Faces Spurn Stewart’s Reunion Plan

The Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan says the band aren’t interested in working with Rod Stewart in 2015, despite the frontman saying he’s finally ready to stage a reunion.

A gathering of the original line-up has been discussed for several years, but after plans kept being put on hold they went out with SImply Red frontman Mick Hucknall in Stewart’s place during 2010 and 2011, following a 2009 charity show at which Stewart failed to appear.

Last week the original vocalist said he was finally ready to commit – but McLagan insists he and drummer Kenney Jones want to spend 2015 focusing on the anniversary of earlier outfit the Small Faces, which didn’t include Stewart.

The keyboardist tells Uncut: “It’s interesting that Rod announced these things without talking to me or Kenney. Why would we fuck around with the Faces when we’ve got bigger fish to fry?

“We’ve done the Faces – and he didn’t turn up.”

The Small Faces were formed by Steve Marriott in 1965 alongside Jones, Ronnie Lane and Jimmy Winston. McLagan replaced Winston the following year. Frontman Marriott left to launch Humble Pie in 1969, and the Small Faces were created with the addition of former Jeff Beck Group members Stewart and Ronnie Wood, who’s now with the Rolling Stones.

But the door isn’t locked tight against a Faces reunion, without late bassist Lane. “Rod says he’s keen to do it now, and I believe him,” McLagan says. “But he’ll have to wait until 2016, because 2015 is the Small Faces’ year.”