Music Monday - Best of British - One Group Three Guitar Legends

For my "Best of British" feature I'm going to do a group from the 1960's that introduced to the World three of the all time great guitar players. The group I'm talking about only actually had 7 chart hits (between 1964 & 1966), no number ones although five did make the top ten.

So who is this group and who are these top class guitarists ?
Well if you haven't guessed it the group was called "The Yardbirds" and this is their story :-

Formed originally as the "Metropolitan Blues Quartet" in 1962 in the London suburbs they changed their name to the "Yardbirds" in 1963 with a line up of singer/harmonica player Keith Relf, rhythm guitarist Chris Deja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty, and lead guitarist (Anthony) Top Topham.
It was in October that year that the group made their first significant line up change, Topham left the group and was replaced by a young art student called Eric Clapton. It was with this line up that the group enjoyed their first chart successin 1964, their first a song chart was called "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" which reached the heights of No44 in the UK chart -


This song was followed up by their first top ten hit and one of their most well known songs "For Your Love" which also became their first US chart hit. It also marked a move away from their British Blues style of play :-


Shortly after this hit Clapton left the group apparently as a blues purist at the time he was furious with the move away this style of music, went on to form Cream, and become one of the all time great guitarists.
So how do you replace somebody of this calibre, easy find somebody just as good called Jeff Beck, unbelievably the group found somebody who was also going to become one of the all time great guitar players. It was with this line up that the group embarked on their first and succesful US tour. It was also this line up that gave the group their biggest hit "Heart Full of Soul" which reached No2 in the chart :-

In early 1966 Bass player Samwell-Smith left the group and was replaced by another young guitarist who would go on to become a superstar called Jimmy Page, realising how good this lad was he was switched to 2nd lead with Deja taking the Bass.
It was this sound of a two lead guitar sound that gave Page his first ideas to form a supergroup of his own and the first traces of Heavy Metal were heard.



Sadly this line up did not stay together long and there is very few rcordings surficed of their studio work, Beck was actually fired following a bust up while the group was in texas and they became a 4 piece band.



Beck although not having the same commercial success as Clapton or Page is regarded as the best guitarist of the three in a interview given by the other two. He went on to form "The Jeff Beck Group" with Rod Stewart part of the band. His most notable solo recording is of course the guitar classic instrumental "Becks Bolero".


It was July 1968 that the Yardbirds played their last concert in Luton although they did a bit of studio work after that day, the group all went their seperateways.



Page always wanted to form a supergroup and he recruited bassist John Paul Jones. Small Faces lead singer was approached as was drummer Keith Moon (The Who), neither joined this new group. It wasn't long before Page met Robert Plant who recommended friend John Bonham as drummer. Origionally this group was to be called "The New Yardbirds" but they soon changed this to the name that they are so well known today "Led Zepplin" and as they say the rest is history.

Sadly the Yardbirds story doesn't end there, lead singer Keith Relf was killed in 1976 by a Electric Shock from a guitar that hadn't been grounded properley.

In 1992 the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll hall of fame a cermony attended by all 6 surviving members including Clapton, Beck & Page.

This was also the year that Deja & McCarty have reformed a group called "The Yardbirds" with a new line up that are touring today. There is a strong rumour that Beck & Page are going to play some concerts with them in late 2008, we will see.