Family began 1973 with the final lineup already established in December: Roger Chapman, Charlie Whitney, Jim Cregan, Tony Ashton and Rob Townsend. “My Friend the Sun” / “Glove” appeared on Reprise on 12 January. The group then moved to Raft, issuing “Boom Bang” in May and recording its seventh studio album at Knowle Hall, Olympic and AIR.
The breakup and farewell plans became public in June. It’s Only a Movie appeared on 7 September, followed by the final UK single “Sweet Desiree” / “Drink to You” on 14 September. The farewell diary closed at Leicester Polytechnic’s Hawthorn Building on 13 October. A separate United Artists “Suspicion” / “It’s Only a Movie” single belongs to the 1974 US discography, not the 1973 UK sequence.
Opening date of the Mk VII British tour at the Stevenage Locarno on Town Square — Mecca's 1961 New Town ballroom. Tony Ashton had been with the band since late November 1972 (see the Mk VII formation milestone) — roughly seven weeks of pre-tour rehearsal in the post-Elton-tour interval, not the four-day rehearsal scramble the NME tour-eve press piece had framed. The five-piece (Chapman / Whitney / Cregan / Ashton / Townsend) was settled and confident going into this opening night.
The tour's only documented venue-side disruption came on 14 January when the London Coliseum cancelled Family's booking — the West End opera house had imposed a blanket ban on rock and pop concerts and Family were the first show the ban affected (the 13 January Leeds University and 16 January Portsmouth Guildhall dates ran as scheduled).
Stevenage Locarno would be returned to twice more in the year — 11 February and again on 11 September during the farewell tour.
13
Saturday
Leeds UniversityCancelled
Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ J.S.D. Band
CANCELLED. First of three consecutive dates struck by Chapman's hospitalisation for an ear-drum operation that proved more serious than anticipated. Melody Maker (13 January 1973, p.6) ran the news-piece 'Chapman ill, Family cancel': "Family have had to cancel the first three dates on their British tour which was due to resume after a break for Christmas at Leeds University on Saturday (13), because an operation Roger Chapman needed was more serious than doctors believed. Chapman went into hospital last week to have an ear drum repaired and instead of a few days convalescence he is now not allowed to sing for at least ten days." An earlier press clipping from 11 January had flagged the issue as concerning Chapman's 'nose and ears' and being 'more serious than thought.' The tour would resume at the Royal Festival Hall on 19 January, with every effort made to reschedule the cancelled dates later in the year.
CANCELLED. Family had been booked into the London Coliseum on St Martin's Lane — Frank Matcham's 1904 Edwardian Baroque theatre, the largest theatre in the West End at 2,359 seats and (since 1968) the home of Sadler's Wells Opera (English National Opera from 1974). Per the Concerts Wiki Family Fandom timeline, the booking was cancelled when the Coliseum's management imposed a blanket ban on rock and pop concerts at the venue — Family were the first show the ban affected. The Coliseum has remained an opera and ballet house ever since.
16
Tuesday
Portsmouth GuildhallCancelled
Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
CANCELLED. Third of three consecutive dates struck by Chapman's hospitalisation (after Leeds University 13 January and Stevenage Locarno 14 January). Melody Maker's 13 January 1973 news-piece — 'Chapman ill, Family cancel' — named the three cancellations: "The other two cancelled dates are Stevenage Locarno on Sunday (14) and Portsmouth Guildhall two days later. Family now resume the tour at the Festival Hall, London, on January 19 and every effort will be made to reschedule the dates later this year." The Portsmouth Guildhall booking was rescheduled to 2 February 1973 (see separate card), the 'effort to reschedule' promised in the MM copy paying off within three weeks.
19
Friday
Royal Festival Hall
Southbank Centre, London, England
+ Linda Lewis
The Mk VII line-up's first major London appearance — programmed at the Royal Festival Hall with Linda Lewis in support, after Stevenage and Portsmouth had eased Ashton into the live set. Playing the RFH was a significant marker for a rock band at the time, and the music press used the booking to assess whether Ashton's "loose, bluesy" piano could replace Palmer's vibes-and-synths approach. An audience recording survives.
Setlist: Sat'd'y Barfly, Part Of The Load, Top Of The Hill, Glove, My Friend The Sun, Children, Only Sixteen, Holding The Compass, Burlesque, Ready To Go, The Weaver's Answer.
Tour-resume date — per Melody Maker's 13 January 1973 news piece 'Chapman ill, Family cancel': "Family now resume the tour at the Festival Hall, London, on January 19 and every effort will be made to reschedule the dates later this year." The RFH date was the first Mk VII show after the three-date ear-operation gap, and the booking took on additional significance as a result.
Originally advertised for Sunday 21 January at Fillmore West (the former Arcadia Ballroom), the concert was postponed because of bad weather and took place on Tuesday 23 January at Bray Auditorium. The surviving audience recording documents the rescheduled performance.
Wicklow People, January 1973 — 'Fillmore West Present in Concert: FAMILY — Sunday, 21st January, '73 at 8.30 P.M. Tickets from Tara Records, Tara Street and Capel Street; Golden Disc, Stillorgan; The Record Centre, Bray.' Promoter logo: 'The Greatest Show on Earth.'
The band's 24th BBC session was their second full-length In Concert broadcast, showcasing the power of the Mk VII lineup. The recording captures the looser, boogie-inflected feel brought by Tony Ashton. This entire performance was officially released for the first time in 2024 as the bonus disc on the Cherry Red Records 2CD expanded reissue of It's Only a Movie. Broadcast on 3 February 1973. Set list: 'Burlesque', 'Sat'd'y Barfly', 'Top of the Hill', 'My Friend the Sun', 'Buffet Tea For Two', 'Children', 'Glove', 'Ready to Go', 'Holding the Compass', 'Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu'.
