Kenney Jones says he “can’t see” the long-discussed new Faces album being released this year, but that doesn’t mean the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band will remain inactive.
Jones has confirmed work on a new documentary about the Faces, utilizing archival footage from handheld video cameras given to the band in 1972. “It’s never been seen,” Jones tells The Telegraph, “and there’s some rude bits in there.”
A new album from surviving members of the Faces, including Rod Stewart and longtime Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, has been in progress for years. At one point, Stewart mentioned they were evaluating as many as 15 songs—”some old, some new”—for potential release. Jones previously confirmed they had 14 songs.
Jones now says they are working on “about 11 tracks” during sessions at Mickie Most’s former studio, RAK, in North London. Jools Holland, of Squeeze fame, guests on one song. A release date remains uncertain. “I can’t see it coming out this year,” Jones admits, “but I can see it coming out next year.”
The project has been delayed by their commitments outside the Faces. “Everyone’s doing different things,” said Jones, the only surviving member of the original Small Faces lineup. “We do little snippets [of recording] here and there. Then all of a sudden, the Stones are out [on tour] again, Rod’s out again.”
Jones is overseeing a reissue campaign from the archives of Immediate Records, which he acquired from BMG. The label was originally co-founded in 1965 by Rolling Stones co-manager Andrew Loog Oldham and released early singles by Fleetwood Mac, Nico, and John Mayall, among others.
Scheduled upcoming releases include those by the Small Faces, Steve Marriott’s post-Small Faces band Humble Pie, Keith Richards, and others. They will be released on Nice Records, a label Jones founded in the ’90s to raise funds for former Small Faces bandmate Ronnie Lane during his battle with multiple sclerosis.
Perhaps the most unexpected release is “The Autumn Stone,” a retrospective that was rush-released after the Small Faces broke up. The double album originally compiled original single releases, live recordings with added crowd noise, and songs from the Small Faces’ never-completed fourth album.
Jones is overseeing a complete remaster, removing the fake audience noise and adding more material to complete a comprehensive box set. He admits the work has occasionally made him “very emotional, very sad. It’s a lonely feeling. I can’t share it with my mates.” Marriott died in 1991, Lane succumbed to MS in 1997, and Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan passed in 2014.
Still, reclaiming “something that we hated in the first place, because it was cashing in, is a nice feeling,” Jones said. “We were only together for such a short time, and I’m amazed at what we did. So many songs. So it’s my job to keep the catalog, the memory, and the Small Faces’ name alive. So many people know it and love it. So I thought: ‘OK, I’m going to love it back."”