1967 was Family’s first full calendar year under the name already visible in advertisements by autumn 1966. Roger Chapman, Charlie Whitney, Ric Grech, Jim King and Harry Ovenall moved their base from Leicester to London in January and worked their way through the capital’s club circuit while continuing the Midlands ballroom diary.
The Chapman/Whitney single “Scene Through the Eye of a Lens” / “Gypsy Woman” appeared on Liberty (LBF 15031) on 13 October, produced by Jimmy Miller with Steve Winwood among the supporting musicians. Rob Townsend replaced Ovenall in September; the first documented Mk II appearance is Quaintways, Chester, on 25 September. A 1 November showcase at Sibylla’s and the developing Reprise relationship then pointed directly toward the debut-album sessions that continued into 1968.
January 196716 events
1
Sunday
Beachcomber
The Roaring Sixties
Bank Street, Bolton, Lancashire, England
Beachcomber was the compact Bank Street cellar club in central Bolton run by the Harrison family — Sunday-night R&B had been the house policy since late 1965 and the Farinas had played here repeatedly through the previous winter. Not to be confused with the Nottingham Beachcomber on the Trent Boulevard / Musters Road corner, which shared the name but no management.
FAMILY ARRIVE IN LONDON
circa January 1967
Leicester → London
1967 opens with the move to London. The band had been gigging out of Leicester as the Farinas — briefly as The Roaring Sixties across the winter of 1966-67 — and through January carried the last of the Roaring Sixties bookings on the Northern and Home-Counties ballroom circuit before settling into the new Family billing by the spring. The first London room of the year was Blaises on 17 January; the first Speakeasy set followed a day later.
Chapman's later reflection on the move, to Nick Logan in New Musical Express (c. 28 February 1970): "Family came down to London from their native Leicester in January 1967, when the Underground was in its infancy. In Leicester we didn't know anything about it to be honest. But that was the thing — all that we did came naturally. It was the first time groups were able to go out and play all their own material. All of us, no matter what bands we have been in, we never followed the trends at all. We always did what we liked and our aim was to make it happen. It didn't always at first. Down here we did things like UFO and the Roundhouse and it was good. Up North we'd be totally different from what the audiences expected. But we used to say '… 'em!' I don't think we have ever bent to people; we have been able to make audiences bend to us."
2
Monday
Carlton Ballroom
The Roaring Sixties
Winwick Road, Warrington, Lancashire, England
The Carlton Ballroom on Winwick Road was the mid-sized Warrington dance hall that booked touring R&B on the Manchester-to-Liverpool agency run; the Warrington Guardian's weekly 'What's On' page carried the advertising. Still advertised as The Roaring Sixties — the old Farinas-successor billing persisted through the provincial listings for most of January and February.
4
Wednesday
The Place
The Roaring Sixties
Bryan Street, Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent), Staffordshire, England
The Place on Bryan Street, Hanley, was Stoke-on-Trent's R&B basement through the mid-1960s — a cellar dance-floor in the pottery-town centre, run by the Birchenall family out of a former bonded warehouse. Still billed as The Roaring Sixties — the Farinas' transitional name through the winter of 1966-67 before the switch to Family settled in February. The Place's sound-reinforcement rig (a 4-12 PA stacked behind the DJ booth) and a low ceiling gave the room its distinctive close-quarters R&B feel, and it ran Wednesday / Friday / Saturday programmes through 1967.
13
Friday
The Hermitage Ballroom
The Roaring Sixties
Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England
Family opened 1967 at the Hermitage Ballroom in Hitchin, Hertfordshire — not Hinckley, as the similarly-named Leicestershire venue is sometimes conflated. The Hermitage had been one of the leading Home Counties ballrooms of the mid-60s, hosting Cream, Eric Clapton and the Searchers in the surrounding months, and Family had played it previously as the Farinas supporting Cream in September 1966. The date is the first confirmed gig advertised under the new 'Family' billing in the band's own diary.
14
Saturday
Royal Lido Ballroom
The Roaring Sixties
Bastion Road, Prestatyn, Denbighshire, Wales
+ The Raynes
Support: The Raynes. The Royal Lido sat on the Prestatyn seafront at Bastion Road — a Pontins Holiday Camp dance-hall adjunct that had been a reliable North Wales R&B stop since the mid-1950s. Still billed as The Roaring Sixties.
“At this early stage, Family featured a striking instrumental lineup: two tenor saxophones, lead guitar, bass, and drums — with multiple vocalists. Notably, both the sax player and guitarist took turns at the mic. The band was known for their gangster-inspired stagewear: double-breasted suits with exaggerated 22-inch trouser cuffs, evoking Chicago mobsters of the Prohibition era.”
— Local press, January 1967
15
Sunday
Astoria Ballroom
The Roaring Sixties
Union Street, Oldham, Lancashire, England
The Astoria Ballroom on Union Street — a 1920s cinema converted for dances — had been programming R&B on the Greater Manchester circuit alongside the Thing Club, the Crawdaddy and the Twisted Wheel through 1966, and would continue into 1967 as part of Oldham's weekend-dance fabric. A Sunday-night Roaring Sixties billing; the following week's Manchester University Union date on 25 January was the third Manchester-area booking in five days, reflecting how central the Greater Manchester circuit was to the band's January 1967 touring diary.
17
Tuesday
Blaises (Imperial Hotel basement)
The Roaring Sixties
121 Queen's Gate, Kensington, London SW7, England
Blaises — the basement club beneath the Imperial Hotel at 121 Queen's Gate — had opened in early 1966 as one of the first West End rooms to programme underground-facing R&B bands alongside its soul-import nights. Jimi Hendrix had played the basement on 21 December 1966 with Eric Clapton in the audience; the Hendrix aftermath carried into the room's bookings through the winter.
18
Wednesday
Big L Discothèque
The Roaring Sixties
122 Charing Cross Road, Soho, London W1, England
Big L Discothèque was the Radio London-branded room upstairs at the Tin Pan Alley Club site on Charing Cross Road — one of several offshore-pirate-station-branded discotheques that sprang up briefly in 1966–67 as the Big L / Radio Caroline / Radio 270 publicity arms extended onto shore. Dave Dennis was the Big L front-of-house DJ. The advertising still ran the Roaring Sixties billing.
18
Wednesday
Speakeasy Club
The Roaring Sixties
48 Margaret Street, Fitzrovia, London W1, England
An early Speakeasy slot, booked barely a month after the basement club's 15 December 1966 opening. Advertising at the time still carried the old 'The Roaring Sixties' billing, suggesting the name change to Family had not yet fully filtered down to West End listings. The Speakeasy would remain a semi-regular London home-room for Family throughout the spring.
19
Thursday
Civic Hall
The Roaring Sixties
Connah's Quay, Flintshire, Wales
The surviving tour diary places Family at Connah’s Quay Civic Hall, on the Dee estuary. No matching local advertisement has yet surfaced, so the booking remains tentative.
20
Friday
Hulme Labour Hall
The Roaring Sixties
Stretford Road, Manchester, Lancashire, England
Hulme Labour Hall on Stretford Road was the Labour Party social-club venue attached to Hulme's ward premises — a 300-capacity mid-Manchester dance room that booked R&B on Friday-night union socials. The Manchester Evening News's Friday 'Tonight's Dances' column is the primary billboard.
