The Faces

1974 Australasian Tour
Hordern Pavilion
Sydney, NSW
Australia
9th February 1974

01. The Stripper Intro
02. It’s All Over Now
03. I’m Losing You
04. Angel
05. True Blue
06. Stay With Me
07. I’d Rather Go Blind
08. Memphis Tennessee
09. My Fault (Ron Wood On Lead Vocals)
10. Too Bad > Kenny Jones Drum Solo > Every Picture Tells A Story
11. You Wear It Well
12. Maggie May
13. I Wish It Would Rain
14. Borstal Boys Medley > Plynth > Amazing Grace > Gasoline Alley > Borstal Boys
15. Twisting The Night Away > One Last Sweet Cheerio (Acappella)
encore
16. Pool Hall Richard (incomplete)

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Tape By Waz From Oz & Ruby
2019/2020 digitisation from master tape and mixing by audiowhore
Cover art photos from the 1st February 1974 Sydney show by Phil Morris
Additional photos included with this torrent by Recy were taken at this Hordern concert - 9 Feb 1974.

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The Band
Rod Stewart – Vocals
Ron Wood – Guitar & Backing Vocals
Ian McLagan – Keyboards & Backing Vocals
Kenny Jones – Drums
Tetsu Yamauchi - Bass Guitar

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The Tour
27th January 1974 - Auckland, New Zealand - Western Springs Stadium
31st January 1974 - Brisbane, QLD - Milton Tennis Courts (Cancelled due to flooding)
1st February 1974 - Sydney, NSW - Randwick Racecourse
3rd February 1974 - Melbourne, VIC - South Melbourne Football Ground
5th February 1974 - Adelaide, SA - Memorial Park Drive
8th February 1974 - Melbourne, VIC - Festival Hall
9th February 1974 - Sydney, NSW - Hordern Pavilion

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Usually I like to release shows of artists I have taped in chronological date order but because this 2nd Faces Sydney show recording was ready first
plus I’ve had a few requests for it that I’ve decided to DIME it first.
The 1st show is the better recording of the two & will be DIMED at a later period.

The Faces 1974 Australian tour was rather successful, leading to 2 shows being added, one in Sydney, the other in Melbourne, albeit this time indoor shows.
I attended this concert with Ruby & a girlfriend Recy whose colour photographs of this concert appear in this torrent, sadly she passed away in January of this year.
Even back then she was the biggest Ron Wood fan, she first got to know Ron in 1974 & over the years when the Stones tours came to Sydney, they’d meet up,
in the nicest way possible that is, even if Jo Wood tried to sabotage one or two of these meetings.

The Faces weren’t that well known in Australia, I think they achieved a low charting hit with Stay With Me in 1971, the album that came from,
'A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse' obtained a higher chart placing.
Like most other overseas music markets, it was Rod who was the more well-known, he was extremely popular here.
I think it’s fair to say that a good percentage of Australian Faces audiences were there because of Rod.

The 1st Sydney show which was an outdoor show I remember being more of a male orientated audience, but the 2nd concert was heavy populated with females,
a good many of the teenage screaming, clapping along (in & out of time), singing along variety as you will hear as the concert unfurls.
Our section on the floor was a third of the way back & was chock full of the above described sheilas who can be heard doing all the above especially
clapping which funnily or luckily enough don’t drown out the proceedings, in fact I think it adds to the atmosphere.
Far more girly singalongs and happy clappers here at the Hordern than at the Randwick Racecourse show.

Ruby & I were dead set Faces fans & were saddened when Ronnie Lane left the Faces in June 1973, he was replaced with a Japanese person named Tetsu.
We being somewhat immature 17-year old’s thought this was a hilarious name & often we would say Tetsu in a high voice.
Ruby can be heard doing the high pitched Tetsu every now & again during this recording.
It’s also Ruby at the end of I’m Losing You that can be heard saying “What’s that on my shoulder?”.
Both of us bought bootlegs (in fact I was selling them in my last year of high school) & one of the early bootlegs we’d brought was a Who bootleg called
Collector’s Item (Dayton 1971) somewhere on the LP a woman can be heard saying “What’s that on my shoulder?” and like Tetsu it became a saying amongst our group.
What sparked it to be said at this concert was the girl seated directly in front of us kept poking her friend’s shoulder to get her attention & so
the “What’s that on my shoulder?” line was ushered.
Mr Stewart must have been eager to start the final gig of the tour as he can be heard to say “Alright, stop the music” near the end of the Stripper introduction music.

Hope the teenage girl who wanted Mandolin Wind for an encore wasn’t too disappointed she didn’t get her wish.
Another distant call for that song by a girl can be heard just before Borstal Boys, she must have been near the stage because Rod replies,
‘Darl’s we don’t do that one”.

Rodney obviously was having some fun with the audience as when the first notes of Maggie May start up he introduces it as a new number & during
Pool Hall Richard when the audience are indulging in a hand clapping frenzy he can be heard asking “Still Here?”
I thought at the 2nd gig we might get a few different songs not performed at the first show but they played the exact same set,
the only difference being at this show after Twisting The Night Away they did an accapella One Last Sweet Cheerio whereas it was We’ll Meet Again at Randwick.

Also at the first gig Rod kicked several footballs into the audience, I don’t remember him doing that at this gig.
Unfortunately, due to running out of tape the encore Pool Hall Richard is incomplete but only by about 30 seconds.
Also, at times due to recording levels being a bit high, some distortion can be heard, but this is the best version you’ll find so you can bin your previous copies.

Apparently even though it was a successful tour for The Faces it seems the boys or Ian McLagan in particular were bored with Australia, who also has a shot
at Australian females as according to a phone interview with UK music paper Melody Maker Ian said they all had broken noses & big tits.
Maybe Ian was constantly drunk whilst here or was knocked back often by Aussie sheilas as having lived in both countries, I’d say Australian girls
overall are a lot more attractive bunch than their English counterparts.
And for the life of me I can’t see any similarity between Belgium & Australia.

Ian’s full quote below, taken from the excellent book on The Faces Had Me A Real Good Time by Andy Neil.
Highly recommended.


Thanks to audiowhore & Phillip Morris for the Faces 1974 Sydney photos.

Enjoy,

Waz

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Had Me A Real Good Time by Andy Neil

Despite enthusiastic audiences & reviews, Ian McLagan opened fire in a Melody Maker interview by phone from Melbourne, being generally contemptuous of
Australia and it’s Sheilas (females) in particular, “All the Australian girls have got broken noses and big tits …..
And they’re dressed like tennis stars – a bit muscular in the legs.
Australian girls have an inbuilt sense of no rhythm. Very sad. It’s a bit like Belgium over ere in some ways…..
We just wanna get ‘ome. There’s no history ‘ere. No culture….We’re really bored to tears.
The Britain to which the Faces returned to could hardly have been further from the sunshine utopia of Australia.
A nation crippled by strikes, bombings, television blackouts, power cuts and three-day weeks inspired the joke: while America has Johnny Cash, Bob Hope & Stevie Wonder,
the UK had no cash, no hope & no bloody wonder!


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Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: