Strange Band

Reprise released the three-track Strange Band EP in the UK on 31 July 1970 as RS 27009, pairing the new song with re-recordings of 'The Weaver's Answer' and 'Hung Up Down'. It became Family's biggest chart hit to that point, reaching UK No. 11. The former timeline split this release into contradictory French and later UK cards; the UK issue is the primary release used here.

The two re-recorded Family Entertainment tracks were a deliberate fix to the long-running mix grievance from 1969. Townsend to Nick Logan in NME (19 September 1970, 'Family re-recorded 'Weaver' for Hit!'): "It's a very insipid track on 'Entertainment.' We recorded 'Entertainment' when we were with our old manager… He didn't know what we were about, wasn't there when we recorded them and didn't know what we had in mind for them. We've been bugged by those tracks for a long time and when the American album came up we took the chance to remix and redo them." The rehash added a guitar track and Weider's bass-violin (the original by Grech), tied to a planned September US tour — later postponed, with the Old Songs New Songs compilation rerouted into the British market instead.

The three-track release also caught the band in mid-pivot on recording strategy. Disc and Music Echo (5 September 1970): 'With their most successful single to date gathering strength in the charts, Family have decided to change their recording tactics. Instead of dubbing a good deal of their material as they have done in the past they are trying to produce at least half of their numbers "live." The numbers will be run through in the studios and brought out as they sound, without added effects. About half of their forthcoming album will be live tracks and should be out by Christmas. The tapes were made at Croydon's Fairfield Halls.' Chapman responded to the commercial-compromise charge in the same Logan piece: "We could be open to criticism but it is still our music. It's Family stuff. If it wasn't commercial two years ago but is now, then it must be the audiences that have turned round." (See Press Archive: Family re-recorded 'Weaver' for Hit! by Nick Logan, NME, 19 September 1970.)