Family Entertainment

Sleeve essay accompanying the See For Miles Records CD reissue (catalogue SEECD 200H, 1998), commissioned for the band’s UK CD return after See For Miles secured the Doll’s House / Family Entertainment licence from Reprise.

NB: Readers are advised that this is Part Two of Family’s story. Part One, which covers their formative years up to and including the release of their first album, can be found as an insert to Music In A Doll’s House, the companion to this album, which is available on SEECD 100H.

By the autumn of 1968, Family were perched on the precipice of a significant breakthrough. Their debut album Music In A Doll’s House had not only been a major critical triumph, it had also charted — and furthermore, they were now firmly established as an enormous live draw in the UK. They were keen, therefore, not only to consolidate their new status, but to build upon it. Moreover, they were churning out new material with a vengeance — and the quality of these new numbers was such that long before their fanatical fans had tired of their first album, several of the ‘old’ favourites had been ditched from their live set in order to accommodate them. In fact, throughout their career Family were to show scant respect for their own musical past, avoiding staleness by continually discarding older material in favour of newer numbers, always trying to progress and move forward, and maintain the phenomenally high standards they had imposed upon their live performance.

They certainly took their followers by surprise with their third single — “Second Generation Woman,” a hard rocker written by Ric Grech, seemed something of a surprising choice as a single — yet it nearly did the trick for them. Released in November 1968, it picked up substantial airplay, sold excellently, and failed to make the charts by only the narrowest of margins. It was entirely unlike anything else in their repertoire at the time, borrowing from a well-travelled Chuck Berry riff, and sounding considerably more like Ten Years After than Family — the flipside, “Hometown,” was the antithesis of its A-side, being a gentle, beautiful ballad, which was somehow (and rather surprisingly) omitted from their eagerly awaited second album Family Entertainment.

Produced jointly by John Gilbert and Glyn Johns it showed a marked change of style, being noticeably less contrived and considerably more directly and easily accessible, and certainly less ‘experimental’ than its predecessor: a mainstream Progressive Rock album, no less. Their devotees were already familiar with much of the material here, and had been awaiting the recorded versions of Family ‘anthems’ such as the lengthy, sprawling “The Weaver’s Answer” (which had taken over from “Peace Of Mind” as the anchor-piece of their live set); “Observations From A Hill,” “Hung Up Down,” and “How-Hi-The-Li” with ill-concealed patience. They weren’t disappointed — and, alongside these familiar numbers were several magnificent gentle, reflective new songs, such as “Processions,” “Dim,” and “Face In The Cloud” — plus, of course, their near-hit “Second Generation Woman.”

The album was ecstatically reviewed and received and was an instant success, reaching No.6 on the UK album charts. Their first album had been so good that it had seemed hardly likely they would be able to get even close to achieving the same standards with a follow-up — yet not only had they done it, they’d actually improved on it.

However, no sooner had the album been released than disasters smote them. With the album safely entrenched in the UK Top 20 they embarked on their first US tour, supporting Ten Years After. However, the tour was doomed from the outset: for starters, on the very eve of their first warm-up gig, Ric Grech announced that he would be leaving the band in order to join Blind Faith. Now, Grech’s violin was such an integral feature of their sound early on (as a quick spin of either of their first two albums would verify) that his defection seemed a major setback. Other tour hassles had included work permit and passport difficulties — and they were well wound up by the time the Big Night finally came around at the Fillmore East. The gig itself was an unmitigated disaster. The crowd were openly hostile and impatient for Alvin Lee & Co — and Chapman wasn’t getting too much out of them. A spot of heckling broke out and Chappo entered upon an exchange of verbal nasties — which was abruptly terminated when he hurled his mike-stand to one side in disgust at the reception they were getting. Unfortunately, promoter Bill Graham was in the flightpath of said mike-stand — he assumed that the throw had been deliberate (it wasn’t), Graham was furious, and pulled them off the next show. Although the misunderstanding was later rectified, and they were reinstated, the bad vibes had been set — and frankly, Family never were to do very big business in the US.

Meanwhile, regarding Grech, US co-manager for the tour Peter Grant remembered that John “Willi” Weider was a dab hand with the old violin — and was furthermore on the loose, having left Eric Burdon’s New Animals some six months earlier. He was drafted in mid-tour but too late for any warm-ups.

Weider, a seasoned campaigner, proved to be a more than adequate replacement for Grech. He had an impressive pedigree: as a sixteen-year-old he’d joined Johnny Kidd & The Pirates (replacing the legendary Mick Green); and had also been in the Tony Meehan Combo (alongside John Paul Jones and Joe Moretti); The Moments (with Steve Marriott); Winston’s Fumbs; and Eric Burdon’s ‘New’ Animals. He’d been playing in a Californian band, Stonehenge (later known as Crabby Appleton), when he’d had the SOS from Family, and he immediately established himself as an integral part of the set-up.

