Bandstand

Sleeve essay accompanying the Essential! Records CD reissue of Bandstand (ESM CD 565, August 1997) — Robert M. Corich’s first pass at the Bandstand story.

After the release of In My Own Time as a precursor to the Fearless album, Family chose to ignore the singles medium for over a year until the release of Burlesque, a song from their forthcoming album. Burlesque was backed by a non-LP track entitled The Rockin’ Rs, and although the single reached an acceptable No.12, it was really just the obligatory precursor to the new album, Bandstand. Interestingly, Burlesque was the name of a nightclub in Leicester that Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney used to frequent. The track has almost become an anthem for Roger’s solo concerts. The actual meaning of the word could quite easily describe the talented Chapman’s stage persona. Idiot dancing, mic-breaking and all!

After a fairly laid-back album in Fearless, Bandstand returned Family to the harder edge for which they were so well known. Although the line-up remained unchanged, the direction of the music was focussed once again on new areas. The change in direction did, however, gain them considerable critical approval. Both the single and the album charted at the same time, with Bandstand the album making No.15 in the UK. The band toured the US supporting Elton John shortly after the album’s release. It was this touring that helped push the album to No.183, a fairly respectable position, but still not good enough to help the band climb the top of the tree in the world’s most important music market.

The album cover, in keeping with the music, was of innovative design. The sliver of vinyl was housed in an old television set (unfortunately too difficult to replicate for CD). We have included all of the original artwork as best we can, however, within the CD format. A cover like the one Family provided for Bandstand is perfect ammunition for those fighting the battle for vinyl over CD! No contest. Also included are alternate pictures from the album cover photo shoot.

The album surprisingly was the least commercially successful since Music In A Doll’s House, and it was this fact that probably caused the departure of John Wetton in September 1972, who moved into the King Crimson camp. Poli Palmer also departed in November of the same year, allegedly to form a band with Ric Grech, but this never seemed to get off the ground.

Once again, Family consisted of that trio of Chapman, Whitney and Townsend. And once again the band had to find replacements if Family’s heritage was to continue. This they did by recruiting Jim Cregan as replacement for Wetton. (Ironic as it may seem, it was the same Jim Cregan from the now-defunct Stud whom John Weider had joined over a year earlier.) And Tony Ashton, formerly of Ashton Gardner and Dyke, on keyboards was also brought on board. It was this line-up that was to record the final studio offering from Family. Entitled It’s Only A Movie, the album was released in the summer of 1973, one month prior to the final break-up of the band.

— © 1997 Robert M. Corich

Bonus track (this CD): 10. The Rockin’ Rs (Chapman / Whitney) — B-side to Burlesque, not on original album.

Reissue credits (ESM CD 565, 1997): Revised sleeve notes prepared by Red Steel Productions for Essential!. Photos, memorabilia and original album covers courtesy of Roger Chapman, David Eames and the Family archives, Terrapin Records and Linda of Little Wing. Research and co-ordination: Robert M. Corich. Project co-ordination: Mick Carpenter. All tracks remastered August 1997 by Mike Brown and Robert M. Corich, assisted by Richard Ray. Re-issue design by Hugh Gilmour @ Castle. Original sound recordings owned by Chappo Music Ltd; issued under exclusive license to Castle Communications plc.

Sleeve essay accompanying the Madfish CD reissue of Bandstand (SMACCD989, 2013) — written by music journalist Pete Feenstra forty years after the album’s original release.

Originally released in September 1972, Family’s sixth album Bandstand peaked at a creditable No.15 on the UK album charts and provided the band with their fourth hit single, but disappointingly failed to crack the American Hot 100, peaking at 183. In hindsight it was perhaps the failure of this excellent album in the States that suggested the band had gone as far as it could.

And yet there was almost an air of triumphalism surrounding the Sounds front-page headline which screamed “Bandstand A Family Hit” (30/9/72). Calling them “One of Britain’s most respected and longest surviving bands,” the magazine added, “After just 2 days sales, ‘Bandstand’ has shot in the top 30 charts as the band left for America on Saturday.”

