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Faces

A British rock band formed in 1969 by three members of The Small Faces (Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, Ian McLagan), who invited Rod Stewart and Ron Wood from The Jeff Beck Group to replace the departed Steve Marriott. The Faces performed hard, chaotic, but generally cheerful rock-n-roll (with elements of hard rock and rhythm and blues), in which Stewart's vocals played the dominant role. Subsequently, many punk rockers (in particular, members of The Sex Pistols) mentioned The Faces among their "primary influences." Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) called them "harbingers of punk rock." The commercial rise of The Faces in 1971–1972 is linked to the singles "Stay with Me" (#6 in the UK), "Cindy Incidentally" (#2), and "Pool Hall Richard" (#8). The band broke up as soon as it became clear that its lead singer was turning into a super-star. Wood moved to The Rolling Stones, Jones (later) to The Who, and McLagan became an authoritative session musician. Ronnie Lane pursued a solo career until his death in 1997. In November 2009, The Faces announced their intention to return to the stage and conduct a tour in 2010 regardless of whether Rod Stewart would be able to participate. Subsequently, Stewart was replaced by former vocalist and leader of the band Simply Red, Mick Hucknall, and instead of Ronnie Lane, former Sex Pistols member Glen Matlock played bass guitar. On December 3, 2014, the band's keyboardist Ian McLagan died of a stroke at the age of 69. In September 2015, the musicians reunited with Rod Stewart.