Top Topham

Anthony Topham, better known professionally as Top Topham (or Anthony "Top" Topham), had the good fortune to be a founding member of the Yardbirds, one of the most respected rock acts to come out of mid-'60s England. He had the bad fortune, however, to have been born in 1947, and to be only 15 years old at the time of the group's formation. Topham was a student at Epsom Art School when he and a good friend, singer/harpist Keith Relf, recruited drummer Jim McCarty, and from there assembled what was first called the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. They soon expanded their lineup and...