Having launched the album and overcome technical problems to enjoy a partial triumph at the freezing cold Buxton Festival, Family headed west to give America one more shot on their third American tour. Opening a gruelling nine-week tour for Elton John — then a superstar in the making — the band played 45 minutes a night to some huge crowds. Their initial apprehension of the much-touted “make or break” nature of the tour almost gave way to quiet optimism. John Wetton had left after recording the album, but the band quickly co-opted new member Jim Cregan, whose future wife Linda Lewis provides the sterling backing vocals on Broken Nose. They also had a new label in the States (United Artists), who worked hard on getting Bandstand radio plays, while the group were belatedly playing the kind of arenas they could only dream of after their initial disastrous US tour.

Certainly Rob Townsend was bubbling with optimism when he reported back on the tour to NME’s Tony Stewart (25/11/72): “We came over and I thought we’d be a non-entity. I didn’t think anyone would show up for us. But in the big cities a lot of people have heard of us and got our LPs. After two and a half years, it’s like a new audience so probably the right time to come.”

The magazine’s American correspondent Julie Webb reported that “Family have been meeting with an excellent response,” while Elton John also gushingly praised Family in his Philip Norman-penned biography: “Family are great to tour with.” Julie Webb also stated the band had been unable to play one night because of missing gear, leaving Linda Lewis to replace them amidst a lot of booing. This at least suggested people had specifically come to see the band, but all was not lost as Brian Stanley, Family’s tour manager, remembers: “True trooper that she is, Linda went on to get two encores.”

A slightly more sober view was offered in the NME news column by James Johnson who, reporting on the band’s appearance at the 17,000-capacity Nassau Coliseum, noted: “The sad feature of the evening though was the reaction to Family. They were in spectacularly good form, but hardly went off in a blaze of glory. Maybe — as was frequently suggested — they were just too sophisticated for the relatively young audience.” Significantly, Rob Townsend had also noted: “The audiences that Elton draws are different. He’s not underground and he’s not David Cassidy. He draws middle America, a kind of suburban scene.”

Poli Palmer was on what turned out to be his last tour with the band: “It was a big tour — I think at the finish we ended up doing some 26 dates and it was a mixed tour. In some places like the mid-West they just looked at us as if to ask ‘who are these zombies?’ But on both the East and West coast people had specifically come out to see us. We were also playing stadiums, often in places where people didn’t normally play, and they were selling out. The record company was doing a good job and getting us on local radio playlists. We were getting a reaction and by doing all that ground work and PR in local areas, they were building us from the ground up. Bandstand was being well promoted, but looking back it was the last knockings of old-school promo before MTV took over. It was quality music driven by choice and some of the people knew Family.”

Roger thought the tour “was just a bit too long and it was very hard for me being the vocalist and I think we blew out some gigs at the end, maybe ‘cos Charlie got ill.” But they gained some positive reviews from critics that mattered, such as Billboard’s Natt Freelander: “Vocalist Roger Chapman is a spellbindingly bizarre combination of Richard Harris and Joe Cocker, with his spaced-out robot-like marching antics. The UA English group gets a riveting sound with the synthesizer-distorted vibraphone of Poli Palmer.”

Back home things were unexpectedly even better with the sudden success of Burlesque, as Rob was about to find out when he phoned home: “We just heard that ‘Burlesque’ was in the charts and it was ironic as Elton’s single ‘Honky Cat’ hadn’t made it on the chart yet in the UK” (it finally peaked at No.31). Bandstand provided the band with the kind of album that could offer them potential radio play and a bigger audience without any sense of selling out. Sure, their style was a bit more focused and less prone to whimsy, but this merely reflected both the changing times and a band who kept up with those changes. Gone were the early-career moans about poor production and material mixed in absentia.

As on Fearless, the band set about their self-production duties diligently, working alongside experienced engineer George Chkiantz, who John Wetton says provided a guiding hand: “We’d work on some ideas and George would basically let us know if they were possible or not.”

