Chris Dreja
Chris Dreja |
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Chris Dreja (born 11 November 1945, Surbiton, Surrey, England[1]) is former rhythm guitarist, and later bassist for the mid 1960s British band, The Yardbirds.
His father was of Polish birth. Dreja was born in Surbiton, and raised in nearby Kingston upon Thames.[1] His brother Stefan Dreja chanced to meet Top Topham and Stefan introduced Topham to Chris Dreja.[1] Eventually Topham and Dreja fell into the orbit of local folk/blues guitarist Gerry Lochran — according to Greg Russo in his book The Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up, it was from their idolization of Lochran that the two switched from acoustic to electric guitars, and also first played electric guitars in public, in a performance on a local stage with Duster Bennett and a young Jimmy Page. And eventually Dreja and Topham became the core of an outfit called the Metropolitan Blues Quartet (some sources say Metropolis Blues Quartet), which across the course of a year added members Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, and Paul Samwell-Smith, and metamorphosed into the Yardbirds. Dreja, ended up playing rhythm guitar behind Eric Clapton and later Jeff Beck.[1]
Luckily for Dreja's legacy and recognition, the role of the rhythm guitar in most British Invasion-era rock was fairly prominent. Even in the face of Clapton's intense playing and Beck's flashy lead lines and solos, the Yardbirds' rhythm section stood out, whether on concert recordings such as Five Live Yardbirds or on the brace of studio generated singles from their first year. "Smokestack Lightning" from the live album has several extended moments that constitute a great showcase for Dreja's playing, as does the single "I Wish You Would".[1]
When original bassist Samwell-Smith quit in mid-1966, he was initially replaced by Page. It was soon realized that this was not entirely logical, as Page had long established himself as an excellent lead guitarist, so he joined Beck in sharing the lead guitar parts, and Dreja switched from rhythm to the bass. Dreja remained on bass when Beck left shortly afterward and reduced the Yardbirds to a quartet, and stayed on bass until the band broke up in 1968. Dreja appears as one of the songwriters on numerous Yardbirds group compositions (particularly on the 1966 Roger the Engineer album), though it seems that Relf, McCarty, Page, and Samwell-Smith were more active contributors on that front.[1]
After the disbandment of The Yardbirds, Page offered Dreja the position of bassist in a new band he was forming (later to become Led Zeppelin). Dreja declined in order to pursue a profession in photography. It was he who photographed Led Zeppelin for the back cover of their debut album.[1]
Dreja played in the Yardbirds reunion band Box of Frogs in the 1980s, and has been part of the Yardbirds' reformation since 1992.
In 2002, Dreja and McCarty re-emerged with a reactivated Yardbirds line-up and a new album, Birdland. Dreja, McCarty, and Samwell-Smith have taken an active role in seeing that the portion of the Yardbirds catalogue that they still own — principally the Roger the Engineer album — has been well-represented on compact disc.[1]