Ah Ronnie Lane, what can I say about Ronnie Lane ?
I have three of his albums for one (I think he only made three), I went to see him twice at Leeds Poly (I think he only toured twice, properly anyway), and I shared a beer with him one night…
Bass player with The Small Faces in the 1960s and with The Faces in the 70s he left the band in 72 when the writing was on the wall that Rod Stewart was a bigger pull than the rest of the band, Lane had seen the same scenario with Steve Marriot in The Small Faces in 68 and in any case wanted to move away from the commercial rock stuff that the Faces were pushing out to something with more of a folky-feel about it.
Bar-room sing-alongs were Ronnie Lanes Slim Chance stock in trade, songs like the Chuck Berry “C’est La Vie” (above) and similar stuff littered his song list on the albums and live gigs, you never sat down at one of their gigs, even during the slow songs.
They never made any money, every penny that Lane had earned from The Faces days was spent on purchasing a derelict farm and a broken down travelling circus with the plan that they could live the gypsy life touring the country and setting up spontaneous gigs in the circus big top tent wherever they stopped.
It sort of worked, apart from the fact that most of the circus trucks were forty years old, struggled to top 20mph and broke down every mile or so – coupled with the very spontaneous nature of the gigs meaning that pre-publicity was impossible, the venture was a bit of a failure and future tours would be of a more traditional University and City Hall stylee.
The second time they came to Leeds I went along with a couple of mates who had done some work organising gigs and parties with the Student Union, and it was during the bands encore that I was grabbed and dragged out of the auditorium – protesting all the way my two mates dragged me down corridors, out of fire escapes, back in the building via a delivery bay and eventually into a small room full of cases of beer.
We stood and waited, me asking what the hell we were doing here, we helped ourselves to a beer, and then the door was flung open and in walked the band and their entourage, assuming we were with the student union organising staff we spent a pleasant quarter hour chatting to messrs Lane and friends until a very large security guard collared us and suggested that now might be a good time to leave, I have to say that standing in this hulk’s shadow his suggestion seemed to be a very good one.
In ’77 Ronnie Lane was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and eventually moved to Texas where the climate seemed to ease his symptoms, he formed an American version of Slim Chance and worked continuously as income was limited, his royalties from the work with the Small Faces were involved in a long-running legal battle, and he lost most of what he had in a scam that almost had him imprisoned, fortunately he was proven to be a victim rather than a perpetrator.
During the America years he was often supported on the road by Ronnie Wood, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and a host of other British musicians, a couple of benefit gigs for him were made to pay for his ongoing medical treatment but eventually in 1997 he succumbed to pneumonia.
There is a lot of his stuff on YouTube taken from an appearance on the OGWT and an excellent two hour documentary released by the BBC in 2006 on his time during the travelling circus days called “The Passing Show” probably sits on a charity shop shelf in a town near you…
