On Nov. 14th, 1968, Immediate released a Small Faces album, "The Autumn Stone." It failed to chart. The screaming stopped. And once they could hear themselves, Steve felt justified in feeling that the band just wasn't good enough to play live. He brought up the Frampton option again but the others wouldn't have it. On December 31st, The Small Faces were playing a New Years Eve gig at Alexander Palace. During the show, while Alexis Korner had joined the band, Steve became infuriated at the inability to reproduce a stage sound equivalent to their studio work. He dropped his guitar and walked off the stage, yelling, "I quit!".

Jerry Shirley: "I wasn't there but that was it. Steve walked off stage and he was done. He quit the group right there and then. I did see Ronnie and the guys within the months that followed and there was a lot of bitterness about Steve leaving. Understandably."

Jenny Dearden: "I was with him the night he walked off the stage at Alexander Palace and said, 'That's it!' It caused a lot of bitterness between him and Ronnie, which they never really resolved. It was very sad that he and Ronnie had a terrible rift because they had been so close. But I don't think he was aware of it. Underneath, as with most people, his self-esteem was not that high at all."

After walking off, Marriott was backstage commiserating with Greg Ridley, bassist for Spooky Tooth. The two shared a mutual frustration with their current lot in life.

Greg Ridley: "We were both pissed off. We'd realized we'd both reached a peak. Bitchiness had come in to the various bands with personalities involved. They'd tried getting so far with it and gotten tired of it. Or tired of the members of it and wanted to go further on. Steve had said, 'Do you want to join a band?' And I said, 'Yeah, I'm ready for a change.' With his energy … he was a real live wire and that's what got me interested. It seemed Spooky Tooth had taken it as far as we could without any reward. Everybody had said, 'Aww, they're a good band,' but we were still living on the bread line. We got respect through our playing, which was very nice, but it didn't get us anywhere. It was time for a change."

Steve told him of Frampton and asked Greg would he at least be interested in getting together and jamming. Ridley was all for it. Aside from Frampton's talent to work with, Steve wanted to find himself in a band where he could stay in the background. He was fed up with girls screaming at him for wiggling his ass. Frampton could be the focal point.

Jerry Shirley: "The night before we went to do our New Year's Eve gig, I had told the rest of the members of the band that I decided that I wasn't gonna pursue the thing with Peter. It didn't seem like it was going anywhere. And we went and did our gig, all happy because old school pals sticking together and that kind of thing. We got back to my parent's house after the gig and the phone rang and it was Steve. He literally said, 'How's everything going with you and Peter and the band?' And I said, 'It's kinda going a bit slow. We can't find anybody else to join us.' And he said, 'How about if I join?' And my first reaction was 'OH, NO! You can't do that! You can't leave The Small Faces!' And then I got over the shock of it and went, 'OK.' Then Steve said, 'By the way, I have a bass player who wants to come along with me, Greg Ridley from Spooky Tooth.' And that sealed it for me. Not as if Steve being in the band wasn't enough already but at that time Greg was the most respected bassist in all of England through Spooky Tooth. So I had to go back to the band, and say, 'By the way it looks like I might be leaving after all.' I told them why and they were all great. 'Oh, well, you can't turn that down!' "

Peter Frampton: "I was at Glyn Johns'. He'd said, 'You've gotta come back. I want to play you this record that I just finished recording and mixing. It's a new band that we started and finished recording in ten days.' He put it on and I said, 'Who is this?' And he said, 'Led Zeppelin.' This was a momentous occasion all 'round. The phone rings after side 1. My jaw is still on the floor. Not so much from the guitar, though obviously I was thrilled with that, Jimmy's guitar. But Bonham's drumming. I'd never heard anything like it. So anyway, the phone rings and Steve says, 'We just did our last gig at Alexandra Palace, my last gig with The Small Faces. I walked off and I'm leaving the band. Can I join your band?' And I said, 'Well, of course!' So I wasn't going to play with The Small Faces but at least I was going to be in a band with Steve, which was great. "The following day, I get a phone call from Ronnie Lane. The three come 'round and ask me to join The Small Faces. So I said, 'Why couldn't you ask me this when Steve was still in the band?' So I guess the pocketbook can lead to short sightedness because that would have been some band."

