NEW YORK (Reuters) - You could hardly blame Chris Dreja for being just a little bit envious.
After all, he watched three of his Yardbirds bandmates -- Eric Clapton,
Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page -- become huge stars.
Dreja, who played rhythm and later bass in the seminal '60s band, didn't. He settled for a career as a commercial photographer, while the others have been deified as the holy trinity of British rock guitarists.
Hardly what he might have dreamed when the Yardbirds were storming the charts in "Swinging London" and attracting legions of fans just as big as those who followed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. "I get asked all the time if I have any regrets," Dreja told Reuters in a recent interview. "My only regret is that I passed something by.
"It was my old bass guitar that we all played. It was on a stall in the Charing Cross Road (in London) ... it literally had all our blood on it," said Dreja, whose voice sounded somewhat wistful on the telephone line from London.
"Photography and music were my passions and they both became reality," he said. "I have no other regrets about being involved with that band and those people at the time.
Now, more than 35 years after Clapton's guitar brought the band cult-like status in London clubs like the Marquee, Eel Pie Island or the Crawdaddy, the Yardbirds are back -- both live and on their classic records.
And regardless of whether he has any lingering sense of envy, Dreja too is in the spotlight as a member of a reassembled Yardbirds, which is playing gigs and plans to release a new disc next year. They've been touring England and may extend the tour to the European continent and the United States.
FIRST GREAT GUITAR SUPERGROUP
Rhino Records, which just released a two-CD set of the group's work, calls the Yardbirds "the first great guitar supergroup of rock 'n roll."
"They were the forerunners of heavy metal, psychedelic music, the extended guitar solo and that staple of rock improvisation, the jam," the liner notes say.
Dreja and Jim McCarty, the original drummer, are providing the rhythm section for old hits like "Heart Full of Soul" and "Evil-Hearted You" along with new material. Bassist Paul Samwell-Smith has retired to France, and the band is also missing original lead singer Keith Relf, who died in an accident.
But the new Yardbirds, who were always carried by dynamic lead guitarists, boast another fretboard wizard - Gypie Mayo. "He is stunning and he is carrying the mantle," said Dreja.
"I was a little concerned about going on the road again, as there has to be certain standards with other musicians -- that guitar players are not like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page (were) at that time.
"But when Jeff Beck took over from Eric, he did his own thing, and Jimmy Page did the same."
Dreja, 55 now, said the idea of the definitive Yardbirds collection has been in the works for a long time.
"There's so much material, but there were some legal problems," he said. "There's not everything, but it's a good representation. They (Rhino) ran everything by us, we agreed on the tracks. There was a great chunk we were concerned about and some tracks were in dispute, (but) it wouldn't have happened otherwise. So we left some things off."
"HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO"
Fans of the Yardbirds needn't worry though, as all the familiar songs are there from that first 1964 album, "Five Live Yardbirds," when the band was playing mostly covers of John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Chick Berry and Muddy Waters.
Then, there are the hits from the psychedelic period like "For Your Love" -- apparently Clapton left the group in March of 1965 because they were doing songs like this -- and Beck-era numbers like "Shapes of Things to Come" and "Steeled Blues."
Later, there are compositions by a pre-Led Zeppelin Page, like "Psycho Daisies," which Dreja co-wrote, or "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago."
"The Yardbirds were always pretty eclectic, there were no rules," said Dreja, who said the new album will be on guitarist Steve Vai's Favored Nations label. "The new material is what you would expect from the Yardbirds, and we're also redoing some of the original work.
"I have not played this for 30 years in front of a live audience - it's such a shit-kicking collection of songs."
It was a kick, he said, to play not just to old-time fans, but to a completely new generation. "When I realized what affection the band is held under, it was very interesting and very rewarding.
"I'm 55 and I don't want to put on my slippers just yet. These are great songs and they're great to play. It's like picking up a bike again."
So what is the legacy of the Yardbirds, who shone for a brief five years before Page left to join Led Zep in 1968?
"We were always unpredictable but we were a good live band on the night," said Dreja.
And what of the brotherhood of former bandmates? "I still see Jeff occasionally and I saw Jimmy a few years ago," he said, "but I don't see Eric."
