All-Stars (band)
The original lineup was tentatively named 'The Cyril Davies Blues Band' and was made up of former members of Screaming Lord Sutch's group, the Savages, including Nicky Hopkins on piano, Carlo Little on drums and Ricky Fenson (aka Rick Brown) on bass.
The band also featured Jimmy Page on guitar for a brief period, though he soon backed out to focus on his burgeoning career as a session musician and was replaced by Bernie Watson, another former member of the Savages.
[2] Around this time, Davies also added female backing singers to the lineup in the form of South African vocal group the Velvettes (not to be confused with Motown trio, the Velvelettes), who had emigrated to England after touring with the musical stage production King Kong.
[2] Former Blues Incorporated pianist Keith Scott was recruited in his stead, but growing tensions between Davies and the other band members meant that Fenson, Watson and Little each soon left the group to be replaced by bassist Cliff Barton, guitarist Geoff Bradford and drummer Micky Waller.
[5] Baldry assumed the role of band leader, and with fellow All-Stars Barton, Bradford and Parker went on to perform as 'The Hoochie Coochie Men' together with Rod Stewart on vocals and Ernie O'Malley on drums.
[1][2] In 1986 a sixth track was released: a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" on the Castle Communications compilation album White Boy Blues Vol.
Around eighteen months after Cyril Davies' death, Page brought together former All-Stars Nicky Hopkins, Carlo Little and Cliff Barton to record with him and his friend Jeff Beck.
[11] The rest of the tracks from this session would eventually get their first release in 1968, alongside "Steelin'", properly credited to 'The All-Stars featuring...' on the Immediate compilation album Blues Anytime Vol.
I didn't get a penny out of it anyway... Stu from the Stones was on piano, Mick Jagger did some harp, Bill Wyman played bass and Charlie Watts was on drums.
At the time, the band consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, and pianist Ian Stewart.
The group played with a number of different bassists and drummers during this period, including members of the Cyril Davies All-Stars Carlo Little and Ricky Fenson.
[2][3][18] Little and Fenson made a strong impression on the younger musicians, and were repeatedly asked to join the band, but the Stones at the time couldn't afford to match what they were earning with the All-Stars.
[19] Little flew to Paris for the documentary, where he was reunited with the Stones, meeting them backstage at one of their shows and being invited to attend Jagger's 55th birthday party at their hotel.
[19] Capitalising on the attention and publicity he was now receiving, Little reformed the All-Stars in 1999 with Fenson on bass and including vocalist Art Wood, guitarist Alex Chanter, Eddie Armer playing harmonica and Johnny Casanova on keyboards.
[20] They recorded an album together in 2001, named Never Stop Rockin', which also featured Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Long John Baldry, Matthew Fisher and the Chanter Sisters, though this remained unreleased for several years.
