John Weider

John Weider — bassist, violinist and guitarist on Family's most adventurous run of records — joined the band in April 1969, mid-tour, after Ric Grech quit during the disastrous American leg, and stayed for two years through A Song For Me (1970), Anyway (1970), Old Songs New Songs (1971) overdubs, and the In My Own Time single (July 1971). Born 21 April 1947 in London, Weider died in Los Angeles in March 2025, aged 77, with a career that ran from teenage R&B sideman through Eric Burdon's New Animals, Family, Stud, Moonrider, three Gold Castle solo albums and a long late period as a fingerpicked instrumental composer.

London R&B beginnings (early 1960s)

Weider began on violin as a child and moved to guitar in his teens. The early bands — Tony Meehan Combo, Winston's Fumbs, Steve Marriott's Moments (Weider on guitar at sixteen, Marriott on keyboards), Laurie Jay Combo — placed him in the centre of the early-1960s London R&B circuit. Johnny Kidd and the Pirates kept him for a year. "Their guitar player, John Weider, was the role model for many British guitarists of the early 1960s," a contemporary later put it — Weider belongs in the pre-Beatles British rock prehistory that gave the Yardbirds and Stones generation the foundation it built on.

Eric Burdon and the New Animals (1966–1968)

In 1966, Eric Burdon rebuilt The Animals around an entirely new lineup — Vic Briggs, Danny McCulloch, Barry Jenkins — and Weider won the guitar chair "out of 200 other guitarists who auditioned," getting the call through New Animals' tour manager Peter Grant. Weider's violin was a bold addition for a 1967 rock band: the Monterey Pop Festival film captures him bowing the "Paint It Black" jam in the New Animals' Monterey set, one of the first times rock-context electric violin was filmed in front of a US audience that big.

The 1968 lineup with Zoot Money and Andy Summers (later of The Police) recorded the heavy soul-psych Love Is — Weider sharing bass and guitar with Summers across a 17-minute Gemini / The Madman suite, a harder-edged River Deep, Mountain High and the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody. Winds of Change (1967), Twain Shall Meet (1968) and Every One of Us (1968) bracket the same period. Burdon dissolved the band late 1968; Weider was already in the United States when the next call came.

Family (April 1969 – June 1971)

Family had just walked off the Bill Graham Fillmore East show, Grech had quit mid-tour to join Blind Faith, and Peter Grant put Weider's name in the hat with Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney. "Two weeks in a studio in New York and then on the road," Weider would later say of the rehearsal time — the New Animals' US base meaning he didn't even need to fly home. "We clicked right away. Nice bunch of guys and practical jokers."

His first Family recording was the single No Mule's Fool (1969) — Weider's acoustic country-style guitar, melodic bass and violin interplay setting the Family-with-Weider sound in three minutes. A Song For Me (1970) followed: rhythm-section anchor on Drowned in Wine and Cat and the Rat, lead guitar on Some Poor Soul and the end of Wheels, echoplex violin on the title track. The album was largely cut as a trio (Weider, Whitney, Townsend) with overdubs added later — Whitney has confirmed this — "that's one reason why it's such a great album. We were all in synch with each other." Anyway (1970) showed his range from heavy bass on Part of the Load (one of Family's defining basslines) to the violin-drone instrumental Normans (Weider co-wrote with Chapman/Whitney), with the country-picked acoustic on Lives and Ladies.

The biggest single of his Family era was In My Own Time (July 1971), often credited to his successor John Wetton but in fact recorded with Weider on bass: "I played bass on that single … case closed!" The bassline — closer to Part of the Load than to anything Wetton would record on Bandstand a year later — is one of the most-disputed authorship questions in Family fandom, and Weider settled it himself.

By summer 1971, Weider had had enough of being typecast as a bassist when his real instrument was guitar. He gave notice and walked.

His own retrospective on the band's work after he left is sharp and worth quoting: "Poli Palmer added a great deal to the band — a fine musician. After Fearless, Family became more of a good time party band in my opinion. The organic, spiritual and sophisticated Family had all but gone. I don't think Cregan or Wetton or Ashton added anything to the band. A Song For Me and Fearless to me were the two best albums from the standpoint of songwriting, musicianship and intellect. I am proud and honored to have been a part of Family."

Stud, Moonrider and the first solo LP (1971–1976)

Post-Family Weider co-founded Stud with Jim Cregan (ex-Blossom Toes) and the Taste rhythm section of Richard McCracken and John Wilson — a folk-progressive jam band that found its biggest audience in Germany on the BASF label. "Stud was a good idea that never came to fruition," Weider would later say.

