Small Faces "The Autumn Stone" Immediate ?1 C 148-94 087/88 2xLP German re 1972

	£		30
	$		40

Small Faces ? "The Autumn Stone"  Immediate ?1 C 148-94 087/88 Stereo German press. 2 × Vinyl, LP, reissued in 1972 in a gate-fold sleeve.
Both LPs appear to have been lightly played and are in great shape. They played through beautifully on my elderly stereo - no hop, stick or jump. The gate-fold sleeve has some slight laminae lifting, but is otherwise in good shape - with no rips or writing. The spine is intact and legible. Matrix/Run Out Side 1 : 94087-A-1  IMAL 01-1Y-1 Matrix/Run Out Side 2 : 94087-B-1   Matrix/Run Out Side 3 : 94088-A-1 IMAL 02-1Y-1 Matrix/Run Out Side 4 : 94088-B-1 IMAL 02-2Y-1
The double album contains most of the Small Faces' Immediate and Decca original 7" single releases, together with live recordings from a concert at Newcastle City Hall and previously unreleased material, some of which was possibly intended for the band's projected but unrealised fourth LP, 1862.
Alongside the title track, the album contained an alternate version of "Afterglow Of Your Love" (which had been released as the Small Faces' final single earlier in the year), covers of two Tim Hardin songs ("If I Were A Carpenter" and "Red Balloon") and the instrumentals "Wide Eyed Girl On The Wall" and "Collibosher" (both of which are claimed to be unfinished backing tracks by the compilers of the "Here Comes The Nice" box set).
The title track "The Autumn Stone" and "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am" (its correct title, according to composer Steve Marriott - 'Wham Bam Thank You Man', as it was titled on the Afterglow single where the song first found release in March 1969, was apparently a label misprint) had originally been recorded on September the 11th 1968 as the a and b sides of a projected but ultimately unreleased single. This recording session proved to be the band's final studio work together aside from some session work in Paris with Peter Frampton for a Johnny Halliday album in December.
"The Autumn Stone" album was released by Immediate Records founder Andrew Loog Oldham in November 1969, more than six months after the band had officially announced their break up, and three months after Steve Marriott's new band Humble Pie had released their own debut LP. In Germany, a single LP version with only the 'new' material was released under the title "In Memoriam".
AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder   "The Autumn Stone" was the only double LP in the history of Immediate Records, and it came out as the company was entering its death throes, a desperate effort to cash in on the library of tapes of the Small Faces. When lead singer Steve Marriott quit in the waning days of 1968, the group had been midway into recording a new album that would have been its third for the label and a follow-up to 1968's popular "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake". Left high and dry by Marriott's departure, and with an uncertain future ahead for the group, the company elected to release the first anthology of the Small Faces' work. The result was "The Autumn Stone", a mix of hit singles (going all the way back to their Decca Records years, with "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" and "All or Nothing") and up through their final 45, "The Universal," plus three songs recorded live at Newcastle Town Hall in early 1968, a bunch of album tracks, and some unissued tracks from the tail-end of their history, presumably intended for their third, never-finished Immediate LP. It was the first (and, for over 20 years, the best) overview of the group's work and history, depicting its transition from a white British Invasion-era soul band to a more laid-back and experimental psychedelic outfit."