Following last year’s Humble Pie Official Bootleg Collection Volume 1 double LP comes the Official Bootleg Collection Volume 2, curating rare and previously (officially) unreleased live shows that were illicitly recorded between 1971 and 1981.
Emerging from the remnants of The Small Faces, Humble Pie formed in 1969 when guitarist and vocalist Steve Marriott joined forces with Peter Frampton, drummer Jerry Shirley and bassist Greg Ridley, and began their ascent to conquering the theatres and then arenas of North America, culminating in 1972’s double live Performance: Rockin’ The Filmore album. Frampton left in 1971 for a highly successful solo career, replaced by Colosseum’s Clem Clempson, and it was this line-up that was captured in New York in 1971, at one of Clem’s first shows with the Pie. The extemporisations of Performance: Rockin’ The Filmore became the basis for much of Humble Pie’s live repertoire for the remainder of the 1970s, but this 1971 New York show does include their unique take on Eddie Cochran’s ‘C’mon Everybody’ and ‘I Wonder’ from the soon to be released Smokin’ LP.
Side Two finds the Pie backed up by the soulful vocals of The Blackberries–Venetta Fields, Clydie King & Billie Barnum==who appear on “Oh La-De-Da”, ‘” Don’t Need No Doctor” and “30 Days In The Hole.”
Humble Pie split in 1975 following their Street Rats LP, but not before Side Three’s Philadelphia show on March 15, 1975, featuring ‘Four Day Creep’ and ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’.
The Pie would eventually reform for 1980’s “On To Victory” comeback record, this time with a line-up featuring Bobby Tench from the Jeff Beck Group on guitar and vocals and bassist Anthony “Sooty” Jones.
Side Four from Privates Club, N.Y.C. on March 25, 1981 features the epic 23 minute take of ‘30 Days in the Hole’ / ‘I Walk on Gilded Splinters’.
Housed in a gatefold sleeve, with plenty of rare memorabilia, the booklet features an essay based on new interviews with Pie drummer Jerry Shirley.