Chris Dreja

Christopher Walenty Dreja (11 November 1946 – 25 September 2025) was an English musician and photographer. He was best known as the rhythm guitarist and bassist for the rock band The Yardbirds. He left the music business in the late 1960s after The Yardbirds folded and became a professional photographer. In 1992, he and the rest of The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In later life he would play Yardbirds concerts until a series of strokes forced him to retire from live touring around 2011.

Christopher Walenty Dreja was born on 11 November 1946 in Surbiton, and raised in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. His father, Alojzy Dreja (1 January 1918 – 11 December 1985), was from Poland; he had been exiled to Britain in 1940, and served as a pilot in the Polish Air Force in Great Britain during World War II. He married Joyce Guillan in 1943 and they had three sons, Stefan, Christopher and Nicholas. Dreja's elder brother Stefan happened to meet guitarist Top Topham when they studied at the same pre-college art program, and introduced Topham to his brother.

Topham and Dreja were influenced by folk-blues guitarist Gerry Lockran, who influenced them to switch from acoustic to electric guitars according to Greg Russo in his book The Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up. They made their debut with electric guitars at a concert with Duster Bennett and Jimmy Page. Their other guitar influences included Hubert Sumlin, Duane Eddy, Brian Jones, and Chuck Berry.

Dreja and Topham became core members of the Metropolitan (or Metropolis) Blues Quartet. During the space of a year Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, and Paul Samwell-Smith joined the group which became the Yardbirds. The 15-year-old Topham left the group when the band went professional, but Dreja continued on to play rhythm guitar with musicians such as Eric Clapton and later Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Dreja changed from rhythm to bass guitar following the departure of the original bassist, Samwell-Smith. Dreja co-authored many Yardbirds group compositions, especially those on the album Yardbirds. Additionally, he drew the picture which would be used as the album cover. Due to this drawing the album has been referred to as Roger the Engineer.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.