Yardbirds

Eric Clapton has become one of Britain's most successful guitar heroes of the last three decades, a writer, singer and performer who has consistently produced quality singles and albums which have sold millions around the globe, and whose live shows are always guaranteed standing-room-only events. Clapton has now been a solo performer for so long that it is easy to forget that his formative musical years were spent working with a variety of different blues bands, including John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, and not forgetting the legendary Yardbirds.

CD reissue of the debut album from the British Blues legends featuring 10 bonus tracks. Recorded live at the Marquee Club in 1964, the line-up of the band was their best-ever and featured Eric Clapton, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith.
Five Live Yardbirds was the first important - indeed, essential - live album to come out of the 1960s British rock & roll boom. In terms of the performance captured and the recording quality, it was also the best such live record of the entire middle of the decade. Five Live Yardbirds was a popular album, especially once Eric Clapton's fame began to spread after he left the band.

Little Games is the fourth American album by English rock band the Yardbirds. Recorded and released in 1967, it was their first album recorded after becoming a quartet with Jimmy Page as the sole guitarist and Chris Dreja switching to bass. Although the new lineup was becoming more experimental with longer, improvised concert performances, the Yardbirds' record company brought in successful singles producer Mickie Most to coax out more commercial product. However, neither material that properly presented their new approach nor hit singles were forthcoming. Little Games became the Yardbirds' final studio album, although Most continued to produce singles for the group. These were later collected and released with the original album along with outtakes and alternate mixes on an expanded edition titled Little Games Sessions & More in 1992.

The Yardbirds are certainly one of the most unstable British rock groups of all time, reflected by the fact that it produced three of the greatest guitarists in history: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. It is mostly because all three started out with the Yardbirds that the group is regarded so highly even though they only had a half-dozen Top 40 hits in 1965-1966: "For Your Love" (#6), "Heart Full of Soul" (#9), "I'm A Man" (#17), "Happening Ten Years Time Ago" (#30), "Over Under Sideways Down" (#13), and "Shapes of Things" (#11). I provide the list to show the shortcomings of this 25 track collection from Repertoire. You get only four of their top six hits and there are several "hits" collections which rectify this problem. True, most of those are multi-disc collections, but we are talking about one of the pivotal rock 'n' roll groups of the Sixties.

2CD set with 40 restored and remastered tracks. Rare BBC archive recordings. Authoritative liner notes and new quotes. The most comprehensive collection of The Yardbirds BBC 'live' recordings, assembled with the assistance of the BBC, with several tracks now all together the first time on this newly restored and remastered 2CD set. Several tracks have been expertly repaired from rare, hard-to-find recordings and feature for the first time on this set.
Detailed data in the booklet, which also includes authoritative liner notes by Richard Morton Jack, editor of 'Flashback' magazine, and contains new quotes from Yardbirds' Jim McCarty and Paul Samwell-Smith. Jim McCarty also adds an introduction exclusively for this the set, looking back at the BBC years…

Four CD set. The most definitive and complete set of the Yardbirds' BBC appearances to date. Over 89 tracks, of which 30 previously unreleased. With an introduction by Chris Welch. A spined book of track by track, in-depth sessions notes by BBC historian Ashley Wood. Interviews of Jim McCarty and Paul Samwell-Smith by Chris Welch. Sound quality restored and improved, fully remastered. Total playing time: approx. 250 mins. Mono recordings. Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first documented live appearance by the Yardbirds, this 4CD set features 3 discs' worth of material from Jeff Beck's time on lead guitar with The Yardbirds, while the 4th disc documents the period when Jimmy Page held the lead guitar spot in the band.

Recorded December 8th, 1963 at Craw-Daddy Club, Richmond and at the Club A Go Go, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England on 30 Dec. 1963.
Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey, hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim, and simply wrote, played, and sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into Black phonograph records…