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Christopher Walenty Dreja (born 11 November 1945 in Surbiton, Surrey) is an English musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist and bassist for rock band the Yardbirds for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
The Yardbirds are an English blues rock band from London. Formed in May 1963, the group originally included lead vocalist Keith Relf, lead guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, and drummer Jim McCarty. [1] In October, Topham was replaced by Eric Clapton. [2]
ImageNameYears ActiveInstrumentsJohnny A. (John Antonopoulos)2015–2018lead guitarnoneEarl Slick (Frank Madeloni)2015lead guitarnoneDavid Smale2009–2015bass backing vocalsMaking Tracks (2012)Andy Mitchell2009–2015lead vocals acoustic guitar harmonica ...Making Tracks (2012)Chris Dreja, the bassist and guitarist of the legendary rock band The Yardbirds, shares his insights on their songs and collaborations with various guest musicians. He praises the unique and original guitar playing of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Steve Vai and others, and describes the energy, vibe and history of each track.
- Beginnings and Clapton Line-Up
- Beck Line-Up
- Beck/Page Line-Up
- Page Line-Up and Split
- The New Yardbirds / Led Zeppelin
- After The Yardbirds
- Reformation
The band formed in the south-west London suburbs in 1963. Relf and Samwell-Smith were originally in a band named the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. After being joined by Dreja, McCarty, and Top Topham, they performed at Kingston Art School in late May 1963 as a backup band for Cyril Davies. Following a couple of gigs in September 1963 as the Blue-Soun...
Beck's exploration of fuzz tone, reverb, feedback, sustain, distortion, and hammer-on soloing fit well into the increasingly raw style of British beat music. The Yardbirds began to experiment with eclectic arrangements reminiscent of Gregorian chants and various European and Asian styles while Beck infused a pervasive Middle Eastern influence into ...
Roger the Engineer was released in June 1966. Soon afterward, Samwell-Smith quit the band at a drunken gig at Queen's College in Oxford and embarked on a career as a record producer. Jimmy Page, who was at the show, agreed that night to play bass until rhythm guitarist Dreja could rehearse on the instrument. The band toured with Page on bass, and B...
Page subsequently introduced playing the guitar with a cello bow (suggested to him by violinist David McCallum Sr.) and the combination of a wah-wah pedal in addition to a distortion fuzzbox. Other innovations included the use of a taped noise loop in live settings (on the psychedelic dirge "Glimpses") and open-tuned guitarto enhance the sitar-like...
Page and Dreja, with a tour of Scandinavia scheduled for late summer 1968, saw the break-up as an opportunity to put a new lineup together with Page as producer and Grant as manager. Page initially described his vision for the new band as "a new sort of collage of sound" that would include mellotron keyboard while still featuring the guitar. Procol...
Relf and McCarty formed an acoustic rock band called Together and then Renaissance, which recorded two albums for Island Records over two years. McCarty formed the band Shoot in 1973. Relf, after producing albums for Medicine Head (with whom he also played bass) and Saturnalia, resurfaced in 1975 with a new quartet, Armageddon; a hybrid of heavy me...
In 1992, Peter Barton from Rock Artist Management contacted Jim McCarty about the prospect of reforming the Yardbirds. McCarty was interested but only if Chris Dreja would agree, but at the time he thought it highly unlikely that Dreja would want to tour again. Barton then contacted Dreja, who agreed to give it a try. Their debut gig was booked at ...
Chris Dreja was a member of the Yardbirds, a British blues-rock band, in the 1960s. Learn more about his career, songs, albums, and reviews on AllMusic.
Chris Dreja is a British musician, best known for being the former rhythm guitarist and bassist for The Yardbirds. In 1963, Dreja and guitarist Top Topham (who would eventually be...
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Chris Dreja was a member of the Yardbirds, a British rock band that influenced many later artists. He played guitar and bass behind Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, and shared his stories and insights in this interview.
