John Wetton

John Wetton — bassist and vocalist on Family's Fearless (1971) and Bandstand (1972), and one of British rock's defining progressive-era bass players in the decades that followed — was Family's bass chair for thirteen months between June 1971 and mid-1972. Born John Kenneth Wetton in Willington, Derbyshire on 12 June 1949, he died on 31 January 2017 at the age of 67, leaving behind a CV that included King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, U.K. and the multi-platinum supergroup Asia, alongside the two Family records that bracket his short Chapman/Whitney chapter.

Mogul Thrash and the Family call (1970–1971)

Wetton's pre-Family training was with the brass-rock outfit Mogul Thrash, who released a single self-titled album on RCA in 1971. St. Peter, the B-side of their 1970 single, gave Wetton a lead vocal on what is generally cited as the band's strongest track — an early indicator of the writer-vocalist career he would build later. "I had been to LA to search my 'thrill,'" he recalled, "and when I arrived back in Britain six weeks later I knew the Americans weren't waiting for my kind of music. What I wanted to do at the time was much more aggressive than what was happening in America… Strangely enough the day I got back from America I got a call from a friend of mine (Jim Cregan) who asked if I wanted to join Family. That time they were number three in the charts and they were one of my favourite semi-progressive outfits so of course I said yes."

A second offer arrived simultaneously: "I also have to tell you that, before I went to play with Family, I already received a phone call from Robert Fripp asking me if I wanted to join King Crimson. Crimson then consisted of Fripp, Mel Collins, Ian Wallace and Boz Burrell." He chose Family first; Crimson would come a year later.

Family (June 1971 – mid-1972)

Wetton joined just after John Weider's departure, with Fearless sessions already in progress at Olympic. He played bass on most of Fearless and the entirety of Bandstand — though, as he would later note, the contractual extraction from Mogul Thrash that had to happen in parallel meant "most of my time in the studio was spent on the phone talking to the manager or the lawyer about the bloody contracts. So I got credit for contracts." His vocal harmonies thicken several Bandstand tracks, and his playing on My Friend the Sun, Burlesque and Bolero Babe — the band at its biggest commercial reach — is the foundation under those records.

He left after Bandstand citing creative limits: "After two albums with them I quit because I didn't feel fulfilled. They already had some composers in the band and the vacancy for a singer was also taken so I had to be happy just playing the bass." The Crimson chair was waiting; he stepped straight into the Larks' Tongues in Aspic lineup with Fripp, Bruford and Cross.

King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, U.K., Asia (1972–2017)

The post-Family arc is one of the most decorated in British progressive rock:

• King Crimson (1972–1974): Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), Red (1974), USA (1975)
• Roxy Music: live bassist on the 1974–75 tours
• Uriah Heep: Return to Fantasy (1975), High and Mighty (1976)
• U.K. (1978–1980): U.K. (1978), Danger Money (1979), Night After Night (1979) — with Bill Bruford, Allan Holdsworth and Eddie Jobson, then John Wetton / Eddie Jobson / Terry Bozzio
• Asia (1981 onwards): Asia (1982 — UK #11, US #1, Billboard's year-end No. 1 album for 1982, led by the Heat of the Moment single), Alpha (1983), and the long catalogue that followed through to 2014's Gravitas

He also guested on the first Streetwalkers album (Chapman/Whitney, 1974), Roger Chapman's Mail Order Magic (1980) and Hyenas Only Laugh For Fun (1981), keeping the Family connection live across the post-band decades.

A solo career ran in parallel from the late 1970s through 2014 (Caught in the Crossfire, 1980; King's Road 1972–1980, 1987; Battle Lines, 1994; Sinister, 2001; Rock of Faith, 2003; and the long Akustika series of acoustic re-recordings in the 2000s and 2010s). His autobiography My Own Time (Northern Line Publishers, 1997) is the major published account of his pre- and post-Family years, although it says surprisingly little about Family itself. Its sole Family photograph was reproduced from an early single sleeve.

On replacing Weider

A Wetton aside in My Own Time about his predecessor's range — quoted via Kim Dancha's text:

> "I understand that John's extraordinary inborn musicality allowed him simply to acquire a violin, experiment for a week, and take over Grech's parts without more ado."

The Family that Wetton joined in 1971 was already two years beyond Grech's departure and had just recorded In My Own Time. When Wetton handed the bass chair to Jim Cregan in mid-1972, the band was moving into its final studio phase.

Death (2017)

Wetton was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014 and died on 31 January 2017 in Bournemouth, age 67. The Family year occupies barely a single page in his memoir but it brackets two of the band's most ambitious records, and the bass-vocals foundation he laid for Bandstand in particular has held up remarkably well across half a century of reissues.

Selected discography

With Family — Fearless (1971) · Bandstand (1972)

Pre-Family — Mogul Thrash Mogul Thrash (RCA, 1971)

Post-Family principal bands

• King Crimson — Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973) · Starless and Bible Black (1974) · Red (1974) · USA (1975)
• Roxy Music — 1974–75 tours
• Uriah Heep — Return to Fantasy (1975) · High and Mighty (1976)
• U.K. — U.K. (1978) · Danger Money (1979) · Night After Night (1979)
• Asia — Asia (1982) · Alpha (1983) · Astra (1985) · Aqua (1992) · Aria (1994) · Phoenix (2008) · Omega (2010) · XXX (2012) · Gravitas (2014)

Selected guest work — Streetwalkers Chapman/Whitney (1974) · Roger Chapman Mail Order Magic (1980), Hyenas Only Laugh For Fun (1981) · Phil Manzanera, Steve Hackett, Bryan Ferry session work

Solo (selected) — Caught in the Crossfire (1980) · Battle Lines (1994) · Sinister (2001) · Rock of Faith (2003) · Akustika series (2000s–2010s) · live and compilation releases through 2014

Memoir — My Own Time (Northern Line Publishers, 1997)

Born: John Kenneth Wetton, 12 June 1949, Willington, Derbyshire
Died: 31 January 2017, age 67
Family tenure: June 1971 – mid-1972
Instruments: bass, guitar, vocals

Sources: John Wetton, My Own Time (Northern Line Publishers, 1997); Kim Dancha commentary in same; "Faulty Towers" — John Bungey, MOJO (August 1996), in the Press Archive; The Weaver's Answer fanzine; Discogs.