21
Saturday
Pavilion Ballroom
The Roaring Sixties
Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England
The following night the band were at the Pavilion Ballroom in the Peak District spa town of Matlock — a Victorian ballroom that hosted travelling R&B and soul packages through 1966-68. The Matlock Pavilion was on the same north-Midlands circuit as Leicester's Il Rondo and Nottingham's Beachcomber and booked Family repeatedly in their Farinas days.
22
Sunday
Beachcomber
The Roaring Sixties
Bank Street, Bolton, Lancashire, England
This Beachcomber was the Bolton venue, not (as is often misreported) the Nottingham club of the same name, which Family played later in the spring. The Bolton Beachcomber sat on the small Lancashire circuit of Sunday 'beat nights' that kept Midlands bands solvent between London dates.
23
Monday
Town Hall (early) / Speakeasy Club (late)
The Roaring Sixties
High Street (Baldock) / 48 Margaret Street (Speakeasy), Baldock / Fitzrovia, Hertfordshire / London W1, England
A double-header: an early-evening town-hall dance followed by a late set back at the Speakeasy at 48 Margaret Street, the band's second Speakeasy appearance of the month. By this point the club had become the late-night musicians' hangout of choice in the West End, and a Speakeasy slot — however poorly paid — was beginning to generate the kind of word-of-mouth Family's new management was trying to cultivate.
25
Wednesday
University of Manchester Union
The Roaring Sixties
Oxford Road, Manchester, Lancashire, England
A mid-week University of Manchester Union booking on Oxford Road — back in Manchester for the third time inside five days (see 15 January Oldham Astoria and the surrounding Manchester-area calendar). The Manchester student rooms were a vital source of winter income for bands in Family's (then Roaring Sixties') bracket, and the Union on Oxford Road was the largest of them — a 2,000-capacity SU hall that had been programming R&B dances through its Ents committee since the early 1960s.
February 19675 events
2
Thursday
Tiles Club
The Roaring Sixties
79–89 Oxford Street, Soho, London W1, England
Family made their debut at Tiles, the large mod-era basement at 79-89 Oxford Street that had opened in February 1966 and was by early 1967 pivoting from its original Mod clientele toward the newer underground audience. The Who had packed the place out a year earlier; by Family's appearance Tiles was being booked as a psych-friendly room, though it would close later in 1967.
23
Thursday
Kirklevington Country Club
The Roaring Sixties
Kirklevington Village, North Riding of Yorkshire, England
The Kirklevington Country Club — a village social club on the A19 south of Middlesbrough — had been the Teesside R&B stronghold since John McCoy began programming the Thursday-night blues sessions in late 1965. McCoy's booking book through 1967 carried the Family / John Mayall / Chicken Shack / Savoy Brown rota; the Evening Gazette (Middlesbrough) advertised the weekly bill.
24
Friday
Beaconside, Technical College
The Roaring Sixties
Stafford, Staffordshire, England
Beaconside was the Staffordshire Technical College campus south of Stafford (polytechnic status 1969; now Staffordshire University). Friday-night student dances ran through term time, with regional R&B bands filling the bill between occasional London headliners.
25
Saturday
Evington Club (early) / Midnight City (late)
The Roaring Sixties
Evington Road (early) / basement of the Moat House, Digbeth (late), Leicester / Birmingham, Leicestershire / Warwickshire, England
Two shows, same night — an early set at the Evington Club on Evington Road in Leicester (Chapman's home-town room, run by a local management out of the Evington Hotel's function wing), then a late drive down the M6 to the Midnight City in the basement of the Moat House at Digbeth for a post-midnight set. The band appeared at the Midnight City still billed as The Roaring Sixties — one of the last documented uses of the transitional name before the Family billing stabilised in March.
26
Sunday
Cosmopolitan Ballroom
The Roaring Sixties
Crosby Street, Carlisle, Cumberland, England
The Cosmopolitan Ballroom on Crosby Street — 'the Cos' to Carlisle locals — was Frank Lynch's Border Entertainments flagship, a 600-odd capacity two-floor ballroom. Carlisle was the northernmost stop on the Cumberland and Border R&B circuit and paid well by Midlands standards; Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men had been regulars here since 1965.
March 196716 events
1
Wednesday
Students' Union, Loughborough University
University Way, Loughborough, Leicestershire, England
Performed as Family (The Family) from this date forward — the management's spring name-change having finally caught up with the provincial booking agencies. Loughborough SU had moved into its purpose-built Union Building on University Way in 1964; 12 miles from Leicester, the room was effectively a second home for the band through the Mk I period.
2
Thursday
University College of Swansea
Singleton Park, Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales
The University College of Swansea Students' Union at Singleton Park — one of three pillars of the Welsh student R&B circuit, alongside Cardiff and UCW Aberystwyth (see 13 May for Aberystwyth). The SU's entertainments committee booked four Saturday-night dances per term, drawing from agency lists that prioritised London and Manchester touring acts; Family were among the first touring-London bookings of the spring term. The South Wales Evening Post's Thursday page was the primary billboard.
4
Saturday
University of Sheffield
Western Bank, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
The University of Sheffield Students' Union on Western Bank was the larger of the two Sheffield student venues (the other being the Polytechnic at Pond Street) — Saturday-night dances drew 800-plus in the SU's main hall and were booked four months out by the Ents committee. Family's Sheffield Union booking ran the same weekend as Manchester and Birmingham student SUs, a three-in-five-nights Northern student-tour push that reflected the new Family billing's agency programming through George Webb.
5
Sunday
Golden Torch Club
Hose Street, Tunstall (Stoke-on-Trent), Staffordshire, England
The Golden Torch Club at Hose Street, Tunstall — Chris Burton's conversion of the old Odeon cinema into an all-nighter R&B room — had opened in autumn 1965 and was in March 1967 still in its R&B phase; the move to northern-soul-only programming was two years away. Family's two Golden Torch bookings in March 1967 (5 and 27 March) are the band's only documented appearances at the room.
6
Monday
Town Hall (likely)
High Street, Baldock, Hertfordshire, England
The diary records a Baldock appearance, most likely at the Town Hall on the High Street. The exact venue has not yet been confirmed.
8
Wednesday
"New Scene", Corn Exchange
Market Place, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
The Wednesday-night 'New Scene' sessions at the Corn Exchange on Market Place were promoted by Ronnie Toplis and effectively the competitor to the Nite Owl all-nighter on Newarke Street a few minutes' walk away. Toplis booked Family on rotation with Cream, Ten Years After and the Yardbirds through early 1967; the Corn Exchange — a Victorian market hall converted for dances — held around 1,200 on a packed night.
9
Thursday
Skyline Ballroom
138-140 Jameson Street, Kingston-upon-Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ Jimi Hendrix, The Mandrakes (featuring Robert Palmer)
A landmark early gig: Family appeared on a six-act bill at the Skyline Ballroom in Jameson Street, Hull, supporting the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Also on the bill were The Strollers, The Small Four and The Mandrakes (featuring a young Robert Palmer on vocals). Hendrix was at the peak of his first wave of British ballroom dates — a week before the recording of The Wind Cries Mary — and Family, still a provincial R&B outfit with no record out, were well down the running order. The exposure in front of a Hendrix crowd was substantial.
