Steve Marriott

Overview

Submitted by guitar-list on Sun, 2011-02-13 23:12

musical style:

photograph of Steve Marriott

Hailed as one of the greatest rock vocalists Great Britain ever produced, Steve Marriott (30 January 1947 - 20 April 1991) was self-taught and considered a child prodigy. At the age of twelve he already sang and played guitar and harmonica in bands. He rose to fame with his bands Small Faces and Humble Pie. Steve Marriott was known for his unique piercing high pitched voice and his aggressive guitar-playing.

From his early days with the Small Faces, through his greatest Humble Pie years, and into his final phase as the focus of a bewildering array of short lived lineups, Marriott may have lacked focus and fixed direction, perhaps due to a need to reinvent himself from time to time, but he never failed to impress and please with his energy, ability and pure sense of fun. The measure of the man must be in the artists whom he brought together around him over the years.

While high energy rock was the mainstay of his live work, his repertoire also showed him to be at home singing soul standards, ballads and even occasional country numbers. He remained true to the rock ethos however, preferring not to go down the establishment path in his later years as others had successfully done before him. Anyone with an interest in high energy good time rock performed by a highly skilled and talented performer should take a look into the Marriott bag and let their ears glow. He is still sorely missed by the music scene and will never be replaced. Read more about Steve Marriott on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.