They played all the principal UK Rock gigs during 1969 — the experimental Pop Proms at the Albert Hall, Plumpton, the Isle Of Wight, and they were of course included on the bill at the memorable Rolling Stones Hyde Park bash in July 1969. Furthermore, they still found time to tape the occasional (excellent) live set for John Peel’s Top Gear — again, using this platform to preview new material.

Additionally, tying in with the Family Entertainment concept, they embarked upon an unusual, ambitious (and not wholly successful) UK tour alongside a motley collection of acrobats, clowns, jugglers, and a drag act (!) which drew a somewhat bemused response from punter and critic alike: the idea being that the first half of the show allowed each member of the band a solo spot, interspersed with the aforementioned variety performers, with the second half consisting of a straightforward, standard Family set. Hardly surprisingly, the second half was generally better-received than the first.

However, internal dissent within the ranks was starting to show and during the autumn of 1969 they implemented two significant, major changes. Firstly, having decided that they wanted a less pragmatic style of management, they switched from Gilbert’s Dukeslodge set-up to Tony Gourvish. Secondly, and rather more visibly, they decided to dispense with the services of Jim King whose role within the band had been steadily diminishing over the past twelve months. His replacement was an interesting choice: multi-instrumentalist John ‘Poli’ Palmer who had in fact been involved on the ill-advised Family Entertainment tour a month or so earlier, as the special guest percussionist in drummer Rob Townsend’s solo spot.

Palmer’s track-record was, like Weider’s, highly impressive: formerly a drummer, he was incredibly versatile, being able to handle vibes (his preferred instrument), piano, and flute with equal dexterity. His earlier gigs had included legendary Midlands group Deep Feeling (alongside Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason, and Luther Grosvenor), Blossom Toes, and the highly-rated Eclection.

They had chalked up their first hit single that autumn, the tantalising, eclectic “No Mule’s Fool” / “Good Friend Of Mine,” which peaked at No.29 in October 1969 (and were, incidentally, in the can and ready for release): Palmer arrived just in time to dub sundry vibes, flute, and piano to several tracks.

A Song For Me, a self-produced effort, was released in January 1970 and was immediately a substantial hit album, going to No.4 on the UK album charts. Again, the album featured several tracks which had long since become absorbed into their live set, including the powerful opening track “Drowned In Wine,” “Love Is A Sleeper,” a bit of an oldie “Wheels” (which dated back to Ric Grech’s days), and “The Cat And The Rat,” a bog-standard 12-bar rocker.

The band entered its most settled — and commercially successful — phase, and in truth, it’s this line-up which is probably the most fondly remembered by Family aficionados. As live performers they were virtually unfollowable. They were enormous not only in the UK, but also in Europe — notably Scandinavia and Germany. Chapman was now fully installed as one of the genuine ‘Wild Men’ of rock, and whereas the likes of Hendrix and Townshend either smashed guitars or poked them into the amps, Chapman had perfected the noble art of tambourine trashing, and the destruction of microphone stands. By the end of a set, Chappo had danced and twitched himself close to exhaustion, and just hung there, out on his feet, surrounded by the carnage of five or six badly savaged mike-stands and sundry bits and pieces of dead tambourines.

But, of course, his chief claim to immortality was his pioneering role in the introduction and development of Idiot Dancing, a manic form of crazed twitching which affected paying punters at rock gigs — notably the open-air ones — throughout the summers of 1969 and 1970. Chapman himself played the connection down, suggesting that the genre was purely the invention of noted Melody Maker hack Chris Welch. Whatever the actuality, it was all good clean fun, and plenty of excellent PR — but I’ll tell you one thing: if Family had been at Woodstock, poor old Joe Cocker wouldn’t have got a look in. Chapman’s mechanical scarecrow routine would have seen Joe off any day of the week!

Another single was released in April 1970, “Today” / “Songs For Lots,” which sadly stiffed despite being one of their most memorable ballads; John Weider’s influence in particular being noticeable on the A-side.

Nevertheless, it would only be a matter of a few more months before they scored their long sought-after Top 20 single — yet it came about in a roundabout manner. They had decided to prepare a compilation album — tentatively entitled Old Songs New Songs — bringing together several tracks from their first three albums, plus sundry A and B-sides. However, the intention was to remix and overdub some of the material as they were apparently unhappy with the mixes of certain of their older releases. The record company got hold of early copies of two of the remixed tracks — “The Weaver’s Answer” and “Hung Up Down,” both favourites from their live set — and released them as a maxi-single with a new studio track “Strange Band” as the A-side, at the band’s behest. “Weaver” picked up the airplay, and became a major hit that summer, reaching No.11 in the charts and spending three months in the Top 50.

The next album proved to be an ambitious project, comprising a number of live tracks on Side One (recorded at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, and including a tremendous version of “Strange Band”) with new studio recordings making up Side Two. The album, titled Anyway (after a catchphrase of Chapman’s), was released in November 1970, and was another major UK Top Tenner, reaching No.7.