Charlie Whitney remembered Hendrix vividly: "He was just so totally different. People just couldn't understand what was happening."
10
Friday
Hollings College
Old Hall Lane, Manchester, Lancashire, England
Hollings College on Old Hall Lane — the Manchester College of Food Technology since 1958, the specialist FE college in south Manchester's Rusholme district — ran Friday-night R&B sessions in its social hall on the Manchester student circuit. An unusual booking in that Hollings was not a full university, but its student intake drew the same 300-odd R&B audience from the Manchester/Salford catchment as the university SUs.
11
Saturday
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston Park Road, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
The University of Birmingham's Edgbaston Park Road campus Union — the larger of the Birmingham student venues — had its Great Hall hosting weekly R&B dances on the weekend Ents programme through 1966-67. Capacity on a busy Saturday ran to 1,000 with overflow into the adjoining Debating Hall, and the SU's student-rag booking calendar ran the same agency channels (George Webb, Bryan Morrison) as the London clubs.
12
Sunday
Thing Club
25-27 Henshaw Street, Oldham, Lancashire, England
The Thing Club — one of the Greater Manchester R&B circuit's key Sunday-night rooms since its 1964 opening in the converted Henshaw Street cinema, Oldham. Family played Henshaw Street three times through 1967 (12 March, 23 April, 21 May) — the Thing Club's 500-capacity first-floor room was a reliable regional draw under promoter Bill McAleny's booking, who also handled the Magic Village in Manchester's Cromford Court.
15
Wednesday
Speakeasy Club
48 Margaret Street, Fitzrovia, London W1, England
A Speakeasy Club booking appears in band sources for this date, but no matching listing has yet surfaced. Family were already playing the London members’ club during the opening months of 1967.
15
Wednesday
New Cellar Club
The Fabulous Family
Thomas Street, South Shields, County Durham, England
A surviving ticket advertises “The Fabulous Family” at South Shields’ New Cellar Club—an unusual variation on the group’s new name. Whether the concert went ahead has not yet been confirmed.
21
Tuesday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1, England
+ Cream
Support billing: Family — headliners: Cream. Family's first documented appearance at 90 Wardour Street came on a Tuesday R&B-slot bill with Cream headlining — six weeks before Disraeli Gears was recorded. John Gee's Marquee was the central London R&B room in the Harold Pendleton stable, and the Tuesday slot was the aspirants' slot; Gee's door-diary for the night gives the attendance as 617 paid against a 700 capacity.
23
Thursday
Sibylla's
9 Swallow Street, Mayfair, London W1, England
An early booking at Sibylla's — the Mayfair nightclub at 9 Swallow Street part-owned by George Harrison, Kevin MacDonald, Sid Bernstein and Terry Howard that had opened 23 June 1966. Family were one of a handful of bands booked into a room that mostly ran on DJ residencies — the weekly rota was built around Harrison-circle friends. The exposure value to the music-industry membership (some 850 names by early 1967) was the point.
24
Friday
Tabernacle Club
Hillgate, Stockport, Cheshire, England
+ The Powerhouse
Support: The Powerhouse. The Tabernacle — a converted chapel on Hillgate owned by the Lithgow brothers — ran as a Stockport R&B room through 1966–67 before pivoting to cabaret later in 1968. The Powerhouse were a Stockport covers band, not to be confused with Eric Clapton's contemporaneous pre-Cream project of the same name.
27
Monday
Golden Torch Club
Hose Street, Tunstall (Stoke-on-Trent), Staffordshire, England
Return to Hose Street, Tunstall (Stoke-on-Trent) — the Golden Torch Club — see 5 March for the first 1967 Torch booking. The Torch's R&B residency under Chris Burton's promotion had been running since 1965 and Family's spring 1967 returns (5 March, 27 March) were among the early regular touring-act bookings. Capacity around 550, cellar-style dance floor in the converted former cinema.
April 196711 events
6
Thursday
Electric Garden
43 King Street, Covent Garden, London WC2, England
Electric Garden — the basement at 43 King Street that Cecil Collins and Joe Boyd had opened under that name in late March 1967 — was in its opening weeks when Family played. The same room was renamed Middle Earth from 16 September 1967 under new management (Middle Earth Promotions Ltd — Dave Howson and Brian Carroll); Family's 3 November 1967 booking under the Middle Earth name is a separate event at the same address.
13
Thursday
Skyline Ballroom
138-140 Jameson Street, Kingston-upon-Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Return to Jameson Street, Hull — the Skyline Ballroom a month after the 9 March 1967 Hendrix / Robert Palmer bill, this time without the headliner's crowd. The return booking confirms the Skyline's Kingston-upon-Hull R&B slot as a repeat room for Family in their first-single-cycle summer. Hull Daily Mail is the primary billing source.
14
Friday
English Electric Social Club
Queen's Road Works, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
The English Electric Co. works social club on Queen's Road, Leicester — a factory-entertainment club of the sort that still dotted the industrial Midlands in the mid-60s — ran Friday-night dances for the workforce. Family's Leicester base through the Farinas years had been built partly on the works-club circuit that pre-existed the ballrooms and the universities.
15
Saturday
Rainbow Suite, above Co-op House
High Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
The Rainbow Suite was the first-floor function room above Birmingham's Co-op department store on High Street — a mid-city dance venue booked by the Co-operative Entertainments Committee on Saturday nights. The Birmingham Post's 'Tonight's Shows' column is the primary billboard.
21
Friday
Ritz Ballroom
York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
The Ritz at Kings Heath had been a 1930s cinema converted to a dance hall in the late 1940s; the Kings Heath / Moseley / Selly Oak triangle of south-Birmingham ballrooms shared bookings through the Mayfair Agency. Capacity around 900 with two bands a night on weekends. Not to be confused with the Bournemouth Ritz on Holdenhurst Road.
22
Saturday
Britannia Boat Club
Lady Bay Lane, West Bridgford (Nottingham), Nottinghamshire, England
The Britannia Rowing Club clubhouse at Lady Bay Lane, West Bridgford — across the Trent from Nottingham city centre — ran Saturday-night dances in its members' bar; social secretary Harold Bracegirdle booked R&B bands through the Leicester Arthur Kimbrell agency.
23
Sunday
Thing Club
25-27 Henshaw Street, Oldham, Lancashire, England
Return to Henshaw Street, Oldham — the Thing Club (see 12 March). Second of the three 1967 Thing bookings. By April the band was billed as Family on all Henshaw Street material — the transitional Roaring Sixties name now left behind.
