All Or Nothing - The Story of The Faces

Ah, here I am on a scooter, feeling good! This was taken before the start of All Or Nothing, the story of The Faces. It's been a long time since I've been to any live music event and towards the end the band played a set of The Faces numbers again so the audience could sing along (some were dancing too).

The story is a sad one really. While it starts off full of enthusiasm as the band get signed, it soon deteriorates with unpaid royalties, drink and drugs. I didn't know all the story before I saw this. I liked a few of their hit singles but not much about them. Steve Marriott's heart was in R&B. What the record company wanted was commercial hit making records. Marriott felt he wasn't being true to his music. Apart from the usual band ups and downs (change of keyboard players, clash of personalities and Marriott trying to bring in Pete Frampton without telling them) Marriott finally walked out in the middle of a concert.

The story is told by an older Marriott looking back on his life and the band with someone else playing the part of his younger self. It was well done and had some very funny moments. But my overall feeling at the end was one of sadness. I had to go home and look up what happened afterwards other than his early death. Marriott did form a band with Pete Frampton (I did know that as I have the single Natural Born Bugie - I was Pete Frampton fan!) and they went on to make several albums. This was the R&B Marriott loved. Later after Humble Pie split Marriott did form other groups but none I remember. For a while Marriott lived in the States to avoid all the tax he owed. He was penniless.

His early death (he was in his 40's) came as the result of a house fire, possibly a dropped cigarette. He'd been drinking heavily.

The show was a good production with some actors taking multiple parts. The music was great and the time skipped by.