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Faces reunion on
6 Music speaks exclusively to Ian McLagan who confirms the rumours
11 July 2008 - It has been nearly four decades since they first formed, but it looks like the Faces could be joining forces once again. Active from 1969 they disbanded in 1975 with Ronnie Wood later joining The Rolling Stones and drummer Kenny Jones eventually becoming a member of The Who.We've been speaking exclusively to the Faces keys player, Ian McLagan, who said all the original members of the group - including Ron Wood, Kenny Jones and the previously hesitant Rod Stewart - are all up for reforming. The 5th original member, Ronnie Lane, died in 1997. (And he WAS the Faces... We were not revloving arounf Rod, we were revolving around Ronnie said Ian McLagan a long time ago...This note is from me, of course.)
McLagan said it just a matter of getting it together: “I’ve wanted to for years and so has Woody and Kenny. Rod is now interested it seems and I’m real pleased about that, and he’s serious about it. I mean we’re trying to get it together, it’s just a question of schedules.” As to when the supergroup are planning on coming together again, McLagan told 6 Music: “We’re hoping to get together later this year, just to get together, to play and then we may have some news - but I want it to happen, badly. It’s gonna be great if it does happen.”
Maggie May hitmaker Rod Stewart was the one member who was unsure of the reunion in the past but McLagan said that he’s now approaching it differently. “Rod hasn’t wanted to do it for a long time, he didn’t see the need in it,” he explained, “but I think he really wants to now, I think he wants to rock out. I think it’d be great, great for everybody.” Now they’re all on board, McLagan said it’s more likely to happen soon because they’re all available this year: “The Stones aren’t gonna tour for over a year so Woody has a window of opportunity, Rod has a window approaching. “My window is ever being opened and shut but I’ll open that window and climb through it to work with The Faces anytime, and Kenny’s up for it.”
Tour and album
And it seems a tour would be a likely outcome of the reunion, maybe even an album. “I think what we’d probably do is a couple of gigs in London and then there’s talk of some in America. I think we should do Austin to rock Austin. I don’t care about LA but I mean Chicago and Detroit - they made the Faces.” McLagan’s already been working on some new material: “Well it would be great to record new tracks, I have a couple of songs that Rod might like. We’d have to see, I think that would be the way to go though, not just to go out on tour. It’d be great to have an album.” This might even include digging out some of their lost Faces songs to create a record with some old and some new. “Even if it was a few tracks we could tag onto older tracks or tracks that haven’t been heard before, because there’s some stuff in the vaults,” McLagan said.
The keyboardist concluded, “I’ve got my fingers crossed, my eyes and my legs crossed.”There is a shadow of doubt cast over their plan this morning though. Ronnie Wood is on the front of The Sun newspaper, amid claims he's left he wife for an 18 yr old waitress. His wife Jo admits the two are in Ireland together, but says they're just friends.
Georgie Rogers