In 1975 he resurfaced in Moonrider with Keith West for one polished West Coast-leaning album on the Anchor label, then issued his self-titled solo LP John Weider (1976, Anchor) — a country-rock-pop set with Charlie Whitney guesting on guitar across two tracks. "Moonrider broke up and I had an album worth of songs sitting around." Session and band work through the early 1970s included Brinsley Schwarz's Despite It All (1970), John Entwistle's Whistle Rhymes (1972), Domenic Troiano's Tricky (1973), Roger Morris's first album (1972), Ro Ro (1972, produced by Keith West), The Nicky James Band (1973, plus 1976's Thunderthroat), the multi-artist Flash Fearless vs. the Zorg Women (1975), and Gulliver's Ridin' the Wind (1979).

Gold Castle: the new-age trilogy (1987–1990)

After a quiet decade Weider re-emerged on Gold Castle Records with three lush, mostly-instrumental albums that combined acoustic and electric guitar, violin, synthesisers and a jazz-fusion sensibility:

• Intervals in Sunlight (1987)
• Essence (1989) — including a serene reworking of the New Animals' San Franciscan Nights
• Ancients Weep (1990) — including a fiery Lullaby of Birdland

The trilogy earned comparisons to Eric Clapton, Steve Howe and David Gilmour in the period press, and tracked back to a personal source: "I was going through emotional turmoil over my father's death. The dam burst and everything just flowed out." By the time of his last Weaver's Answer interview Weider was "working on a new CD with a lot of Spanish and Impressionist sensibilities," listening almost exclusively to Baroque music and the classical guitarist John Williams.

On the man: Eric Burdon's note (1968)

Burdon's contemporary capsule of his New Animals guitarist captures Weider better than any biographer summary:

> "John Weider — guitar and violin. Jewish maniac. His Judaism only shows when he's playing his violin… Has perfect timing… even when he plays guitar. Hero worships Frank Zappa, Harpo Marx, Clapton-Hendrix and Pete Townshend… He likes for people to like him. They usually do. I like him, we all do."

Death (March 2025)

John Weider died in Los Angeles in March 2025, aged 77. His Family contribution remains the centre of his rock-canon profile — the violin, the heavy bass, the country-acoustic counterpoint that Whitney's heavier rock guitar needed — but his Animals and Gold Castle records carry their own weight independently. He was, by his own and his contemporaries' accounts, the band's most genuinely multi-instrumental member.

Selected discography

With Family — No Mule's Fool / *Good Friend of Mine* single (October 1969) · A Song For Me (1970) · Anyway (1970) · Strange Band maxi-single (1970) · Today / *Song for Lots* single (1970) · Old Songs New Songs overdubs (1971) · In My Own Time single (July 1971)

Pre-Family — Steve Marriott's Moments · Tony Meehan Combo · Johnny Kidd and the Pirates · Eric Burdon and the (New) Animals — Winds of Change (1967) · Twain Shall Meet (1968) · Love Is (1968) · Every One of Us (1968) · Monterey Pop compilation (1967)

Post-Family bands and sessions

• Brinsley Schwarz — Despite It All (1970)
• Stud — Stud · September · Goodbye: Live at Command Studios
• John Entwistle — Whistle Rhymes (1972)
• Roger Morris — First Album (1972)
• Ro Ro (1972, Keith West-produced)
• The Nicky James Band (1973) · Nicky James — Thunderthroat (1976)
• Domenic Troiano — Tricky (1973)
• Flash Fearless vs. the Zorg Women (1975, comic-book concept LP)
• Moonrider — Moonrider (1975, with Keith West)
• Gulliver — Ridin' the Wind (1979)

Solo

• John Weider (1976, Anchor LP)
• Don't Give Up On Me / Ambush Alice (December 1976, Anchor single ANC1035)
• Intervals in Sunlight (1987, Gold Castle)
• Essence (1989, Gold Castle)
• Ancients Weep (1990, Gold Castle)

Born: John Weider, 21 April 1947, London
Died: March 2025, age 77, Los Angeles
Family tenure: April 1969 – June 1971
Instruments: bass, violin, guitar, acoustic guitar

Sources: John Weider interview with Family Bandstand for The Weaver's Answer fanzine; Eric Burdon's contemporary New Animals notes (1968); "Faulty Towers" — John Bungey, MOJO (August 1996), in the Press Archive; Discogs.