Liner Notes
Snapper circulated this five-track promotional sampler in 2012 ahead of the full Once Upon A Time box. It contains “The Cat and the Rat,” “Good News Bad News,” “Between Blue and Me,” “Glove” and a partly vocal “Boom Bang.” No defensible month or day has been established.
Album Reviews1
Reviews gathered with this release and kept on the album page rather than in the general Press Archive.
Once Upon a Time — The Arts Desk review
Box-set review. Kieron Tyler argues that fourteen discs do not make Family any easier to classify. The set instead clarifies why their mixture of blues, folk, jazz-inflected rhythm, sudden dynamic shifts and Roger Chapman’s increasingly intense vibrato could make them both thrilling and difficult for the mainstream to absorb.
The package receives praise for gathering the complete studio catalogue, the 1971 live recording, the debut single, replica singles, a heavily illustrated book and two discs of unreleased material. Tyler is less convinced by backing tracks that omit Chapman’s voice, the “definitive” marketing claim and the cost for listeners who had already bought earlier deluxe editions. His verdict is admiring but properly qualified: an impressive portrait of a band whose instability was inseparable from its identity.
All Pressings2
Every known issue, variant, reissue, and repress across all countries and formats. Identical catalogue entries with multiple Discogs listings are grouped into a single row.
Gallery2 images
Covers, labels, inserts, and press material across all pressings. Click any image to view full-size.
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