Reviews

THE PASSING SHOW: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF RONNIE LANE
EAGLE ROCK
Here’s a DVD I almost missed until my mate the Big G pointed out that it was on sale for a mere $17.99 at a well-known music and electronics appliance chain. What a bargain! Apparently, an abbreviated version was shown on television in Britain and will no doubt be seen here but here is the extended version. So if you are a fan of The Small Faces, The Faces or Lane’s work in general, this is a must.

I happen to be one of those who thinks that on their day The Faces challenged the Rolling Stones for the title of ‘the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band’ – that is until Rod Stewart suffered a tragic hair styling accident and decided to pursue a solo career. I saw him here last year and was almost distraught at the way he dismissed The Faces by saying, ‘I was once in a band and this was our hit’ before proceeding to destroy ‘Stay With Me.’ It was one of the lowlights of my concert year.

Stewart has marginally redeemed himself by talking about a Faces reunion. A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse remains one of the great rock albums of all time. The superb box set Five Guys Walk Into A Bar…… is ample testimony to this great band and worth an investment with your tax return.

But while Rod Stewart might have been the frontman for The Faces, there were other wonderfully creative talents in the band including bass player Ronnie Lane who managed to write some of the band’s most memorable songs, to create the most interesting solo work of the remaining members and to record some of the more interesting collaborations. Later, Stewart was to admit that Lane had really been the heart and soul of the band.

Lane was a founding member of both The Small Faces and The Faces, received some acclaim for his own band Slim Chance, his work with Pete Townshend and then passed away too early of MS in 1997.

While Lane and his other band members did not make much money from the experience of The Small Faces they had the chance to make it big when they formed The Faces and recruited Stewart as lead vocalist. Unfortunately, Lane decided to leave the group after Ooh La La and forego its rock ‘n’ roll excesses for the life of a gypsy.

Lane recorded with Pete Townshend on Who Came First and, in fact, lived for a while in a caravan at the bottom of Townshend’s garden! Like Townshend, he also became a follower of Meher Baba before moving to a farmhouse in Wales, investing in a mobile studio and forming Slim Chance, with a rotating array of musicians. The group helped to explore a broader spectrum of roots music than he had been previously able to do, with touches of Cajun and zydeco, blues and folk.

It was also around this time that Lane decided to put on The Passing Show – a travelling show that featured musicians and circus acts. As one might have expected, the project was a commercial disaster and used up whatever money lane had left over from his days with The Faces (which included songwriting royalties).

Despite this misadventure Lane continued to record. In 1976 he was involved with Ronnie Wood in the soundtrack of the film Mahoney’s Last Stand and released four albums with Slim Chance. He can also be heard with Pete Townshend on 1977’s Rough Mix.

By this stage Lane had been diagnosed with MS which was to dominate the remainder of his life. Lane’s illness prompted the charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1983 in support of Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis. The star-studded line-up featured Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Andy Fairweather-Low, Bill Wyman, Kenney Jones and Charlie Watts. It was the first time that Clapton, Beck and Page, each a former lead guitarist for The Yardbirds, had performed together on stage. The organisation expanded to the USA when Lane relocated there but it wound up in a series of lawsuits over finances (something that Lane had nothing to do with at all).

By 1987 Lane had moved to Austin, a town he immediately fell in love with, and gathered a whole new raft of admirers before his passing. (His former band mate Ian McLagan is still there, recording and playing – and you can often see him for free at the Lucky Lounge on a Thursday evening!)

This film, produced and directed by Rupert Williams and James Mackie, assisted by Darinagh O’Hagan, affectionately documents Lane’s life and career but doesn’t overlook the hurdles that he faced and those that he put in his own way. There are interviews with Townshend, Clapton, Kenney Jones, Ian McLagan, members of Small Chance, as well as friends and family members. (Strangely, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart do not appear as interviewees).

The DVD also features a number of bonus performances from Lane and friends which is a nice addition to what is a fascinating film.