Del Newman provided the startling string arrangements: “When I started to work on the album, the band seemed to know what they wanted and were getting on with it. Then Roger Chapman came up to me and said, ‘you’re supposed to be the producer, so do something.'” Listen to the album and you may well agree with Roger’s retrospective view that “Del made a lot of those songs really, things like ‘Bolero Babe,’ ‘Glove’ and ‘Top of the Hill.'”

Bandstand once again combined Roger Chapman’s lyrical word-plays — what Poli calls “Roger’s lyrical pictorial montage” — with his rasping vocals, the band’s instrumental virtuosity, and new found hooks. There was still though an occasional weary snarl towards critics, as on the funky Ready To Go: “Don’t give me your ‘cool it’ / Your press by-line pulpit’s / Beginning to smell / All of your guns / And your pseudo side-puns / I’ll easily elbow.”

If Fearless provided craft and sophistication, Bandstand suggested a new maturity, balancing the power of Burlesque and Broken Nose with the grandeur of Glove, the dynamics of Top of the Hill, the synth-led, stringed psychedelic beauty of Bolero Babe, the West Coast feel of Dark Eyes, and the hit that never was, My Friend The Sun.

Burlesque also provided them with a diamond-in-the-dirt hit. Charlie: “The song was about a night club in the 60s in Leicester. A lot of the guitar is played through a Moog synthesizer, the riff especially. And as soon as I hit the riff, I knew it was a winner. There’s also some great John Wetton bass on the track, while all the brass parts are played on a guitar through a synth.” Poli: “It seems ridiculous now, but it wasn’t until Pete Townshend and Keith Moon started raving about ‘Burlesque’ that we even thought about putting it out. Sometimes you just can’t see the wood for the trees, of course now we all know what to do. ‘Burlesque’ was different — all those brass stabs were actually done on a synth, but in unison with the bass and guitar to make the lick sound even bigger.”

Penny Valentine in Sounds (16/9/72) called Bandstand “an optimistic album which heralded a new era for Family on a really optimistic note.” There was rock-solid hometown support from the Leicester Mercury‘s Peter Barrett (12/10/72): “They sound far more powerful on Bandstand than ever I’ve heard them.” Better still, some East Coast American critics like Al Rudis from the Long Island Press (3/12/72) also liked the album: “Bandstand has plenty of pleasures, including the best use of strings for rock I’ve ever heard on ‘Glove’; a funky, slow rocker called ‘Burlesque’ and the Ravel rhythm of ‘Bolero Babe.'” Al also thought the album contained lyrically “updated versions of (Johnny Mercer’s) ‘My Sugar Is So Refined’ (on ‘Broken Nose’) and (Jerome Kern’s) ‘Looking For The Silver Lining’ (on ‘My Friend the Sun’). The breathtaking finale, ‘Top Of The Hill,’ uses the whole kitchen sink — and to good effect.”

Perhaps Roger’s lyrical eclecticism was never better understood. History tells us Family never quite fulfilled their incredible potential, but 40 years on from its recording Bandstand still oozes class.

— Pete Feenstra · www.feenstra.co.uk

Production / sleeve credits (SMACCD989 reissue):
Family: Roger Chapman / Charlie Whitney / Poli Palmer / John Wetton / Rob Townsend.
Produced by Family and George Chkiantz for Bradgate Bush Limited. Recorded at Olympic, London. String arrangements: Del Newman. Vocal assistance: Linda Lewis. Original LP cover design conception: John Kosh. Photography / conception: Peter Howe. A Tivstan co-ordination.

All tracks written by R. Chapman / J. Whitney except Coronation (R. Chapman / J. Whitney / J. Wetton) and Dark Eyes (R. Chapman / J. Palmer). Published by EMI United Partnership Ltd.

Concept & compilation: Ian Crockett. Remastering: Peter J. Reynolds. Design adaptation for this release: Phil Rogers. With grateful thanks to Dave Eames, Trev Gardiner, Don McKay, Mike & Grant Ritchie and the Leicester Mercury.