Family

A blues-based band with art rock inclinations, Family were 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, whiskey-and-cigarette voice of <a href="spotify:artist:1c4UzgxPBBWnhdK6qfYmWN">Roger Chapman</a>, Family were much loved in England and Europe but barely achieved cult status in America. While bands like <a href="spotify:artist:6w6z8m4WXX7Tub4Rb6Lu7R">Jethro Tull</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7nkLRaWHImCvWGHdNGnhVE">Ten Years After</a>, and the <a href="spotify:artist:5MwQBuYuEnf6hLsupDJ0Um">Keith Emerson</a>-led <a href="spotify:artist:5oHYrXNyCSEdacKCCrteMX">Nice</a> (and later <a href="spotify:artist:0nCiidE5GgDrc5kWN3NZgZ">Emerson, Lake & Palmer</a>) sold lots of records, Family, who frequently toured with these bands, were 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 went 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 <a href="spotify:artist:1c4UzgxPBBWnhdK6qfYmWN">Roger Chapman</a>, 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 <a href="spotify:artist:1c4UzgxPBBWnhdK6qfYmWN">Chapman</a> leading the way, Family became whole with the addition of bassist <a href="spotify:artist:49M3O1w3zwKbXmiAtv6CQo">Ric Grech</a>, saxophonist Jim King, and drummer <a href="spotify:artist:5c6GzelCbAGdVnwYReERv2">Rob Townsend</a>. 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: <a href="spotify:artist:1c4UzgxPBBWnhdK6qfYmWN">Chapman</a>'s voice is rooted in the blues and R&B, but the record is loaded with strings, Mellotrons, acoustic guitars, and 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 <a href="spotify:artist:1c4UzgxPBBWnhdK6qfYmWN">Chapman</a> formed the blues-rock <a href="spotify:artist:3rvx9SC1pGxAhPozxthPMT">Streetwalkers</a>; other Family members (of which there were quite a few in the band's tempestuous eight years) such as <a href="spotify:artist:0rk01XEfDhJhnBFp0LT1HQ">John Wetton</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:7M1FPw29m5FbicYzS2xdpi">King Crimson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1bdytLV3FPjyhfrb6BhMej">Asia</a>) and Jim Cregan (<a href="spotify:artist:2y8Jo9CKhJvtfeKOsYzRdT">Rod Stewart</a>) went off to find fame and fortune elsewhere. Trivia buffs note: it was <a href="spotify:artist:49M3O1w3zwKbXmiAtv6CQo">Ric Grech</a> who was the first to leave Family in 1969 to become the least well-known member of supergroup <a href="spotify:artist:5GUVj2b1lJ4DolQyHlzyaO">Blind Faith</a>. Sadly, that proved to be <a href="spotify:artist:49M3O1w3zwKbXmiAtv6CQo">Grech</a>'s biggest mistake, as <a href="spotify:artist:5GUVj2b1lJ4DolQyHlzyaO">Blind Faith</a> imploded in a year, and <a href="spotify:artist:49M3O1w3zwKbXmiAtv6CQo">Grech</a> (whose last notable band membership was in <a href="spotify:artist:1CD77o9fbdyQFrHnUPUEsF">Traffic</a>), long plagued by drinking problems, died of liver failure in 1990. Charlie Whitney went on to play in an extremely low-key country/blues/bluegrass band called Los Rackateeros, and <a href="spotify:artist:1c4UzgxPBBWnhdK6qfYmWN">Roger Chapman</a> moved to Germany, where his solo career flourished. A fine, occasionally great band, Family deserved more recognition (at least in America) than they received -- something that a thoughtfully compiled career-spanning CD retrospective might rectify. ~ John Dougan, Rovi