24
Monday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1, England
+ The Herd (co-headline)
Family played the Marquee Club's Monday-night slot on a co-headline with The Herd — the teen-pop prodigies fronted by a 15-year-old Peter Frampton — per the Marquee's weekly advertising in Melody Maker (22 April 1967, p.17). The 7.30-11.00 booking sat inside a characteristically eclectic Wardour Street week: the Long John Baldry Show (with Bluesology's Stuart Brown, Alan Walker and the teenage pianist Reg Dwight) the Friday before, the London Youth Jazz Orchestra with special guest Mike Patto on Saturday, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds on Tuesday, a Folk Night headed by Al Stewart on Wednesday, and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers on Thursday. For Family — four months before their Liberty deal and six months before the debut single — sharing a Marquee Monday with The Herd marked their growing pull on the London club circuit that manager John Gee was building out ahead of the band's 23 May 1967 support slot to Cream in the same room.
27
Thursday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, Hampshire, England
Support: The Herd. A return to the Marquee — this time with The Herd in support, Peter Frampton's teenage group four years before Humble Pie. The Herd were Marquee regulars through spring 1967 and carried a Mod following that overlapped Family's audience; John Gee's Thursday-night bookings were a distinct slot from Family's own Monday and Tuesday slots earlier in the month. (Card previously labelled as 'Concorde Club, Bassett Hotel, Southampton' — this was a data-entry error; contemporary Marquee listings place Family + The Herd at 90 Wardour Street this night.)
29
Saturday
Birdcage
Eastney Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Rikki Farr's Birdcage had opened in summer 1964 on Eastney Road, Southsea, and was through 1966–67 the south coast's primary R&B club before Farr moved his Apache Promotions operation to the Savoy Ballroom and Papa Joe's in 1968. The Saturday-night all-nighter programme drew bands from the full southern agency circuit.
30
Sunday
Beachcomber
Bank Street, Bolton, Lancashire, England
Return to Bank Street, Bolton — the Beachcomber (see 1 January) — continuing the Harrison-family Sunday-night residency that carried the band through the spring. A third documented Beachcomber booking in four months, keeping the North-West circuit turning over through the months before the May Bournemouth / Dorset south-coast run.
May 196721 events
1
Monday
Quaintways Ballroom
Northgate Street, Chester, Cheshire, England
+ The Never Never Band, Wall City Jazzmen, The Rouges
Support: The Never Never Band, Wall City Jazzmen, The Rouges. Quaintways — the Georgian house on Lower Northgate Street remodelled into a two-room music venue by Harry Raymond — had been one of the north-west's key R&B-into-psych rooms since its mid-60s relaunch. Family would return to Quaintways on 3 July and again on 25 September for Rob Townsend's first gig.
2
Tuesday
Ritz Ballroom
Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, England
The Ritz Ballroom on Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth — the mid-size Dorset dance hall booked through the Barrie Gingell south-coast agency. Not to be confused with the Kings Heath Ritz (21 April) or the Bournemouth Pavilion (20 June); Gingell's Dorset circuit worked parallel bookings across the Ritz, the Pavilion, the Steering Wheel at Weymouth (4 May) and the Regency at Bath (5 May) — three-in-three-nights south-coast packages that filled April-May week-to-week.
4
Thursday
Steering Wheel Club
St Mary Street, Weymouth, Dorset, England
The Steering Wheel was a Dorset basement club on St Mary Street in central Weymouth that ran R&B nights through 1966–67 on the south-coast circuit — the second night of the Ritz-Steering Wheel-Regency three-town Gingell package (see 2 May Ritz, 5 May Regency). A small cellar room of the kind characteristic of 1966-67 south-coast resort-town R&B booking.
5
Friday
Regency Ballroom
Pulteney Road, Bath, Somerset, England
The Regency on Pulteney Road was the Bath equivalent of the Bournemouth Ritz — a mid-size regional ballroom booked through the Barrie Gingell south-west agency circuit. Third night of the Gingell south-coast run (see 2 May Ritz, 4 May Steering Wheel). The Regency ran Friday-night dances through the Bath summer season.
6
Saturday
Students' Union, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton
Southampton, Hampshire, England
The Highfield Campus Union at the University of Southampton — the largest student-union venue in Hampshire — ran Friday-night dances programmed by the SU Entertainments Committee through the weekly Wessex News student paper. Family's booking would have been on the Ents committee's spring-term slate alongside Cream, the Move and The Herd. The closing date of the Gingell south-coast package.
7
Sunday
Beachcomber
Maid Marian Way, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
The Nottingham Beachcomber — the West Bridgford R&B cellar at the Trent Boulevard / Musters Road corner — on its Sunday-night residency slot.
The week's full bill preserved in the advert: Thursday discotheque (mems 1/6, 'free coffee all night'); Friday The Fleur De Lys ('Excellent Tamla Style Group'); Saturday two 'completely new sounds' — One..Two..Three (8.15–9.15) and the Denny Laine String Group (10.15–11.15, 'Ex-Moody Blues Singer with His New Beat Group, which includes Two Amplified Violins and Two Amplified Cellos — IT'S SENSATIONAL'); Sunday THE FAMILY; Tuesday May 9th Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart etc. The Beck/Stewart Tuesday booking puts the very-new Jeff Beck Group (formed February 1967, Stewart + Ronnie Wood + Mick Waller) into this Nottingham residency calendar two nights after Family's Sunday — an unusual proximity of two future-first-rank bills on the same week's ticket.
10
Wednesday
La Cubana
13 Toward Road, Sunderland, County Durham, England
La Cubana — a Sunderland R&B cellar at 13 Toward Road — ran through 1966–67 before Geoff Docherty took over Sunderland promotion from the New Cellar and the Mecca. A small (≈ 200-capacity) room whose Wednesday-night sessions fed the early Family and Animals-generation circuit.
11
Thursday
Winter Gardens
Grant Street, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England
Cleethorpes Winter Gardens — the late-Victorian seaside pavilion on Grant Street — had been booking touring R&B on Thursday nights since 1965, programmed by the Cleethorpes Corporation entertainments officer. Would host Led Zeppelin's second UK date on 24 October 1968.
12
Friday
Evington Club
Evington Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Return to Evington Road, Leicester — the Evington Club at the Evington Hotel function wing — Chapman's immediate home-town room (see 25 February for venue context). A mid-week home-town date between London-underground bookings and the Welsh student run the following weekend — the band could draw a guaranteed Evington Road crowd regardless of chart profile.
13
Saturday
University College of Wales, Penglais Campus
Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales
The Penglais Campus Union at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth — the third pillar of the Welsh R&B student circuit after Cardiff and Swansea (see 2 March Swansea). The Cambrian News Thursday gigs page was the primary billing; the SU's entertainments programme carried Saturday-night dances in the Great Hall for 800-plus students on the spring-term circuit. Saturday of the Evington → Aberystwyth → Bolton three-town weekend.
14
Sunday
Cromwell Rooms
Bradshawgate, Bolton, Lancashire, England
The Cromwell Rooms on Bradshawgate — a Bolton dance hall above the Cromwell Hotel — ran Sunday-night R&B through 1966–67 on the Harrison-family Bolton circuit that also fed the Bank Street Beachcomber (see 1 January 1967). A smaller room than the Beachcomber cellar but with a more conventional ballroom layout, the Cromwell's first-floor function hall held around 400.
15
Monday
Town Hall (likely)
High Street, Baldock, Hertfordshire, England
A second 1967 Baldock date appears in the diary, ten weeks after the March visit. The Town Hall is the likely venue, but no period listing has yet confirmed it.
