Finally surfacing nearly 20 years after the fact, the great lost "
Majik Mijits" album project is a duo recording made in the early '80s by the creative forces from
Small Faces,
Steve Marriott and
Ronnie Lane. (The
Majik Mijits moniker is yet another reference to their diminutive size.)
Marriott at the time was fresh out of reunions with
Small Faces (a gathering that had initially included
Lane) and
Humble Pie;
Lane, most recently a solo artist, was just starting to suffer the physical limitations associated with multiple sclerosis. They organized a band featuring bassist Jim Leverton, guitarist
Mick Green, drummer Dave Hynes, and keyboardist Mick Weaver, and used
Lane's mobile recording studio to cut an LP democratically sequenced with six songs each by
Lane and
Marriott (no collaborations), alternating one after the other. The result, not surprisingly, has moments when it sounds like
Small Faces. In particular,
Marriott's "How Does It Feel" could have been a
Small Faces single of the 1980s. Typically,
Lane's songs are sturdy, well-constructed efforts, while
Marriott's are more varied, sometimes ("Toe Rag") even being comic throwaways. And why was the album not released in, say, 1982? Apparently, record companies either passed on it or required that the band tour to support it, which
Lane was incapable of doing. So, instead, the tapes ended up in the possession of
Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones before emerging in the new millennium. Now, they constitute a worthy footnote in the
Small Faces story. ~ William Ruhlmann