Jerry Shirley: "We were rehearsing in my parents' living room within a matter of weeks, if not days."

Peter Frampton: "It all happened so quickly. One day I was looking for some band members with Jerry and then the next moment Steve was making a phone call and we were forming Humble Pie."

Greg Ridley: "I knew that Steve was in a very successful pop band. Spooky Tooth was kind of a heavy, underground type of band, a 'bands' band' rather than a pop group. Which was a hell of a difference over here. We never would have gotten on the charts. But I did realize Steve was a powerful force with the Mod movement. I did see him play live one night before I joined forces with him. I thought he was dynamite! For a little guy to have so much balls! And voice and energy! It surprised me; it was terrific!"

Jerry Shirley: "We thought, 'All right, let's pick a song, any song. Let's see how well and how quickly we can do it.' We chose a song from The Band's 'Big Pink' record, a song called 'We Can Talk About It Now.' We had it down real quick and real well. And that's what made us realize that we had something to go on. So the thing to do next was to find a label and someone to take care of you."

The original idea for the band never wavered. It was a vehicle to promote Peter and Steve was more than happy to play some guitar and throw in back-up vocals.

Jerry Shirley: "Steve went out of his way to say, 'Look, this is perfect for me 'cuz I don't wanna be the front man in a band anymore. I just want to be in the background, kick back and support you.' And it was that that made Peter say to himself, 'OK, that's great.' He couldn't ask for more than Steve Marriott as a backup singer and backup guitar player."

Peter Frampton: "I wanted to play with Steve anyway, in The Small Faces. So if it meant doing it without the rest of the guys and forming a new band, then so be it. I had no worries about being in a band with Steve. I was looking forward to playing guitar with him."

Greg Ridley: "Steve was always the main man. For such a little guy he was like Goliath on stage. His voice was so powerful and he had that little strut and stuff. Peter was kind of the pretty face of the band. Steve was the energizer. Jerry and myself, we were the heavyweight guys providing the thump behind it."

Jerry Shirley: "As soon as we started playing from the day we first met, we could have played blindfolded. It was uncanny the way Greg and I played together. We didn't plan it. We didn't sit down and say, 'OK, in this bar, you and I are going to hit this thingy.' It just happened. We stuck like glue together."

Greg Ridley: "He wanted to bang the drums and I played the bass in the way I did, with a bit of heavyweight there. And it came together nice. We got along, personality-wise, and it was great."

Peter Frampton: "Oh yeah. Jerry and Greg … we all enjoyed playing with one another. It was like being released from all our other bands. And it was like raw energy. We were just going for it. It wasn't necessarily going to be pretty (laughs). It was just going to be what we all wanted to do. So, having been a huge fan of Spooky Tooth, I was thrilled that Greg was going to be part of it. His great voice as well. But the two of them together … it really clicked."

Jerry Shirley: "We were very backbeat, a very hip-swinging, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll type of rhythm section. One of the primary wants the band had to have. A rhythm section that just jumped out and grabbed you by the crotch. That's exactly what Steve wanted it to be like and I think pretty much Peter too. And certainly Greg and I did (laughs)."

Greg Ridley: "We just came in with a smile and said, 'Fuck it. Let's just do it. Let's put some weight and some tight, good moves in here and get on with it.' "

Jerry Shirley: "Greg and I were all from the hip. Au naturel. And that was the primary function of that first rehearsal. To see if the rhythm section was all we thought it was going to be. And not only was it, it was better than that."

Greg Ridley: "It was very strange because no one knew what to expect of each other or what sort of direction to go in. We were all kind of tenderfoots, all tippy-toeing around at the time, before we really knew what kind of music we were gonna make. We'd never played together before."