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A blues-based band with art-rock inclinations, Family was one of the more interesting groups of hippie-era Britain. Fronted by the deft and frequently excellent guitar playing of John "Charlie" Whitney and the raspy, whisky-and-cigarette voice of Roger Chapman, Family was much loved in England and Europe but barely achieved cult status in America. While bands like Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, and the Keith Emerson-led Nice (and later Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) sold lots of records, Family, which frequently toured with these bands, was left in the shadows, an odd band loved by a small but rabid group of fans.

Although the band's first official release was Music in a Doll's House in 1968, the roots of the band go back as far as the early '60s, when Whitney started a rhythm & blues/soul band called the Farinas while at college. In 1966, Whitney met Roger Chapman, a prematurely balding singer who had a voice so powerful that, to quote Robert Christgau, "it could kill small game at a hundred yards," and the two began a creative partnership that would last through two bands and into the early '80s. With Whitney and Chapman leading the way, Family became whole with the addition of bassist Ric Grech, saxophonist Jim King, and drummer Rob Townsend. Within a year they were hyped as the next big thing, and under that pressure and intense British pop press scrutiny delivered their debut record in 1968, Music in a Doll's House. Doll's House is pop music redolent of the zeitgeist: Chapman's voice is rooted in the blues and R&B, but the record is loaded with strings, mellotrons, acoustic guitars, horns, essentially all the trappings of post-psychedelia and early art-rock. Almost completely ignored in the states, Doll's House was a hit in Britain and Family began a string of less art-rock, more hard rock albums that ended, as did the band, with the release of It's Only a Movie in 1973.

After Family's demise, Whitney and Chapman formed the blues-rock Streetwalkers; other Family members (of which there were quite a few in the band's tempestuous eight years) such as John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia) and Jim Cregan (Rod Stewart) went off to find fame and fortune elsewhere. Trivia buffs note: it was Ric Grech who was the first to leave Family in 1969 to become the least well-known member of supergroup Blind Faith. Sadly, that proved to be Grech's biggest mistake, as Blind Faith imploded in a year, and Grech (whose last notable band membership was in Traffic), long plagued by drinking problems, died of liver failure in 1990. Today Charlie Whitney plays in an extremely low-key country/blues/bluegrass band called Los Rackateeros, and Roger Chapman lives in Germany, where his solo career is flourishing. A fine, occasionally great band, Family deserved more recognition (at least in America) than they received. Something that a thoughtfully compiled CD retrospective might rectify.

Family Entertainment followed on the heels of Family's Music in a Doll's House with the band's first incarnation: Roger Chapman (harmonica/tenor sax/vocals), Rick Grech (violin/cello/bass guitar/vocals), Rob Townsend (percussion/drums), John "Charlie" Whitney (guitar/pedal steel guitar/keyboards), and Jim King (harmonica/keyboards/soprano sax/tenor sax/vocals). While not totally dismissing their psychedelic leanings, much of the material bears a stronger acoustic influence, in much the same manner as Fairport Convention and Traffic were also exploring. The jazzy sitar lead of "Face in the Cloud" and the even more prominent Eastern-flavored "Summer '67" somewhat date the affair, and are contrasted by the beautifully noir and trippy "How-Hi-the-Li" (which may have been the impetus for Chicago's "Wishing You Were Here") and the upbeat "Hung Up Down," sporting Grech's unmistakable violin as it wafts over the rural and slightly surreal lyrics. These sides are set against the edgy "Weaver's Answer," which immediately establishes a broader spectrum of styles, most notably given Chapman's commanding if not slightly intimidating vocals. Whitney's blistering fretwork yields bite to the Grech-penned "Second Generation Woman," while "Emotions," another full-tilt rocker, is infused with an apparent R&B homage. Interested parties should note that Family Entertainment and Music in a Doll's House were issued in a double-disc package featuring a commendable 24-bit digital remastering rendering all other versions useless — especially the early-'90s pressing on the German Line label. Not only are both LPs included, but the 45s "Scene Through the Eye of a Lens" and "Gypsy Woman" are finally brought into the digital domain. The accompanying 40-page liner booklet is likewise a feast for the eyes.

