Just heard he died a couple of days ago. Mainly will be remembered as one of the Yardbirds as guitarist and then bass player. I always thought of him as the quiet one. He got involved in potography for a while too. Got involved with a later version of the Yardbirds but had to quit about 12 years ago for health reasons. Apparently, Jimmy Page offered him membership of his new band as bass player back in the day.
Chris Dreja 79
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I used to frequent the Station Tavern in Latimer Road, in the shadow of the ill-fated Grenfell Tower ( where I lived briefly) in the late 80s and 90s where they had live music, usually of a blues bent, every night. We used to go there after our five a side – a bad move due to empty stomachs and sped up metabolisms. Whatever night of the week it was, there used to be for a long stretch, a version of the Yardbirds playing. I must’ve seen them around 20 times I’d say. I used to recognise the odd tune and was aware that they had been a band of note back in the 60s but as a hardcore indie kid, they didn’t really register on my radar. I think Chris Dreja was involved in that line-up. I wished I’d paid more attention now so I could contribute to this thread in more constructive manner.
I really like the Yardbirds, but effortlessly the least interesting thing about them is they had Clapton yadda yadda in their line up. The most interesting thing is they had Keith Relf, Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja, although I’ll cut Jeff Beck a bit of slack.
The 4-cd ‘Live at the BBC’ is superb, especially the earlier stuff.
Indeed – a recent 2 CD compilation is stuffed full of great toons
(not just For Your Love, Heart Full of Souls, and some others).
I had a Yardbirds comp at school and my first band did “Heart full of soul”. Our singer transcribed the lyrics – due to Relf’s odd singing accent for the next 18 months we sang “Sitting hard and lonely.,”
I’m with you once again. Eric’s spot in the band has caused them to be more generally overlooked. That BBC set is absolutely fantastic.
Sorry to hear that. Every band needs a “quiet one”. For a while, my answer to the standard question (Beatles or Stones?) was Yardbirds. I preferred them after Clapton left and they turned into an English version of stripy-trousered psyche/garage rock, rather than the most blueswailin’…
And photography – I gather that Dreja’s first commission was the band photo on the back cover of the first Led Zep LP.
I agree on the Yardbirds evolution – though Clapton was brilliant they were too sloppy to be a good blues band. Limitations which were not a problem with psych pop!
I always found it odd that, for a band with their reputation and influence, they only ever issued one studio album. The singles are peerless, of course, but whilst others were churning out two albums a year they seemingly were either missing sufficient inspiration or their record company weren’t interested enough to bundle them into a studio and lock the doors.
The recent History of Rock Music in 500 songs tells the story of how their manager/producer Mickie Most was only interested in singles and thought albums were irrelevant.
Too true.
You could add a few other acts into the equation of ‘numerous 45s, not an LP’ group…
The Action, The Creation, Honeybus, The Executive etc, although bizarrely it seems to add to their mystique.
It works the other way. How many Ten Years After records do you need?
See also the Zombies. They made one album for Decca in 1965 and, of course, Odessey and Oracle in 1968, but had famously split up by the time it came out. Their whole reputation really rests on Time of the Season becoming a US hit and retrospective admiration for that album (which is overrated in my opinion). Seeing them live in recent years made me realise how thin their discography is.