Article Contributed by Cleopatra Records
Published on February 12, 2026
By the early 1980s, Steve Marriott’s glory days were far behind him, in commercial terms at least. A decade had passed since his band Humble Pie last graced the Billboard Top 20; by the time the group broke up for the first time, in 1975, they were scarcely bothering the Top 100.
An attempt to reform Humble Pie in 1980 got off to a promising start, but was doomed to failure, the victim both of record company inactivity, and the band’s inability to tour while Marriott underwent hospital treatment first for the fingers he crushed in a Chicago hotel doorway, then for the ulcer he discovered in Dallas. Before that, it was a Small Faces revival which collapsed in disarray.
But he remained active and, by early 1982, recovering from his ailments and relocating to Atlanta GA, he was back playing live, leading a new band and, while there was no record label impatiently awaiting the fruits of his labors, all concerned were itching to return to action.
He was accompanied now by bassist Jim Leverton, veteran of such 70s acts as Noel Redding’s Fat Mattress and drummer Fallon Williams and he was not offering up a nostalgia show. While the new line-up certainly acknowledged his past, digging back into both the Small Faces’ catalog and Humble Pie’s, fresh arrangements were as crucial as new material and unexpected covers.
“I don’t want to get sunk in nostalgia,” Marriott explained. “[But] I don’t think you can escape your history, and I don’t even want to.””
So he bawled out the oldies and the audiences went nuts. The key is, though, that they didn’t sound like old songs being revived because they once were hits. Rather, they were fresh and frantic, electrified energy zapping the years, then body swerving through a celebration of everything Marriott ever felt strongly about.
Recorded at the now long-shuttered (but so fondly remembered) Annie’s, on Kellog Avenue, Cincinnatti on December 7, 1983, the show here marks one of the last that this incarnation of Humble Pie would play. But it sparks, regardless, with the sheer energy and alchemy that was Steve Marriott in concert.
Even at the end, after all, Humble Pie were capable of some magnificent performances, and Marriott himself was always on form, laughing and joking one moment, soloing like a devil the next (you can literally lose yourself in “Five Long Years”), and always ready with a crowd-pleasing quip.
He really was one of the best.
Track listing
1. Whatcha Gonna Do About It
2. Fool For A Pretty Face
3. Hallelujah I Love Her So
4. Five Long Years
5. 30 Days In The Hole
6. I Don’t Need No Doctor
7. Big Train Stops At Memphis
8. Walking The Dog
Bonus tracks
9. Trouble You Can’t Fool Me (Studio)
10. Lonely No More (Studio)
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=humble+pie+live+in+cincinatti
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/eak9d0k