Family was a British Progressive rock band comprising Roger Chapman on vocals, John "Charlie" Whitney on guitar, Jim King on sax and flute, Rick Grech on bass, violin and vocals and Rob Townsend on drums. While never a big success in the US, Family were quite successful in their homeland and best remembered for vocalist Chapman's "electric goat" vibrato and wild, manic

Family formed in 1967 in Leicester, England, although the basis for the band actually had existed since 1962 when they were known as the Farinas and subsequently The Roaring Sixties. The original Farinas line up featured Tim Kirchin on bass and Harry Overnall on drums with Jim King and Charlie Whitney sharing vocal duties. Rick Grech replaced Kirchin on bass in 1965 and Roger Chapman joined around the same time on vocals. American producer Kim Fowley suggested the band change their name to Family based on their penchant for wearing double-breasted suits giving themselves sort of a mafia appearance--a look they soon abandoned in favor of a more hippy or bohemian image. Shortly after becoming Family, drummer Overnall quit and was replaced by Rob Townsend.

Family's debut single Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens/Gypsy Woman was released by Liberty in the autumn of 1967. While the single received much praise from critics, it received very little airplay, due to its rather complex, uncommercial nature. Family's debut album Music in a Doll's House was finally released in July 1968; produced by former Traffic member Dave Mason. Mason also contributed one composition to the album Never Like This--the only song recorded by Family not written by a band member. Music In A Doll's House charted respectably in the UK and, like their debut single, received praise from the critics as well as getting considerable airplay from well-known British radio personality John Peel. The sound of this album was largely based around Roger Chapman's rather odd vocalizations, Rick Grech's classically trained violin playing and the jazzy reed and horn work of Jim King which, while very psychedelic in nature, sounded far more sophisticated and mature than a lot of other albums of the genre. Some criticised the album for being restrained in comparison to their wild live performances which had gained them a respectable cult following in their homeland. Family's 1969 follow-up Family Entertainment toned down the psychedelics of their previous offering, although it was equally eclectic and complex and featured their first UK hit "The Weaver's Answer".

With the UK success of Family's first two albums, they decided to try to conquer the US, although they were faced with many setbacks which all but killed any chance of a successful career in the States. Before their 1969 US tour, Ric Grech, whose violin playing had been very integral to Family's sound, unexpectedly left to join Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in the supergroup Blind Faith and was replaced by former Eric Burdon and the Animals bassist John Weider. The biggest blow to Family's US career involved their first concert at Bill Graham's Fillmore East, sharing the bill with Ten Years After and The Nice in which Chapman, during his normal manic stage routine, loses control of his mike stand which comes within inches of Graham. This nearly gets Family pulled from the bill at the Fillmore, although they were spared as long as Chapman performed on stage with his arms pinned at his side. While Family and Graham reconciled their differences, Family's reputation in the US sadly never recovered from the incident. After the tour, Jim King was relieved of his position in the band due to "erratic behavior" and was replaced by multi-instrumentalist John "Poli" Palmer on keyboards, vibes, flute and violin.

With Family's 1970 release A Song For Me, they developed a more aggressive sound, dominated by Whitney's tight guitar lines and Palmer's keyboard and vibraphone work. Family's new line-up and sound gained them an even larger European following and they played at several major rock festivals including the 1970 Isle Of Wight music festival and Holland's Kralingen Festival. Both performances were documented in the festival documentary films Message To Love and Stomping Ground. Family's follow-up album Anyway featured a side of a live performance of new material at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England, as well as a side of new studio recordings. In 1971 Weider left to join the band Stud and was replaced by former Mogul Thrash bassist John Wetton. Much like Grech in the original line-up of the band, Wetton also shares vocal duties with Chapman. This line-up records the albums Fearless(1971) and Bandstand(1972) which were both quite successful in both the UK and the States.

Family started out as the Farinas, a rhythm-and-blues band in Leicester, England, founded by John "Charlie" Whitney and Jim King, who was the group's lead singer. Rick Grech became the bass player in 1965, and Roger Chapman soon joined to replace King on lead vocals. This allowed King to concentrate on the saxophone (which was his specialty), the harmonica, and occasional piano duties. The arrival of Chapman was a pivotal moment in the group, as he began a songwriting and recording partnership with Whitney that would last well into the seventies - long after Family broke up.

Arriving in London around 1967, they changed their name to the Roaring Sixties, and dressed in twenties-style pinstripe suits. Working on demos with Kim Fowley, an American record producer living in London at the time, they changed their name to Family when Fowley commented that their style of dress made them look like a family of Mafia gangsters. They eventually ditched the suits in favor of casual dress. Family's appearances in Swinging London's club circuit impressed many a listener, including some of the biggest names in British rock. Said John Lennon of the band, "They've got a fantastic blend of sound, the best I have heard in a long time." Chapman became especially known for his gruff, bleating vibrato - his attempt to sound like a cross between Little Richard and Ray Charles.