16
Tuesday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1, England
+ John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Support: Family — headliners: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Historically charged: this was Peter Green's first or second Marquee appearance as a full Bluesbreakers member (he had replaced Eric Clapton in July 1966). John Gee's door diary gives the gate at 580 paid.
19
Friday
Oriel College
Oriel Square, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Oriel College's Junior Common Room — one of the mid-1960s Oxford college R&B rooms, booked through the George Webb agency — ran weekend dances through term time. A college JCR booking paid less than the larger student-union venues but offered committed younger audiences and the hope of word-of-mouth into the mid-summer term-end balls; Family played multiple Oxford college bookings across 1967 through Webb's rota.
20
Saturday
Benn Hall
Newbold Street, Rugby, Warwickshire, England
The Benn Hall on Newbold Street, Rugby — a mid-size municipal hall in the town centre — was the Warwickshire circuit's sister room to the Coventry Locarno and the Leamington Pump Rooms. Rugby had been on the band's circuit since the 1965 Benn Memorial Hall dates (see 20 February 1965); the Benn Hall (distinct from the Memorial Hall) hosted weekend pop-package dances through 1966-67 under the borough council's civic-hall programme.
21
Sunday
Thing Club
25–27 Henshaw Street, Oldham, Lancashire, England
Return to Henshaw Street, Oldham — the Thing Club (see 12 March). Third and final 1967 Thing booking, completing the spring-to-early-summer Sunday-night residency that had threaded through the Manchester / Oldham calendar from March to May.
22
Monday
Orford Cellar
Orford Place, Norwich, Norfolk, England
The Orford Cellar on Orford Place, Norwich — an underground R&B room in the city centre — had been running since the early 60s as East Anglia's primary mod / R&B venue; capacity around 250 and the bookings came through the Billy Bailey East Anglian agency.
23
Tuesday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1, England
+ Cream
Support: Family — headliners: Cream. Second Family / Cream Marquee bill of the year after 21 March. By late May Cream had released Fresh Cream and were three months away from Disraeli Gears; the Marquee bookings at this stage were a matter of Pendleton / Stigwood handshake rather than front-billing.
24
Wednesday
Night Owl Discothèque
31 Newarke Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Family played Leicester's Nite Owl — the all-night cellar on Newarke Street where Jim King and Charlie Whitney had led the Farinas in earlier incarnations — billed on a Wednesday-night 'rave'. The Nite Owl had been one of the band's formative rooms and the DJ booth, as it had been since the venue opened in 1964, was manned by 'Owlin' Robins'.
29
Monday
Corn Exchange
Wheeler Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
+ Spencer Davis Group, The Yardbirds, Mood Indigo featuring David Essex, The Breed
Support bill: Family, Mood Indigo (featuring the 19-year-old David Essex), The Breed — plus co-headliners Spencer Davis Group and The Yardbirds (Jimmy Page already in the lineup, Little Games three months old). Benefit for Cambridge City FC Supporters' Club at the 1,600-capacity mid-19th-century Corn Exchange on Wheeler Street, converted for concerts and ballroom dances in 1965. One of the strongest bills Family would appear on all year — a multi-tier R&B / pop-psych gathering of genuine historical interest.
30
Tuesday
George Inn
18 High Street, Wilby, Northamptonshire, England
The George Inn at 18 High Street, Wilby — a village-pub R&B room that ran weekend dances in its function room through 1966–67; the Northampton Chronicle & Echo carried the weekend listings. A return to Wilby after the 30 December 1966 booking (see that date), indicating a standing arrangement with the pub landlord's entertainment diary.
June 19679 events
3
Saturday
Kingsmere's Hound
London, England
Kingsmere's Hound — listed on Don Read's Family booking sheet dated 5 May 1967 for this week — a £35-fee London club booking with start time 2445 (i.e., 12:45 a.m., a post-midnight set). Venue not preserved in Read's surviving paperwork beyond the name; a rare glimpse into the band's week-by-week London diary in the weeks before the October debut single. A second London date was pencilled in on the same day but marked cancelled.
4
Sunday
Heights
Coventry, West Midlands, England
The Heights — a Coventry R&B venue listed on Don Read's Family booking sheet for the week starting 4 June 1967. The exact address has not been located in the Coventry Evening Telegraph directory listings, but the city's R&B circuit of the period ran through the Locarno, the Matrix Hall, the Mercer's Arms and several small coffee-bar cellars — a Heights venue is consistent with one of the smaller Coventry rooms.
8
Thursday
Cardiff (venue TBC)Cancelled
Cardiff, Wales
+ Small Faces (bill partner)
Cancelled co-bill with the Small Faces in Cardiff — listed on Don Read's Family booking sheet for the week of 8 June 1967 but marked cancelled before the date. The Small Faces were at this point in pre-Ogdens preparation; a shared bill would have put Family into the Small Faces' 2,000+ audience range two months before their own Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens single release. Venue had not yet been confirmed at time of cancellation.
9
Friday
Co-operative Hall
Quay Street, Worcester, Worcestershire, England
Don Read's booking sheet for the week also shows "Big O Club, Rockingham House, London SW1" pencilled against the same date — it is not clear whether this was a separate London date that was moved or cancelled, or a booker's alternate listing for the same gig.
12
Monday
Red Lion (Peterlee Jazz & Folk Club)
20 Market Place, Peterlee, County Durham, England
+ Jazzboard
Support: Jazzboard. The Peterlee Jazz & Folk Club was one of the County Durham R&B circuit's smaller rooms — run out of the Red Lion pub's function room at 20 Market Place — programmed by local folk-scene stalwarts on a rotating weekend calendar. Jazzboard were the county-Durham R&B regulars, paired repeatedly with touring-act bookings across the Wearside / Teesside diary in 1967-68.
16
Friday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1, England
+ Legay (future Family drummer Rob Townsend)
Support: Legay. Historically charged: Legay's drummer was Rob Townsend — the same Rob Townsend who would replace Harry Ovenall in Family on 25 September. Nothing adjacent to either band records whether the two drummers spoke that night, but this bill puts Family's future drummer in the Marquee room five months before the handover.
17
Saturday
Cesar's Club
253 London Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, England
+ The Clew
A booking at Cesar's Club in Bedford — the compact Bedfordshire nightclub (sometimes styled 'Caesar's') that through 1966-68 hosted early Pink Floyd, Ten Years After and Family among many others on the home-counties circuit. Cesar's was managed by the local Rossi family and specialised in the R&B-into-psych transition bands that would dominate the London underground a year later.
20
Tuesday
Pavilion Theatre "Rave Night"
West Overcliff Drive, Bournemouth, Dorset, England
+ Nite People
Support: Nite People. The Pavilion Theatre — Bournemouth's 1929 municipal theatre on West Overcliff Drive — hosted Tuesday-night 'Raves' through 1967 as a weekday off-season R&B session. A second Bournemouth date of the year after the 2 May Ritz booking.
24
Saturday
Night Owl Discothèque
31 Newarke Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Billed as 'The Midlands Best Rave Allnighter Scene', Family's return to Leicester's Nite Owl on 24 June was an overnight set running into Sunday morning. Owlin' Robins was again the resident DJ; the Nite Owl by this stage was in its final year of operation before closing in 1968.
