The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood recently revealed that he and his former Faces bandmates vocalist Rod Stewart and drummer Kenney Jones were working on new tunes. The surviving members of the short-lived but beloved band “have been recording some new Faces music,” Wood told UK’s The Times.
Faces rose from the rubble of UK group Small Faces after guitarist Steve Marriot left the band to form Humble Pie. Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, bassist Ronnie Lane and Jones formed Faces with Wood and Stewart, who came over from the Jeff Beck Group. The band would go on to release their debut album First Step in 1970 followed by Long Player in 1971. While neither album saw much success, their third album, A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse, contained the band’s first hit single “Stay With Me,” co-written by Wood and Stewart.
But Rod’s solo career was taking off and the band’s final studio album (so far), Ooh La La, was released in 1973 with Faces officially disbanding in 1975 after which Ronnie joined The Rolling Stones. Sadly, Lane died in 1997. In 2008, Wood and Stewart began collaborating again but Rod couldn’t participate in a subsequent tour because of his schedule. McLagan would pass away in 2014. The surviving three original members performed at various events in the next few years, including Stewart’s 70th birthday charity event in 2015, but got together in a big way to perform “Stay With Me” backed by an orchestra at the 2020 BRIT Awards held on February 18 at London’s O2 Arena.
In honor of new Faces music on the way, watch the surviving members reunite at the BRITs in 2020 below via the JamBase Live Video Archive for this edition of Sunday Cinema:
