaby Street and gigging at iconic clubs like the Marquee. The producers have performed miracles in digging up rare television and film footage, and archival interviews with Steve Marriott (from 1985) and Ronnie Lane (from 1988, his last filmed appearance) are complemented by contemporary interviews with Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.

Though the Small Faces had only one chart hit in the U.S. (1968's "Itchycoo Park"), their fame in the UK and Europe, not to mention their style, sound and musicianship, were in league with the Who and Stones. The band members post-Small Faces gigs brought a greater helping of stateside fame (Marriott with Humble Pie; Lane, McLagan and Jones with the Faces; and Jones with the latter-day Who), but this 101-minute documentary shows the Small Faces were a group to be reckoned with. Marriott was a ferocious front-man with an aggressive vocal delivery, hot guitar licks and a songwriting partnership with Ronnie Lane that matured from derivative R&B to original tunes that wove pop, rock and psych influences into their bedrock soul. The interviews trace the group's original influences, the pop sides forced upon them, and the turning points at which they made artistic leaps forward.

Among the biggest events in the Small Faces' development was a change in management and label from Don Arden and Decca to Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate. The mod sounds and styles of their early singles quickly became psychedelic, but not before launching their new phase with the 1967 ode to methadrine, "Here Comes the Nice." Their hair and fashions in the accompanying television performance find the band in transition between the dandy style of the mods and the floral and flowing elements of the hippie revolution. The influence of LSD can be heard in "Green Shadows" and the band's U.S. breakthrough, "Itchycoo Park," which McLagan suggests was a rebuttal to England's formal system of higher education. The group's pièce de résistance, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, is essayed here with a lip-synched clip of the title tune and a seven-song live-sung (but not played) set from the BBC's Colour Me Pop.

The progression from the hard R&B of "Whatch Gonna Do About It" to their crowning concept album is impressive, but that it happened in only three years is amazing. The story of the Small Faces is told here in the band's words and music, with interview footage woven among the music clips. The full performances, including four not featured in the documentary, can be viewed separately via DVD menu options. Lane's full interview and a photo gallery are included as extras, along with a 24-page booklet featuring detailed credits and song notes. This disc will strike a deep nostalgic chord for UK fans, and will be a voyage of discovery for Americans familiar only with "All or Nothing," "Itchycoo Park," "Tin Soldier," and "Lazy Sunday." [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]