{"id":7400,"date":"2025-12-06T09:57:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T09:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7400"},"modified":"2025-12-06T09:57:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T09:57:55","slug":"shindig-170-humble-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7400","title":{"rendered":"Shindig! #170 – Humble Pie"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the end of 1968, 18-year-old Peter Frampton had quit hit-making outfit The Herd, fed-up with the teen idol tag being foisted upon him. Steve Marriott was also fed-up with what he saw as Small Faces\u2019 creative stagnation. This shared frustration led to Frampton and Marriott forming HUMBLE PIE, but there was clearly no rancour on the first two Pie albums, As Safe As Yesterday Is <\/em>and Town And Country<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

To commemorate this, PETER GALLAGHER talks to Pie percussionist Jerry Shirley about the band\u2019s action-packed formative year<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Band formed, the next step was a name. Each band member brought two possibilities to the table and the pros and cons of each discussed. Marriott\u2019s suggestion of Humble Pie won the day, not least because it served as a riposte to the \u201csupergroup\u201d whispers circulating in the music press. Management and a record label were items two and three on the tick list, with Chris Blackwell (Island) and Kit Lambert (Track) being considered before the Pie ultimately signed with Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate, the current home of Small Faces.<\/p>\n

After much feet-dragging by Immediate, As Safe As Yesterday Is<\/em> was released in August \u201969. The last album featuring Steve Marriott had been the intricately packaged Ogden\u2019s Nut Gone Flake<\/em>, and the record label prevaricated over devising a competing concept. This ongoing delay caused Marriott to momentarily misplace his rag, and he stormed into Immediate shouting they could put it out in a brown paper bag for all he cared. So that\u2019s what they did, with David Bailey\u2019s specially commissioned band photographs reduced to stamp size. Non-album single \u2018Natural Born Bugie\u2019 was released at the same time and reached #4 in the UK. Both album and single have a distinct American sound, as if Frampton and Marriott were deliberately trying to leave the \u201cEnglishness\u201d of Small Faces and The Herd behind.<\/p>\n