In the wake of The Beatles and the Stones came a wave of great British bands. First up, a Stones connection. Dick Taylor was an art student with Keith Richards, and along with Mick Jagger a member the the Blue Boys, the precursor to The Rolling Stones; he was, for a short while, the Stones bassist, leaving when he was won a pace at St Martin’s.
Art School didn’t last. Instead, he met Phil May, and formed The Pretty Things. Their first two singles, Rosalyn and Don’t Bring Me Down, were hard rocking r’n’b classics.
The Yarbirds were another London band, forming in 1963, taking over The Rolling Stones residency at ten Crawdaddy Club in Richmond. Shortly after, the young Eric Clapton joined. It was that line-up that recorded Five Live Yarbirds.
Later, Clapton would leave, to replaced by Jeff Beck; when he left, he was replaced by Jimmy Page.
Legend has it that the young Page, as a session musician, played the solo on The Kinks. You Really Got Me; he didn’t. It was, in fact, their third single, but it was their breakthrough. It was also significant musically, being a step away from r’n’b towards a riff driven rock music.
The Kinks would go on to make some of the greatest records of the 1960s.
At the same time, The Who were emerging form the mod movement. Again, the music got heavier:
And then came The Small Faces. By now it was 1966, and a hint of psychedelia could be heard (you can hear and reward more here).
Meantime, here’s a wee treat to finish. A great song, crunching guitar, mad film:
RGS History 
Reblogged this on RGS History and commented:
And here’s one from a few years back
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