Shortly after drummer Rob Townsend joined Family in 1967, the group recorded an obscure single for Liberty Records in Britain - "Scene Through the Eye Of a Lens," backed with "Gypsy Woman" - before moving to the Reprise label the following year. Working with Traffic's Dave Mason as their producer, the group recorded their debut album, Music In a Doll's House, thus setting them off on their brief but fascinating musical odyssey.

The Family Catalog

Family recorded seven albums between 1968 and 1973; the first two titles were originally issued in the United States by Reprise Records, and the following five were issued in the U.S. by United Artists Records. Currently, Music In a Doll's House and Family Entertainment are unavailable in the United States, although U.K. compact disc editions of both albums can be found on Internet record retail sites. The remaining five LP's were available in the U.S. from 1998 to 2003 on the Castle Music label, and they have since been reissued by Mystic Records in Great Britain; the Mystic reissues can occasionally be found in U.S. record stores, but they can also be ordered through Mystic's Web site. All seven British vinyl editions (some American vinyl editions differ in song selection from their British counterparts) can be found sporadically on the 'Net or in independent record stores.

These reviews include neither the 1971 greatest-hits compilation Old Songs New Songs nor post-1973 releases such as greatest-hits compilations and radio concert albums. They also do not include the 1992 compliation As & Bs, which mostly featured songs released as singles only; most of the songs from the 1992 album surfaced on the Castle Music CD's as bonus tracks. So a few other tracks are not accounted for here, as they are very rare. I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible with regards to Family's discography in constructing this page, and I apologize for not accounting for everything, but I can only do so much.

(Note: The reviews on this page for Family's five latter albums refer to the Castle Music reissues of the late nineties, which include nonalbum singles and B-sides as bonus tracks. Although Mystic Records in the United Kingdom reissued these LP's with even more bonus tracks later on, I refer to the Castle Music editions because they account for all Family nonalbum tracks, except for one, issued from October 1969 to September 1973 - the Mystic reissues, alas, do not. Therefore, the Castle Music reissues should be considered the definitive ones.)

Family Album Fun Facts

Music In a Doll's House is the only Family LP to feature a song composed by someone outside the band; "Never Like This," written by Doll's House's producer, Dave Mason.

The Beatles planned to call the White Album A Doll's House after the Henrik Ibsen play, but they had to abandon the idea when Family's debut album was released in Britain in July 1968. (The White Album was released that November.)

Co-production from Jimmy Miller on two tracks notwithstanding, Music In a Doll's House is the only Family LP credited to one producer. The follow-up, Family Entertainment, was jointly produced by Glyn Johns and original Family manager John Gilbert. A Song For Me was self-produced by the group, and all successive albums were co-produced by Family and their recording engineer George Chkiantz.

The cover of Family Entertainment, depicting circus performers, was inspired by the sleeve of the Doors's Strange Days.

Bandstand is the only Family LP not to feature an instrumental track.

Most of Family's song were written by the songwriting team of group leaders Charlie Whitney and Roger Chapman, but It's Only a Movie is the only LP comprised entirely of Whitney/Chapman compositions.

After Music In a Doll's House, Family was quickly labelled as a "progressive" rock band, suggesting comparisons to groups like Yes and Genesis. Family's music was progressive in the sense that they tried to expand the boundaries of rock and constantly sought to break new ground. Unlike most of the "progressive," or "art rock" bands that would sprout up in the early seventies, however, Family had no aspirations to classicism or highbrow pretentions. Their attitude was very much a rock and roll one, and their music remained firmly rooted in rhythm and blues - which veteran rock critic Dave Marsh called the taproot of all great rock.

As a result, Family Entertainment, the group's second album, moved toward more straightforward rock while keeping Family's musically adventurous spirit and penchant for eclectic lyricism intact. The group had largely abandoned psychedelia; the music on Family Entertainment included touches of folk and country, and the lyrics focused on aging, childhood daydreams, and rants against the power establishment, among other things. The LP's producers, the great Glyn Johns and Family manager John Gilbert (son of moviemaker Lewis Gilbert, who directed Michael Caine in Alfie), provided a more accessible and less contrived sound for Family than Dave Mason had, and it was also cleaner - though Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney would later lament that the sound on Family Entertainment was maybe a little too clean.

Family Entertainment shows these five musicians growing steadily. Chapman's vibrato vocals evolve into more of a bleated growl, Whitney's guitar riffs become more inventive, Jim King's saxophone is decidedly funkier, and the already excellent drummer Rob Townsend becomes even more so. The biggest surprises, though, come from Rick Grech; not only does his improved bass work stand out dramatically here, he also wrote or co-wrote four songs on the album and sings lead vocals - sometimes with Chapman, sometimes solo - on these songs. His clear, flawless voice provided an an exciting contrast to Chapman's primal shouting. Jim King contributes a lead vocal as well, on the Whitney/Chapman tune "Observations From a Hill," providing an listen of how the group sounded before Chapman joined and when the band was still called the Farinas.

