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Note 1286.0 Steve Marriott 2 replies
BAHTAT::SALLITT 53 lines 22-APR-1991 06:35
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Those who remember the Small Faces will be sad to learn of the death of
Steve Marriott in a house fire in the early hours of Saturday 20th.
April. The following article appeared in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph
(London) and is reprinted without permission. I put it in because it
provides a tidy resum� of Marriott and his career.
"Steve Marriott", singer-guitarist of The Small Faces and Humble Pie
groups of the 1960s and 70s, dies in a fire that swept through a
cottage in Arkesden, near Saffron Walden, Essex, yesterday morning.
"Mr. Marriott, 44, who had just returned from a holiday in the Bahamas,
had been drinking in a local pub before returning home alone. His wife,
Toni, was believed to have been visiting her parents in Ongar, Essex,
at the time. A faulty heater or a cigarette was thought to have caused
the blaze.
"The �200,000 cottage, Sextons, which featured in the most recent
showings of the television series "Lovejoy", was opposite a similar
cottage recently destroyed by fire following a gas explosion. It was
one of the village's oldest buildings.
"The body was discovered after 20 firemen, some wearing breathing
apparatus, had battled for more than an hour to control flames, which
spread through the first floor into the roof yesterday morning. Police
said they were treating the death as an accident.
"Marriott's stage career began as a 12-year-old in a London production
of "Oliver". Minor roles in radio and television plays followed. In
1963 when working in an East Ham music shop, he was asked to front a
pub trio which, because they lacked height, took the name The Small
Faces.
"Boyfriend of the model Chrissie Shrimpton, Marriott, with his sharp
clothes and centre-parting was idolised by young Mods, who ranked The
Small Faces second only to The Who. "Sha La La La Lee", "All Or
Nothing", "Tin Soldier", "Itchycoo Park", and "Lazy Sunday" were the
group's biggest UK hits. The album "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" topped the
charts for six weeks.
"But Marriott, keen to shake off his teenage pin-up status and achieve
some musical credibility, formed the "supergroup" Humble Pie with Peter
Frampton in 1969.
"In the late 1970s Marriott organised several successful Small Faces
reunion concerts, before leading lesser known R&B outfits in pibs and
clubs throughout the 1980s, without seeming to lose his enthusiasm for
live gigs.
"Last night his neighbours, who described him as looking jet lagged on
Friday night, said he had mentioned being given a �250,000 recording
contract in the United States."
RIP
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