Credit: Alamy

Every musician who was ever in The Yardbirds

Sun 7 July 2024 18:30, UK

The Yardbirds might not have hit the heights of other great bands in the 1960s, but they acted as a finishing school for some of the most important and influential rock musicians who’ve ever lived. Their trio of guitar supremos alone makes them unique in developing three all-time great players of the same instrument.

Formed on the outskirts of London in 1963 by singer and mouth organist Keith Relf, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, drummer Jim McCarty, and guitarists Chris Dreja and Tony Topham, the group was originally an unremarkable backup band for blues singer Cyril Davies. That is until 18-year-old Eric Clapton replaced Topham on guitar later that year.

By 1965, the Clapton-led band had made a name for themselves on both sides of the Atlantic with the hit single ‘For Your Love’, one of the earliest examples of psychedelia in rock music. But that was to be one of Clapton’s last contributions to The Yardbirds before he moved on to his named project with blues aficionado John Mayall.

He was replaced by an even younger guitar prodigy, Jeff Beck, who would help the band further innovate the budding psychedelic rock genre with their self-penned single ‘Shapes of Things’ and their 1966 album Roger the Engineer. Beck’s guitar-playing prowess would see him strike out on his own, leading world-renowned electric blues bands under various guises until his recent death. He was revered by his peers, with Brian May comparing him to a classical music genius.

The “new” Yardbirds

The man who’d recommended Beck to The Yardbirds after initially turning them down himself eventually agreed to take on his mantle in the band. Jimmy Page would keep the group going until the summer of 1968, when Chris Dreja, the sole surviving original member who was by then on bass duties, decided to leave.

Page found touring replacements for his former bandmates, and the new group decided to rename itself Led Zeppelin after a trademark dispute with some of the founding members. And the rest is history.

The Yardbirds re-formed in 1992 around McCarty and Dreja. McCarty keeps the band going to this day, with new members Kenny Aaronson, Mike Scavone, Godfrey Townsend and John Idan, all of whom were still children when The Yardbirds first burst onto the scene.

Since its reformation, plenty of others have populated the band, too, including former Fairport Convention guitarist Jerry Donahue. It seems that anyone with enough of a blues sensibility who knows their way around a guitar could one day find themselves a member of The Yardbirds.