The Yardbirds weren’t just the epitome of blues-rocking cool during the late 1960s. They were, like many of the top bands of the day, also experimenting with all manner of fashions.
Some of those experiments, stalwart member Jim McCarty admits now, were more successful than others.
“We had this crazy manager; he was a mad European,” he tells WMBD Radio. “He was a mixture of Russian and Swiss, and Italian. He was called Giorgio Gomelsky. He had the idea to get us some matching white suits, and some matching black suits.”
It’s the white edition that seems to cause the most embarassment, years on. “We looked like ice cream men,” McCarty says, laughing.
Gomelsky ended up managing the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, both relationships that started via their houseband gigs at his Crawdaddy Club. McCarty and Company wore all black suits on the cover of 1965’s Having a Rave Up.
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