Original Yardbirds founding lead guitarist ‘Top’ Topham has died, just two weeks after one of his successors in the band Jeff Beck had passed away…
OBITUARY By Ian Woolley
The Yardbirds
Anthony ‘Top’ Topham along with Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf and Ian Samwell-Smith formed the Yardbirds back in 1963.
An avid blues fan, he admitted in 2012 that “Any blues record that came out at that time, I knew about. It began for me in ’61, ’62, when I was a very young teenager”. He hinted that his love of the blues was why he left the band when he did, much as Clapton’s departure sometime later.
Although he only lasted a few months in the group, his departure gave way for 18-year-old Eric Clapton. A residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond followed when they took over from the Rolling Stones. When Clapton left, Jeff Beck joined after being recommended by friend Jimmy Page. Page would eventually join the band much later.
His replacement saw the group achieve their greatest success with five successive chart hits in 1965 and 1966. Songs like “For Your Love”, Heart Full Of Soul” and “Shapes Of Things” saw the R&B band gain a cult following.
After leaving the Yardbirds, he joined several local bands that included Marc Bolan and did session work for several members of Fleetwood Mac as well as collaborating in 1969 with Herbie Flowers and Colin Allen on “Ascension Heights”, his only solo album.
Jeff Beck died on January 10th and Topham’s death came two weeks after Beck’s death. He was 75 years old and had the onset of dementia in his later years.