The Yardbirds

Reissues

REPERTOIRE

Flock of high-flying ‘Birds.

Fragile, charismatic Yardbirds frontman Keith Relf has remained a mysteriously remote figure since being fatally electrocuted in 1976 while playing guitar at home. After wider musical aspirations prompted him to go solo in 1968, little was heard of Relf after forming the original Renaissance in ‘69.

All The Falling Angels (8/10), the first major tribute collection (introduced by Chris Welch, annotated by Ugly Things magazine’s Mike Stax) reveals

a questing soul looking way beyond blues rock on 24 intriguing tracks, including solo singles (Mr Zero, Shapes In My Mind), pre-Renaissance Together, unreleased movie music, and home recordings from synthexperimenting Sunbury Electronics Sequence to the harrowingly beautiful confessional recorded 10 days before his death that names this overdue set.

It may seem that Repertoire are milking their cache of vintage Yardbirds radio recordings with Live At The BBC Revisited (7/10), a three-CD upgrade of Live At The BBC adding tracks from 2019’s Live And Rare box set. But, crucially, this career-straddling trove of BBC sessions between 1964’s live Jazz & Blues Festival and March 1968’s Zeppelinheralding last Peel session have been newly sourced, remastered and never sounded so good (maybe dismaying those who already splashed out). Live! Blueswailing July ’64

(7/10) captures some of The Yardbirds’ Marquee appearance four months after their Five Live Yardbirds debut was recorded. It’s looser, louder and capped with a stellar Clapton workout on The Sky Is Crying.

Everything gathered on these sets shows how The Yardbirds’ impact, rapid evolution and unique aura was as much to do with Relf (and the rhythm section) as with its triumvirate of future guitar heroes.

Kris Needs