The Yardbirds
In late May 1963 he formed The Yardbirds with Keith Relf, Anthony Topham, Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarty. He mainly used an Epiphone Rivoli bass. He played on the UK albums, Five Live Yardbirds and The Yardbirds (also known as Roger the Engineer) and on the US albums For Your Love, Having a Rave Up, and "Over Under Sideways Down" (which was Roger the Engineer LP retitled), all released on Epic Records. He provided background vocals on many songs like Good Morning Little School Girl, For Your Love, Heart Full of Soul, Evil Hearted You, and more. While in the Yardbirds he started working on the technical side in the studio. In 1966, he started to get tired of touring and had concerns about Keith Relf's drinking and left the Yardbirds; he was replaced by Jimmy Page. The last Yardbirds album he played on was The Yardbirds (Roger the Engineer).
In the early 80s, Samwell-Smith played in the Yardbirds reunion band Box of Frogs with original Yardbird members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty. The Box of Frogs did not tour because Chris Dreja was busy with his photography and Samwell-Smith was busy in the recording studio.
He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992.
Read more about this topic: Paul Samwell-Smith