Cactus was originally going to be the rhythm section of Vanilla Fudge – Tim Bogert (bass guitar) and Carmine Appice (drums) – coupled with guitar hero Jeff Beck and future superstar Rod Stewart. What a rock band that would have been also!
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The remaining bandmembers in Small Faces found two dynamite replacements for Steve Marriott; Rod Stewart was brought in as the vocalist, and Ron Wood joined as the lead guitarist. The direction of the band changed dramatically after that; although Small Faces was still the name on the first album by this line-up, First Step (at least in the U.S.), the band is better known as Faces. Rod Stewart did some of his best work with Faces, and his first big hit as a solo artist, “Maggie May” (from Rod’s excellent solo album Every Picture Tells a Story) was released during the height of his time in the band. They released only four albums – and just three as Faces – but all are great and highly influential. By the time Ooh La La came out in 1973, Rod Stewart’s superstar status was wearing on the other bandmembers; Ronnie Lane left the band right after that.
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After Cactus (initially) broke up in 1972, Jeff Beck joined with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice in a short-lived power trio called Beck, Bogert & Appice. While Rod Stewart was long gone, they represented ¾ of the originally planned line-up for Cactus.
(April 2014)
