Faces Announce “Early Steps – The First Recordings” LP

Rhino/Warner Music are set to issue next month the earliest Faces recordings made in London as part of the label’s Rocktober initiative which will see 43 exclusive, limited-edition albums released in the coming weeks.

Kicking off on October 3^rd, new titles will be released each Friday under the Rocktober banner, including releases by Black Sabbath, The Doors, New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Type O Negative and many more. All releases will be available exclusively at select brick-and-mortar retail stores while supplies last.

For Rocktober, the Faces will release their very first and previously unknown 1969 recording session with Glyn Johns at Olympic Studios in Barnes as well as songs recorded in The Rolling Stones‘ Bermondsey rehearsal space as ‘Early Steps,‘ a brand-new album via Rhino/Warner Music on limited-edition vinyl LP, CD and streaming formats on 31October 2025.

Legendary and much-loved British band the Faces – Rod Stewart (lead vocals, harmonica, guitar), Ronnie Wood (lead guitar, vocals, bass, harmonica), Kenney Jones (drums, percussion), Ronnie Lane (bass, vocals) and Ian McLagan (organ, piano, guitar, vocals) – are captured on‘Early Steps’, a new album with one side devoted to studio session recordings and one side to rehearsals recorded on the band’s very own cassette tapes, prior to signing with Warner Bros and releasing their debut album, ‘First Step,‘ in 1970.

Whilst three of the tracks were included on the now out-of-print Faces CD box-set Five Guys Walk Into A Bar…, all other songs are previously unreleased versions, with one (‘Train’) having never been heard before.

‘Early Steps’ is produced for release by Rob Caiger, with all tracks newly restored and remastered by Nick Robbins at Nick Robbins Mastering in London. The Olympic Studio tapes were transferred and mixed by Rob Keyloch and Rob Caiger; tape restoration was completed by Dave Corbettand the team at FX Copy Room and lacquers were cut by Henry Rudkins at AIR Studios in London.

Many musicians across punk, new wave, new romantic, Britpop, rock and metal cite the Faces as an important influence on their careers. But the band also inspired Rob Caiger, then a young London music obsessive who is now archivist and reissue producer for a number of important catalogues, including the Faces and also Kenney Jones’ own Nice Records which is currently reissuing Immediate Records’ titles.

As part of Caiger’s meticulous research work, he came across an Olympic tape reel that began his journey into an undocumented part of Faces‘ history, six months before their debut LP was released in March 1970. The tape, labelled “Small Faces”, had been recorded in September 1969 and stored for years in the Olympic Studio archive. In 1987, new owners Virgin Music were rebuilding parts of the studio and decided there was no room for an archive and began disposing of tapes into a large skip outside. Fans, collectors and opportunists quickly descended on Barnes and took whatever they could carry or load into their cars.

Tapes were lost, destroyed, or disappeared into private archives. Eventually, tapes for the Small Faces were tracked to Germany and brought back to the UK. While working on these tapes as part of a Small Faces remaster series, Caiger noticed a session tape that did not make sense. The songs written on the tape box were not Small Faces songs and the date of the recording session was six months after the band had split up. As soon as the tape was rolling, Caiger realised he had the very first Faces studio recording – unknown, undocumented, and only vaguely remembered by those who were there.

This lost session with Glyn Johns at Olympic captured the Faces superbly. The passion and soul of Rod’s vocals coupled with the raw power of the band’s playing. There’s no “’60s stereo” separation diluting the sound as there was on First Step, which rooted that LP very much in its time. Instead, the Faces are locked in an almost telepathic groove, driving the session onward with an infectious urgency.

Prior to their first studio session at Olympic in September, the only other recordings of the Faces were those made by Ian McLagan on his cassette recorder during rehearsals in the summer of 1969. These were taped in the basement of 47 Bermondsey Street, which was used by The Rolling Stones as their rehearsal space. It was looked after by Ian Stewart, known to all as “Stu.” Held in great affection by all those who got to know him, Stu was the Stones’ original piano player, who became the band’s tour manager when Andrew Oldham decided he did not fit the image of the band. When Stu heard the Faces needed a rehearsal space but were broke, he arranged for them to use the basement as the Stones were no longer using it.

From late spring into summer 1969, the band were rehearsing as a four-piece: three ex-Small Faces, Kenney, Mac & Ronnie, together with Ronnie Wood, with whom Ronnie Lane had been working. Wood soon brought his bandmate from the Jeff Beck Group, Rod Stewart, to Bermondsey Street to have a listen. The then-reserved and shy singer would not sing, preferring just to go for drinks afterwards at the nearby Kings Arms. But Rod was always listening… When Kenney finally convinced Rod to have a go with the band, it was a revelation.

Take early steps back to 1960s London to the Faces‘ first and previously unheard recording session at Olympic Studios in Barnes. Walk by the River Thames to Bermondsey to hear rehearsals in The Rolling Stones’ warehouse, the earliest recordings of the Faces captured in all their raucous glory on the band’s own cassette tapes. Hear the Faces before they took the First Step!