| Chris Dreja | |
|---|---|
Chris Dreja (right) and Ben King Basingstoke 2008 by Marc Lacaze Photographe |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Christopher Dreja |
| Born | 11 November 1945 |
| Origin | Surbiton, England, UK |
| Genres | Blues rock, rock |
| Instruments | Guitar, bass |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Associated acts | The Yardbirds, Box of Frogs |
Chris Dreja (born 11 November 1945, Surbiton, England)[1] was the rhythm guitarist, and later bassist, in the 1960s British band, The Yardbirds.
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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 introduced Topham to his brother.[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, Lochran influenced them to switch from acoustic to electric guitars. They also first played electric guitars in public, in a performance on a local stage with Duster Bennett and a young Jimmy Page.
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]
When original bassist Samwell-Smith quit in mid-1966, he was initially replaced by Page. Eventually, however, Page 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 album Roger the Engineer).[1]
After the group broke up, 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. He 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]