Family Entertainment opens with the sprawling but irresistable "The Weaver's Answer," a moving tale of an old man a few moments away from death getting to look at his life as a tapestry; the understated English folk arrangement and a blues-based rock undercurrent (with sax solo) set up a wonderful sense of tension. Other meldings of styles prove to be just as successful; "Hung Up Down" provides a madrigal melody juxtaposed against a heavy bass line and one of Chapman's nastiest larynx-tearing vocals in a song attacking the rich and powerful, while "From Past Archives" somehow manages to cut from a soft, slow melody to a hip jazz performance!

Other standouts are the charming country tune "Dim," about a blinded farm boy going into town for a good time, and "Processions," a childlike song about a small boy daydreaming of his life ahead while enjoying a day at the seashore. The best song here, surprisingly enough, is Grech's "Second Generation Woman," a fast heavy rocker that moves like a rocket sled on a rail and features a cheeky vocal from Grech about a woman who "smokes like a man, getting higher than I can" and "looks good to handle from a personal angle." (This song sometimes draws comparisons to the Beatles's "Paperback Writer" in terms of tempo and arrangement.) And check out the fine piano performance from the great Nicky Hopkins on"Emotions," the epic closing cut!

Family Entertainment was released in February 1969 and peaked at number six on the British album chart. At the time, Family's prospects for mainstream success, especially in America, seemed very bright. Ironically, though, they were quickly beset by misfortune. On the eve of their first American tour as a warmup act for Ten Years After, Rick Grech announced that he would be leaving the band for Blind Faith. Grech would stay on during part of the tour while a replacement was sought out, and John Weider would become Family's new bassist midway through the tour, but Grech's failure to give adequate notice efffectively discombobulated Family at the worst possible time. Passport problems had caused the group even more trouble by the time they made their stateside debut at New York's Fillmore East on April 8, 1969, and they were well wound up from their recent mishaps. Their performance at the Fillmore East was so disastrous that Chapman threw a microphone stand in disgust - unintentionally in the direction of Fillmore East impresario Bill Graham. Chapman eventually lost his visa, forcing Family to leave the tour and return home. By the time 1969 was nearly over, Family had endured a nasty split from John Gilbert, had issued a single that tanked ("No Mule's Fool," more of which in the next review), and had seen King leave the band, leading many to assume that Family was through.

Had Family called it quits then, their record output up to that point would have been enough to earn them a respectable place in rock history. But not only were they not finished, they were just getting started!

(Editor's Note: After Blind Faith called it quits, Rick Grech played with various artists. He joined Blind Faith cofounder Steve Winwood and former Traffic saxophonist Chris Wood in drummer Ginger Baker's Air Force. In 1971, Grech then joined Winwood and Wood in a reformed version of Traffic; Grech's stint lasted for a couple of years before he was fired due to his increased drug use. Grech then mainly did session work before retiring from the music business in 1977 and returning to Leicester to sell carpet. He died in 1990 from liver and kidney failure following a brain hemmorhage at the age of 43. It is believed that Grech's drug use from his days as a rock musician led to his death.)

Originally formed in 1962 as The Farinas and then changing their name to The Roaring Sixties, the group settled on the name Family in '67 at the suggestion of producer/songwriter Kim Fowley. Family remained virtually unknown in the U.S. although their wildly eclectic progressive rock made them a hitmaker in the U.K. Traffic's Dave Mason coproduced their debut album with Jimmy Miller. After the release of their second album, 1969's Family Entertainment, the group launched into a U.S. tour. Unfortunately the day before it was to start, bassist Rick Grech quit to join Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker. Family's debut peformance at The Fillmore East ended in a fistfight between vocalist Roger Chapman and promoter Bill Graham. A few days later Chapman lost his voice and his visa, and Family returned to the U.K. In '72, Family opened for Elton John but despite FM airplay of 1971's Fearless and 1972's Band Stand, they never found a U.S. audience.

In '73, Family played a farewell concert tour of the U.K. which included a final show in their hometown of Leicester. Chapman and guitarist Charlie Whitney formed Streetwalkers which would include future Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain (Chapman would become highly successful in Germany with his touring group The Shortlist), guitarist Jim Cregan went on to join Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel, bassist John Wetton, who had been with the group from '70 to '71, went on to join King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep and later Asia. Original bassist Rick Grech passed on in 1990.