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The Yardbirds remain one of the truly legendary and influential bands of the sixties. They are responsible for hit records such as Still I’m Sad, Shapes Of Things, Heart full Of Soul and For Your Love, not to mention the classic albums Five Live Yardbirds and Roger The Engineer.
The band is also remembered for the three guitarists who graced the band between the years 1963 and 1968. Eric Clapton followed by Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all recorded and performed their guitar magic with this band.
Founded in Surrey in 1963 by Paul Samwell-Smith, Chris Dreja, Keith Relf, Jim McCarty and Anthony ”Top” Topham, the band soon moved beyond their early primitive efforts and Topham was replaced by Eric Clapton.
Shortly after, the band replaced The Rolling Stones at the famous R&B club the Crawdaddy. The band became the backing band for man visiting blues musicians including Sonny Boy Williamson, with whom they cut their first record. The best representation of the band at this period was the live album Five Live Yardbirds released in 1964.
Despite the bands love of R&B, however, they were pressured into a more pop direction, which horrified the purist Clapton. Shortly after recording the bands first hit single For Your Love in 1965, Clapton left the band to be replaced by Jeff Beck the second in the triumvirate of great guitarists to play for the band.
Jeff Beck was to stay with the band for less than two years but in that time he established the reputation on which he continues to build today and almost single handed changed the way guitar led rock music was viewed.
Jimmy Page, the third of the famous guitarists to grace The Yardbirds, entered the picture when Samwell-Smith left the band and initially joined as the bands bassist; however, he soon swapped duties with Chris Dreja and for a short while formed a twin guitar line up with Jeff Beck. When Beck left in 1967 Page became the band's lone guitarist and was to remain so until the band folded in 1968.
Despite the regard in which the band was held, commercial success eluded them and in 1968 the band split, leaving Jimmy Page with the name and the legend. Page decided to carry on as The New Yardbirds and he duly formed a band around himself, which shortly after changed name to become Led Zeppelin!
This DVD tells the visual story of one of Rock’s legendary bands and contains interviews and also footage of the band, which continues to this day led by Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja. |