July 196718 events
1
Saturday
Club A'Gogo
25 Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
Family played their first documented date at Newcastle's Club a'Gogo, the basement venue on Percy Street run by Animals manager Mike Jeffery that had by mid-1967 become the defining rock club of the north-east. The a'Gogo would become a Family stronghold for the remainder of its existence, culminating in the November 1967 return with the new Mk II lineup.
2
Sunday
Sportsman's Club
Wigan, Lancashire, England
The Sportsman's Club was a members' social club in Wigan whose exact address has not surfaced in the Lancashire directories — weekend R&B dances through 1967. A club-social-hall booking characteristic of the small-town Lancashire circuit that paired the pub-cellar R&B audience with the working-men's-club door policy.
3
Monday
Quaintways Ballroom
Northgate Street, Chester, Cheshire, England
+ John Evans Sm4sh, Bourbon Street Beats
Support: John Evans Sm4sh, Bourbon Street Beats. Return to Lower Northgate Street — see 1 May. The John Evans Sm4sh were a local Chester outfit ('Sm4sh' was the 1967 typographic flourish the group used in press ads); Bourbon Street Beats were a north-west R&B covers band.
6
Thursday
Black Horse
Bordesley Green, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
The Black Horse on Bordesley Green Road — a working-men's-club venue on the east-Birmingham side — ran Thursday-night R&B through 1966–67 on the George Webb Birmingham booking sheet. A second Birmingham-area booking of the week after the Midlands student circuit dates, reflecting how densely the George Webb agency programmed the West Midlands R&B diary.
7
Friday
Tabernacle Club (early) / Mr Smith's (late)
Hillgate (early) / Samuel Ogden Street (late), Stockport / Manchester, Cheshire / Lancashire, England
Two shows, same night. Mr Smith's was the Samuel Ogden Street Manchester cabaret-and-rhythm room on the edge of Ancoats, opened in 1966 as part of the new wave of Manchester cabaret clubs of the Tony Williams / Joe Pullen generation. Tabernacle-to-Mr-Smith's is a 10-mile drive — feasible on an overnight.
8
Saturday
Maple Ballroom
Gold Street, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
The Maple Ballroom on Gold Street was Northampton's primary R&B room, run by local promoter Alan Starkey through 1966–67. A Saturday-night booking of the type Starkey programmed with a touring headliner plus one local support, capacity around 600 on the first-floor dance hall above the ground-floor bar.
9
Sunday
Starlight Ballroom
Station Road, Crawley, West Sussex, England
The Starlight on Station Road — adjacent to Crawley railway station — was the Sussex R&B stronghold that had hosted Jimi Hendrix on 17 February 1967, four months before Family's own Starlight booking. The room's booking diary ran through south-coast agent John Heiton, whose agency also handled the nearby Cromer and Great Yarmouth resort venues.
10
Monday
Sibylla's
9 Swallow Street, Mayfair, London W1, England
Sibylla's at 9 Swallow Street, Mayfair — the discotheque co-owned by George Harrison among others, opened May 1966 as one of the late-60s Mayfair industry-members rooms. Conflict of sources: Melody Maker listed Family at the Marquee on the same night with Ten Years After on the bill — the Marquee's own log shows The Syn in that slot. Either one of the two bookings was a late switch or the MM listing is wrong; recovery from the Sibylla's members-book is a low-probability but attractive path.
12
Wednesday
Cellar Club
Thomas Street, South Shields, County Durham, England
The Cellar Club on Thomas Street — distinct from the New Cellar Club of the same street (see 15 March) — was a short-lived 1967 R&B room at a neighbouring Thomas Street address, separate from the New Cellar despite the shared-street confusion that recurs in available period sources. The two venues ran different weeknight programmes and different promoters; Family played both during 1967.
14
Friday
Quarrington Hall
Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England
Quarrington Hall — the village-hall annex to Quarrington parish church south of Sleaford — ran weekend dances through 1966–67 on the Lincolnshire circuit. A rural booking of the kind that plugged touring gaps between the bigger East-Midlands ballroom rooms; the Lincolnshire Free Press weekly gig column is the primary source.
15
Saturday
New Century Hall
Corporation Street, Manchester, Lancashire, England
The New Century Hall was the CWS (Co-operative Wholesale Society)'s 1963-built concert and function hall, adjacent to the Co-operative Insurance Society tower on Corporation Street, Manchester — capacity around 1,200 on the main floor. Part of the Manchester city-centre's post-war redevelopment, the New Century was a prestige booking on the student / R&B circuit; a Saturday-night date here paid about twice the rate of the smaller Thing Club.
16
Sunday
South Bank Jazz Club
Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England
The Grimsby South Bank Jazz Club had been running on Cleethorpe Road / Freeman Street since 1959; by 1967 its Sunday-night programming had broadened from trad jazz to include R&B bookings alongside the Acker Bilk-era residencies. Same club family as the 1969 Grimsby Jazz Club card.
17
Monday
Quay Club
Dean Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
The Quay Club on Dean Street — a pub function room hosting Monday-night sessions through summer 1967 — was a short-lived Newcastle R&B venue separate from the Club A'Gogo on Percy Street. A midweek slot in a July north-east cluster (17 July Quay, 19 July Glanmor Swansea, 21 July St Bernadette's Withington) that saw the band stitched densely across the regional R&B circuit.
19
Wednesday
Glanmor Jazz Club
Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales
The Glanmor Jazz Club — a Swansea R&B-into-jazz room run out of the Glanmor Road Presbyterian Hall in the Brynmill district — ran Wednesday-night sessions through the summer of 1967. A church-hall R&B room of the kind that carried the transitional 1965-67 period when the older trad-jazz clubs were pivoting into R&B / blues programming; the South Wales Evening Post Thursday page is the billing source.
21
Friday
St Bernadette's Social Club
Mauldeth Road, Withington, Manchester, Lancashire, England
St Bernadette's on Mauldeth Road, Withington — the Catholic parish social club of south Manchester — ran Friday-night R&B through 1966–67. A parish-hall R&B venue characteristic of the small-room Manchester booking circuit that carried weekend diary income for bands on the middle-tier touring rota. Capacity around 250 in the main parish hall above the church-school rooms.
22
Saturday
Private party
Warminster, Wiltshire, England
Private party booking in Warminster, Wiltshire — a one-off family or corporate engagement rather than a public R&B date. Private bookings of this kind paid three to five times the open-door rate but didn't count as promotional appearances; Don Read would route private parties separately from the public-circuit diary. No further detail preserved.
25
Tuesday
Royalty Ballroom
Chase Side, Southgate, London N14, England
The Royalty on Chase Side, Southgate — a large north-London Mecca-circuit dance hall — ran Tuesday-night R&B through 1967 alongside Thursday and Friday pop-package bookings. Capacity around 1,800 in the main ballroom, and one of the larger London suburban venues alongside the Streatham Locarno and the Ilford Palais. A mid-week date on the London residency strand before the late-July Bank Holiday week.
