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Fact #121178

When:

Short story:

The Yardbirds play at The Marquee, London, UK. This is their first central London gig since Jeff Beck took over on guitar from Eric Clapton.

Full article:

Jeff Beck (guitarist) : Next thing you know, I'm in the bloody Yardbirds, facing Eric's audience at The Marquee. I was a little nervous, but I also knew that it was the best break I was ever going to get. So I just went for it and, luckily, I had a great night. I pulled out every trick I knew and got a standing ovation.

Jim McCarty (Yardbirds) : Up until that point, we had all come from more or less the same area and background. It would be unfair to describe Jeff as really that different from us, but there were many ways in which we didn't relate. It must have been really hard for him as well.

Chris Dreja (Yardbirds) : I was the other guitar player in the band, so I guess we had something in common. My girlfriend, Pat, had returned from America, and we'd rented a flat in Fernside Road, in beautiful downtown Balham, Gateway to the South. Jeff and his wife came over for dinner one evening to make him feel more at home, but it was awful. No-one spoke all evening.

Phil Collins : The first ever gig I went to, a friend of mine took me, and it was The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck on lead guitar, who had only joined the band that afternoon. I think Eric had left in the morning and Jeff stepped in.

I used to go to The Marquee all the time, three or four times a week. I wasn't a Flamingo guy, or The Pontiac Club in Putney. I was always at the front of the queue because I went straight from school. There was just something about The Marquee that I used to love. I went so often that the management got to know me. They invited me in and I used to sweep the floor and put the chairs away. I had a responsible job and I would get in first. This was before they even had a bar. You could get about 800 to a thousand people in there if you squeezed them in.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Music Week, Jun 2010)