Music DVD Review: The Yardbirds -The Story Of The Yardbirds
When the Rolling Stones left their residency at Richmond’s Crawdaddy Club their departure opened the door for another hugely influential band to step through.
The Yardbirds are perhaps best remembered for being the band who, despite only being together for five eventful years, could boast three of our major guitar gods as previous members. Not only that, they briefly had two of them in the band at the same time.
If you don’t know the story then this DVD, The Story Of The Yardbirds, has to be for you. However the film, originally released back in 1992, won’t tell die hard fans or admirers anything that they don’t already know but it will give them some valuable historical gems, rare footage, and an impressive list of interviewees to enjoy.
Post Crawdaddy, we all know what happened to The Stones. When The Yardbirds arrived in their place their brand of R & B signaled the start of a meteoric rise. It would take them through the best part of the sixties, hit single upon hit single, line up changes, swinging London, psychedelia, and on into the very foundations of heavy rock morphing, eventually of course, into Led Zeppelin.
The Yardbirds qualify for legendary status by virtue of the fact that Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page were all with the band at various times (they even had Beck and Page together briefly). The band mixed with anyone who was anyone in the pop/rock hierarchy of the sixties. Mickie Most produced their hit singles, Peter Grant managed them, and they even appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni's cult swinging sixties film, Blow Up in 1966.
Inevitably there were departures, disagreements over direction, lows, and probably many highs along the road. This film, lasting little over 52 minutes, explores their history from 1963 to when it all fell apart in 1968.
Much of the story is told through interviews with many of the main players. Instinctively you know that there is a lot more to the story, but the DVD makes for a fascinating historical trip all the same.
There is plenty of period footage of the London, and later San Francisco, scenes. There is some grainy film of the band playing live in concert complete with screaming and sometimes naked girl fans. There are plenty of television appearances taken from Belgian, German, French, UK, and US shows. There is even rare film of them playing live at the Richmond Jazz & Blues Festival in 1965.
A 'rocumentary' like this would not be complete, of course, without hearing it from those who lived in the eye of the storm. Chris Dreja tells of how Eric Clapton joined having been approached by Keith Relf. Of how the group struggled to move their live sound onto vinyl. He tells of why Clapton left just as the band broke with their single “For Your Love”. Then he takes us back to, Yardbirds HQ, The Ship pub near London’s legendary Marquee in Oxford Street.
psychedelia heavy rock jimmy page rsquo legendary status die hard michelangelo antonioni swinging sixties crawdaddy club jeff beck guitar gods swinging london peter grant yardbirds rare footage meteoric rise interviewees single line disagreements eric clapton
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