The original band line-up featured lead vocalist and guitarist Steve Marriott from The Small Faces, vocalist and guitarist Peter Frampton from The Herd, former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and a 17-year-old drummer, Jerry Shirley, from The Apostolic Intervention.

The song, a Steve Marriott composition released in 1972, bemoans being arrested for possession of small quantities of illegal drugs, including cocaine; Durban poison, a potent strain of marijuana, and Red Lebanese and Black Nepalese, two types of hashish. “New Castle Brown” is often mistaken as a reference to Newcastle Brown Ale but actually refers to heroin also known as “Brown” or “Smack”. The song refers to Borstal – “some seeds and dust, and you got Borstal”- referring to Borstal Prison and its borstal ilk – any manner of a British juvenile gaol (British for jail). (Most lyrics listings get this wrong, and say “buzzed on” or “bust on”.) Marriott has said that inspiration for the title came from a Humphrey Bogart/James Cagney movie he saw on TV, where Bogart plays a prisoner who gets sent to “30 days in the hole.” Marriott may have been referring to the 1938 movie Angels With Dirty Faces, although that line is never uttered in the film. It’s also possible that the film was Somebody Up There Likes Me, a 1956 movie where Paul Newman is threatened with the “30 days in the hole.”

Pie guitarist Clem Clempson (who had replaced the original guitarist Peter Frampton) has said it is one of the tracks he would most like his career to be remembered by. But the predominant group personality shown through by the song is Marriott’s; so much so that for example when years later Clempson was asked about efforts to reform the group without Marriott, he simply declaimed, “It’s a waste of time.”

Their first major hit was “I Don’t Need No Doctor”, a 1966 R&B song, on their album “Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore” released in 1971.

Steve Marriott joined the newly formed Humble Pie after he left The Small Faces, who were founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston, although by 1966 Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan as the band’s keyboardist.

While they were well known in England, they became noted in the U.S. with the release of two songs in particular: “Tin Soldier” and “Itchycoo Park”. “Tin Soldier” was originally written by Marriott for British soul singer P.P. Arnold but decided to keep it for his own. Here’s a television version by The Small Faces with her:

Steve’s unmistakable vocals had the hint of their other hit “Itchycoo Park” released in 1967.

The song was one of the first pop singles to use flanging, an effect that can be heard in the bridge section after each chorus. Most sources credit the use of the effect to Olympic  Studios engineer George Chkiantz who showed it to the Small Faces regular engineer Glyn Johns; he in turn demonstrated it to the group, who were always on the lookout for innovative production sounds, and they readily agreed to its use on the single.

After a long career and a hard life of fame, drugs, and alcohol abuse (which he partially recovered from), at about 6:30 am on 20 April 1991, a passing motorist saw the roof of Marriott’s cottage ablaze and called the fire brigade. It was reported that four fire engines were needed to put out the fire. Steve was found deceased in the bedroom.

In September 2007 Marriott, along with the other members of the Small Faces and manager Don Arden, were honoured with a plaque unveiled in Carnaby Street.

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