Originally, it had been conceived as an entirely live album, but presumably Family must have experienced more than their fair share of difficulties with live recordings, as they never did fulfil the ambition of releasing a fully live album. Certainly they were an entirely different live band to their studio sound — their studio recordings being intrinsically crafted and carefully put together, whereas their live performance was increasingly more anarchic and a lot less structured; particularly Chapman’s vocals which, live, were often virtually incomprehensible as he tortured his vocal chords trying to invent new sounds.

Their live appearances during 1970 took in all the usual open-air festivals — the Isle of Wight being particularly successful, including the Rotterdam Festival, where their set was recorded and included in the movie Stomping Ground. Additionally, they toured the US, this time with rather more success, although they were unable to break into the US album charts.

The compilation album Old Songs New Songs eventually appeared in March 1971 and was by way of being the bargain of the year, including 11 tracks, 40 minutes’ playing time, all the old favourites, and retailing at thirty bob! Astonishingly, it failed to chart, despite the inclusion of “Weaver,” “Observations From A Hill,” “Drowned In Wine” and a couple of the rarer tracks, “Today” and “Hometown,” all freshly remixed and overdubbed.

They suffered a further potentially crippling personnel change in June 1971, when Weider decided that he’d tired of playing bass, and left to join Stud. His replacement was John Wetton from Mogul Thrash, a powerful vocalist who also added a second double-necked guitar to their stage line-up, thus making them one of the heaviest looking bands on the circuit. Their new recordings reflected this harder Rock edge, the first result of their liaison being “In My Own Time” / “Seasons,” a magnificent single which gave them their first ever UK Top 10 hit (No.4 in September 1971 and in the Top Ten throughout that summer). The single was rapidly followed by the marvellous Fearless, vocally their strongest album to date, which made No.10 in the UK in October 1971 and even scored chart action in the US.

Family then elected to ignore the medium of singles (and indeed, any recordings) for the best part of a year, releasing the Bandstand album and the A-side taken from it “Burlesque” / “The Rockin’ R’s” simultaneously in September 1972. Both charted — the album making No.15 in the UK, the single peaking at a very creditable No.13. They toured the US (supporting Elton John) to promote the album, and it just about made their charts, at No.183. This new album found them in even heavier Rock territory than its predecessor, and garnered them substantial critical acclaim. However, the seeds of time were running very thin indeed — and they were to be the subject of further transfer-market activity, Wetton leaving to join King Crimson, literally as the album had been released, followed two months later by Poli Palmer, who left in order to form a new band with Ric Grech (which was apparently stillborn). Their replacements were two seasoned musicians, Jim Cregan on bass and guitar, from Stud (something of a coincidence, you’ll agree) — whose previous form had included spells with Julian Covey & The Machine, and Blossom Toes, with Palmer (yet another irony); and Tony Ashton on keyboards, a veteran of many groups, including the Remo Four and Ashton Gardner & Dyke with whom he’d enjoyed the 1971 Top 3 hit “Resurrection Shuffle.”

Naturally enough the sound and style of the band mutated yet again, but this time with less commercially favourable results. Before any new recordings were released, Reprise put out “My Friend The Sun” / “Glove” (the A-side taken off Bandstand) as a single in January 1973. It was a highly-rated track — in many ways the outstanding cut on the album. Inexplicably, it failed to chart. The ‘new’ band hurriedly followed this with an official release, “Boom Bang” / “Stop This Car,” on the new Raft label in April 1973. This, too, hit the skids. At around this time a proposed US tour fell through, and the band members thought long and hard about the long-term prospects. They had, frankly, achieved as much as they were ever likely to in Europe; the signs were that they were never likely to crack the US market. Both new members were actively involved in outside projects which severely restricted their commitment to Family. Consequently, they took the decision to quit whilst they were still ahead of the game. They cut a farewell album It’s Only A Movie and a farewell tour. The album charted (No.30 in September 1973) whilst they were mid-tour, prompting rumours that the impending split was nowt but a publicity stunt.

However, the decision had been made, and on Saturday 13th October 1973, at the Leicester Polytechnic — scene of some of their greatest triumphs — it all came to a magnificent end. They included excerpts of material from all areas of their career — right back to Doll’s House. It was, by all accounts, a wonderful night — Chapman even fell off the stage during “Burlesque,” which sounds as good a way as any to end an era.

Few bands split at exactly the right moment — they tend to hang around an album or two too long and outstay their welcome. Family were careful never to fall into this particular trap — and therefore, all the memories which are left, are good ones. They were among the very finest British bands of their era, and they left behind a priceless legacy of recordings, two of which — Music In A Doll’s House and Family Entertainment — have been unavailable for far too long. It is a privilege to be associated with their reissue.

— Roger Dopson