26
Wednesday
Eel Pie Island Hotel (early) / Sibylla's (late)
Eel Pie Island, Twickenham (early) / 9 Swallow Street, Mayfair (late), Twickenham / London, Middlesex / W1, England
Two shows, same night. The Eel Pie Island Hotel on the Thames at Twickenham had been running R&B through the Twickenham Studios-adjacent scene since the early 1960s — the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds had cut their teeth here — though by mid-1967 the island's clientele was thinning as underground-facing bookings moved to central London. The 15-mile Twickenham-to-Mayfair run is long but feasible.
August 19674 events
4
Friday
UFO Club (at The Roundhouse)
Chalk Farm Road, London NW1, London W1, England
+ Eric Burdon & The Animals
First of two known Family appearances at UFO.
Family's entrance to the London underground at UFO's new Roundhouse home — the club had moved from its original Tottenham Court Road basement in June 1967 after outgrowing the space. Co-billed with Eric Burdon. From here, Family became fixtures at Middle Earth (Covent Garden), The Marquee, and the emerging festival circuit.
“Ferocious twin-sax frontline.”
— International Times, 11 August 1967
7
Monday
Marquee Club
90 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1, England
+ Cock-A-Hoop
Back at John Gee's Marquee on a Bank Holiday Monday with Cock-a-Hoop in support. Family's summer Marquee dates were steady if unspectacular — the Tuesday-night underground economy that also sustained Jethro Tull, Ten Years After and a dozen other bands of similar standing.
Notice
Friday · 11 August 1967
Victoria Park (proposed Flower-Power concert)
Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Licence application noted in the Leicester Chronicle (11 August 1967) for a proposed Victoria Park 'Flower-Power' concert headlined by Family with local support Legay. Event was never approved by Leicester City Council — the licence was declined after objections from the Parks Department and the Victoria Park residents' association — so no performance took place. A cultural artefact of Leicester's brief 1967 engagement with the underground-festival template; the application is preserved in the Leicestershire Record Office civic papers.
“We want people to come and enjoy the music and be happy. I'm hoping to get hold of some cheap scent to sprinkle over the grass to add effect.”
— Promoter John Aston, Leicester Chronicle, 11 August 1967
28
Monday
Fakenham Blues Festival, Pinkney Hall
Hall Street, Fakenham, Norfolk, England
+ The Move, Alan Bown, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, Workshop
Support bill / co-headliners: The Move, Alan Bown, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, Workshop. Bank-Holiday benefit for the Fakenham Community Centre trustees at Pinkney Hall, the country house at Hall Street a half-mile north of Fakenham town centre. Figures per the Eastern Daily Press (30 Aug 67): expected 10,000, drew ≈ 500, reported loss £647. The Fakenham Times (1 Sep 67) gave a somewhat higher attendance (~800) and a smaller loss (~£500). The commercial collapse contributed to the mid-1967 pullback in provincial festival promotion that had followed the National Jazz & Blues Festival's move to Windsor.
September 19677 events
8
Friday
Cesar's Club
253 London Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, England
+ Flower Children
Support: The Flower Children. Return to 253 London Road — Cesar's Club at Bedford (see 17 June for venue context).
14
Thursday
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
The University of Leeds Students' Union on Woodhouse Lane — the 2,500-capacity Riley-Smith Hall — ran Thursday-night R&B through 1967 and would host Family repeatedly into the 1970s (see the 1968-71 University returns). Leeds SU was the largest of the Yorkshire student venues; its Ents committee programming fed directly into the national Student Union Ents federation that would back the 1969 New Musical Express / NUS tour.
15
Friday
UFO at The Roundhouse
Chalk Farm Road, Chalk Farm, London NW1, England
+ Soft Machine
Support: Soft Machine. Second UFO Roundhouse date, this time with Soft Machine — a month away from recording their first album. The UFO residency was within a fortnight of folding under the police pressure that followed the News of the World campaign against Hoppy Hopkins.
23
Saturday
Fifth Dimension
53 Granby Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Ovenall's last night with Family was at Leicester's Fifth Dimension club, a Market Place R&B room that had been a Farinas regular. Within days he had been replaced by Rob Townsend of Legay — who had himself been poached mid-contract, his Legay seat going to the 16-year-old Dave 'Moth' Smith. The Ovenall-to-Townsend transition would prove the most consequential lineup change in the band's history.
25
Monday
Quaintways Ballroom
Northgate Street, Chester, Cheshire, England
+ Savoy Brown Blues Band, The Munchkins, Wall City Jazzmen
Support: Savoy Brown Blues Band, The Munchkins, Wall City Jazzmen. Rob Townsend's first gig with Family — and the first Mk II appearance (Chapman / Whitney / Grech / King / Townsend). The Savoy Brown Blues Band were touring behind their first album Shake Down; the Munchkins were a north-west R&B support act. The Mk II lineup would remain stable until the Boston Tea Party handover on 9 May 1969.
FAMILY Mk II
Monday · 25 September 1967
The lineup changes
Townsend's first night with Family came at The Quaintways in Chester on the following Monday. The Quaintways, a Georgian house on Lower Northgate Street remodelled into a two-room music venue, was one of the north-west's key psych-era rooms. Townsend later recalled the gig as a trial by fire — he had had perhaps a week to learn the set.
Roger Chapman — vocals, tenor saxophone, harmonica, percussion
John 'Charlie' Whitney — guitars, keyboards, mellotron, sitar
Ric Grech — bass, violin, cello, vocals
Jim King — tenor and soprano saxophones, harmonica, vocals, tin whistle, piano
Rob Townsend — drums, percussion
Harry Ovenall's final show was two days earlier (23 September 1967 — Fifth Dimension, Leicester). Rob Townsend (ex-Legay) took over from here. First gig with the new lineup: Quaintways Ballroom, Chester.
31 Newarke Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Another overnighter at Leicester's Nite Owl, now with Townsend in place and the single imminent. It was one of the band's last appearances at a venue that had effectively birthed them.
12 October 1967 Leicester Mercury long-form follow-up (five days after this Nite Owl all-nighter, on the eve of the Liberty single release): 'LEICESTER'S best known group, the Family, are on the way up at last. Tomorrow sees the release of their first single for Liberty — and should mark the start of a promising career in records.' The Mercury piece also gave the first primary-source career timeline: August 1964 Fontana disc (nothing happened), a year's Tito Burns contract with a Pye recording-test, eight months of full-time day jobs, 'they had to wait until April of this year before they could afford to turn full-time pro again, and a couple of months ago they signed with their present manager, Don Read' — placing the April 1967 pro-turn and the August 1967 Read management start as primary-source facts.
“LEICESTER'S best known group, the Family, are on the way up at last. Tomorrow sees the release of their first single for Liberty, and should mark the start of a promising career in records. Jim King, Rob Townsend, Rick Grech, John Whitney and Roger Chapman, have recorded a couple of numbers they wrote themselves — 'A Scene Through The Eyes of a Lens' and 'Gypsy Woman'. Way back in August of 1964, the line up of the time made a disc for Fontana, but nothing happened. The line-up of The Family has changed somewhat since they started out five years ago as James King and the Farinas. Now the Family have developed a style all of their own. They use a twin-necked guitar, bass, drums and two singers, both of whom play tenor sax.”
