By now, everyone knows the Yardbirds legend, if not their music; the band graduated three of the great Ph.D.s of rock guitar: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. They created hard rock out of standard twelve-bar blues, doubling the tempos and whacking the amps up to ten. On the British club scene, The Yardbirds, The Animals, and the Rolling Stones ruled the stages.

The Yardbirds, perhaps more than any other group, brought guitar pyrotechnics to rock & roll in the 1960s. By introducing Clapton, Beck and Page to the world, and giving them plenty of space to create, the band set the template not only for Cream, the Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin (whose original moniker was the New Yardbirds), but for virtually every rock group featuring distortion, feedback and in-your-face electric-guitar virtuosity.

Three years after their 1992 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Yardbirds reformed around original members Jim McCarty & Chris Dreja, but they chose to stay below the radar, tweaking their line up and working up material. The result was the release of their first new studio recording since 1967’s Little Games, entitled ‘Birdland’in 2003. Which was then followed by ‘Live at BB King’s’ in 2007.

In 2011 health issues forced Chris Dreja to take the difficult decision to stop playing live & the band continued touring Canada & the USA as a 4 piece with Jim McCarty (drums, vocals) Ben King (lead Guitar) Andy Mitchell (lead vocal, harmonica, Bongos, acoustic guitar) Dave Smale (bass)

In early 2013 Jim McCarty met up with the first Yardbirds lead guitar player ‘Top’Topham & he has joined the band for ‘The Ultimate R&B tour' 2014.

This year also see the DVD of a live performance by the current line up entitled ‘Making Tracks’ (Weinerworld) it features performances of the bands best known hits including: For Your Love, Heart full of Soul, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, Over Under Sideways Down, Shapes of Things.