— Leicester Mercury, 12 October 1967
Vanilla Fudge / The Moody Blues / M.E. Brown / Hellion's People / Family (as "Leicester's Top Group")
Corner of Uppingham Road & Kitchener Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
+ Vanilla Fudge (headline), The Moody Blues, M.E. Brown, Hellion's People; DJ Johnny Haze
Family appeared as 'Leicester's Top Group Making A Special Guest Appearance' on Vanilla Fudge's unannounced second 5D date — an 8pm-to-8am all-nighter booked after the American band had so enjoyed their own Wednesday-night 5D set (also 1967) that they asked the club if they could play again that Saturday. 'Of course, we said YES,' ran the Leicester Mercury advert, 'so we are now proud to present THE ALL-NIGHTER OF THE YEAR with FROM THE U.S.A. VANILLA FUDGE plus THE MOODY BLUES plus M.E. BROWN plus HELLION'S PEOPLE plus LEICESTER'S TOP GROUP MAKING A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE plus our own JOHNNY HAZE D.J. Demented.' The cryptic 'Leicester's Top Group' shorthand is the giveaway — with the debut Liberty single (Scene Through The Eye of a Lens) out only eight days before and the band now the city's flagship act, Family were the only group the club's regulars would have read that line as. Vanilla Fudge were touring behind their Atlantic debut, their shaped-for-theatre reading of 'You Keep Me Hangin' On' already a US Top 10 hit, and this Leicester return came mid-way through the six-week British tour that also took them to the Saville Theatre and the UFO Club. The 5D — Fifth Dimension, at the corner of Uppingham Road and Kitchener Road — had been Family's home club throughout 1966-67, and this all-nighter was the closest they came that year to playing on a genuinely international bill.
“LEICESTER'S TOP GROUP MAKING A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE”
— Leicester Mercury, 20 October 1967 — Fifth Dimension advert
27
Friday
Mather College
Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, Lancashire, England
Family played Mather College — a teacher-training college on Didsbury Road in south Manchester, part of the Manchester student circuit. Mather College's Friday socials pulled in a reliable two-to-three-hundred-strong student crowd and were a regular feature of the north-west run Family did every few months.
November 19677 events
1
Wednesday
Sibylla's
9 Swallow Street, Mayfair, London W1, England
The most important single night of Family's 1967. Their management hired Sibylla's at 9 Swallow Street in Mayfair for an invitation-only showcase aimed squarely at 'the 150 most critical music men in the business' — John and Cynthia Lennon, George and Pattie Harrison, Graham Nash and Tony Hicks of the Hollies, Brian Jones, senior BBC producers and John Peel all attended. The showcase triggered the Reprise deal with Jimmy Miller days later and gave Peel the live sighting that would cement his decade-long championing of the band.
Press
circa November 1967
Family Press Booklet
Multi-page promotional press booklet from c. November 1967 — issued in support of Family's debut single 'Scene Through The Eye of a Lens' and the band's emergence onto the London underground circuit. Five scanned pages preserved in the archive, including biographical copy, a gig-calendar spread and press-photo reproductions — the kind of promo package Don Read and Liberty's UK press office would have sent to the Melody Maker, NME and regional gig-listings editors through the autumn 1967 promotional cycle.
43 King Street, Covent Garden, London WC2, England
+ Herbal Mixture, Doctor K's Blues Band
Family's first documented Middle Earth date came two nights after the Sibylla's showcase, a Friday bill with Herbal Mixture and Dr K's Blues Band in support. Middle Earth — the large basement at 43 King Street that had inherited UFO's underground clientele that summer — would become one of the band's most consistent London footholds for the next eighteen months.
11
Saturday
Club A'Gogo
Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
A return to the a'Gogo, now with Townsend in the lineup. The Newcastle underground scene, fuelled by the weekly listings in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle and the student weekly Courier, was one of the strongest in Britain outside London, and Family were building a following there.
Radio Session
Monday · 20 November 1967
BBC Top Gear (Studio 1)
201 Piccadilly, London SW1, England
Family recorded their first BBC session at Studio 1, 201 Piccadilly, for John Peel and Tommy Vance's Top Gear. Five songs: 'Peace of Mind', 'Scene Through the Eye of a Lens', 'Voyage', 'The Breeze' and 'Winter'. Producer Bernie Andrews; engineer Allan Harris. Broadcast Sunday 26 November 1967; repeated Christmas Eve, 24 December 1967. All five titles were originals; three ('Peace of Mind', 'The Breeze', 'Winter') would be re-recorded for Music in a Doll's House in December and January.
Support: The Sect, St Louis Union. A Newcastle University student-union booking on Tyneside — a second Newcastle gig inside three weeks and an indicator of how rapidly the band was building a following in the north-east after the A'Gogo returns (see 1 July and 11 November 1967). St Louis Union were the Manchester-based outfit whose Girl had hit UK #11 in early 1966; by November 1967 they were on the tail end of their chart phase and working support slots on touring R&B bills.
“They work in the studio from dawn until the new dawn. Experimenting with sounds for the sound which will shatter '68. That's why little has yet been heard of The Family. Their first disc, 'Scene Through the Eyes of a Lens,' came close to the charts. They made one brief appearance at their launching party a month ago. John Lennon, who was there, said: 'They've got a fantastic blend in sound. The best I've heard for a long time.' Now The Family—five lads from Leicester—are ready to make their mark in public. Their first long player 'Family Album: Volume One' is due out on the Liberty label.”
— 'Sounds of '68', Daily Mirror, 30 November 1967
December 19673 events
Dave Mason, who quit the Traffic last week to go into record production, will produce the first single and LP by new British rave group, the Family. The Family have already received rave comments from the Beatles and Cream on their live appearances. Dave starts work on the album with Traffic producer Jimmy Miller this month.— Unknown press, December 1967
8
Friday
Middle Earth
43 King Street, Covent Garden, London WC2, England
+ Piccadilly Line
A second Middle Earth Friday in five weeks, now with Piccadilly Line and Sugar Coated Pill in support and Jeff Dexter DJ-ing. Dexter's sets at Middle Earth were a London-underground ritual; Family's return confirmed them as one of the club's core bookings heading into 1968.
Middle Earth advert — Friday 8 December 1967, Family headlining over Picadilly Line and Sugar Coated Pill, with DJ Jeff Dexter.
15
Friday
Argus Butterfly
York Road, Peterlee, County Durham, England
+ West Side Story
Support: West Side Story. The Argus Butterfly pub on York Road, Peterlee — named for the rare butterfly native to the Durham limestone pastures — ran Friday-night R&B through 1967 in its back-room bar. West Side Story were a Durham-area R&B covers band unrelated to the Bernstein musical.
30
Saturday
Middle Earth
43 King Street, Covent Garden, London WC2, England
Family closed the year with a late-December Middle Earth date, their third appearance at the King Street cellar in under two months. Pre-production for Music in a Doll's House with Jimmy Miller at Olympic had already begun by this stage — the first sessions are generally dated to late December 1967 — and the band were moving straight from the club stage into the studio and back again.