The Manchester Free Trade Hall on Peter Street — Edward Walters' 1856 monument to the Anti-Corn Law League, raised on the site of the Peterloo Massacre and largely funded by Lancashire cotton-mill capital, the home of the Hallé Orchestra from 1858, gutted in the December 1940 Manchester Blitz and rebuilt behind its surviving façades by City Architect L. C. Howitt in 1950–51 — was Manchester's premier concert hall and the Mk VII tour's Lancashire stop. The booking was bracketed against the same-day BBC In Concert recording at the Paris Cinema, Lower Regent Street — a 200-mile dash from London that put a 10-song BBC studio set and the Free Trade Hall date on the same Friday's diary. Linda Lewis supported, working closely with the band that year (Cregan was producing her Lark album, on which Palmer also played).
The Manchester Evening News "Concerts and Recitals" column for 26 January 1973 listed the show as starting at 7.30 p.m., doors from 6.30 — tickets 35p at the door, the only walk-up show in that week's Free Trade Hall rock schedule and noticeably cheaper than the same hall's surrounding bookings (Darryl Way's Wolf the next night at 70p reserved, Al Stewart the following Friday at 75p, Hawkwind £1 all-in). Adjacent FTH listings published in the MEN on 22 January did not yet include the Family date — the booking appears to have been a late addition to the FTH calendar, consistent with a tour leg slotted around the BBC session.
27
Saturday
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Wantage Road, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
+ Fat Grapple
The County Cricket Ground at Wantage Road — Northamptonshire CCC's home since 1885, where the club played its first first-class match in June 1905 — was an unusual but not unprecedented 1970s rock venue: the pavilion's function space was let out for R&B and progressive Saturday-night bookings through the off-season (Mungo Jerry would play the same room three weeks later, on 17 February). Fat Grapple, the Newcastle-based folk-progressive-art-rock support, were on a Barrie Marshall-managed run that put them in front of touring headliners through the year before Marshall released them in the autumn. Phil Welton (songwriting) and Lionel Gibson (guitar) led the band, with a wide-ranging repertoire that included Irish jigs and Russian-flavoured material alongside the progressive rock.
29
Monday
De Montfort Hall
Granville Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
A homecoming at Leicester's De Montfort Hall — Shirley Harrison's 1913 concert hall on the edge of Victoria Park (Harrison also designed Edinburgh's Usher Hall), 2,200-capacity at full standing, the principal Leicester stage of Family's whole career and the Farinas' before them (see 12 January 1966 and 27 May 1966). The same hall would host another tour stop on 13 September; the band's actual farewell would come a month later at Leicester Polytechnic on 13 October 1973.
31
Wednesday
Top Rank Suite
St John's Precinct, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
+ Linda Lewis
The Liverpool Top Rank Suite — Rank Organisation's December 1969 ballroom on top of the St John's Precinct multi-storey car park, opposite Lime Street Station — was the city's primary mid-sized pop-era venue and the Mk VII tour's Merseyside stop. Promoted by John and Tony Smith in association with Bradgate, Bush Limited (the Smiths ran much of Liverpool's mid-week rock calendar through the early '70s); 8 p.m. start; tickets £1 flat rate on sale at the Top Rank box office (10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. weekdays, 709 0771). Linda Lewis supported — working closely with the band that year (Cregan was producing her Lark album, on which Palmer also played). The pricing structure (£1 flat) was a sharp contrast with five days earlier's Manchester Free Trade Hall walk-up at 35p — Liverpool was a properly-promoted ticketed event with an advance run-up; Manchester had been a late add-on around the BBC session.
The venue would close in early 1974, briefly as Baileys, then a succession of clubs (Romeo & Juliet's, Rotters, Studio 54) before the building was demolished in 1995.
February 197312 events
1
Thursday
City Hall
Barker's Pool, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ Strider, Linda Lewis
The Sheffield City Hall on Barker's Pool — E. Vincent Harris's 1920 design, built between 1929 and 1932 after eight years of post-WWI delay and opened 22 September 1932 — was the city's premier concert venue and Sheffield's primary rock room through the 1970s. The Oval Hall's 2,271 capacity hosted a three-act bill: Strider, the Marquee-circuit hard-rock group, and Linda Lewis, then working closely with Family bassist Jim Cregan, who produced her Lark album.
Unrealised post-Family supergroup project. A 'FOR THE RECORD — PASSING REMARKS' trade-paper column (c. February 1973, shortly after Poli Palmer's January departure from Family) reported: "Ric Grech, former bassist with Family and Blind Faith is reportedly forming a new group. Other band members so far include Jo Jammer, Poli Palmer and Mitch Mitchell."
The personnel on paper:
- Ric Grech (Family 1966–69, Blind Faith 1969, Ginger Baker's Air Force 1970, KGB 1975–76)
- Poli Palmer (Family 1969–73, just departed on keyboards / vibes)
- Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer 1966–70, post-Hendrix session work)
- 'Jo Jammer' — almost certainly Joe Jammer (Joseph Wright), the Chicago-born guitarist who had played Zeppelin-circle sessions and would later record a solo LP
The project never materialised. No record or documented live appearance of this line-up has surfaced. Grech went on to session work and the Baker / KGB projects; Palmer to session, theatre and production work; Mitchell continued his post-Hendrix session career until his death in 2008.
2
Friday
Guildhall
Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
+ Strider
Family's second Portsmouth Guildhall booking of the year, two and a half weeks after the 16 January date at the same hall. William Hill of Leeds's 1890 neo-classical Town Hall — gutted by incendiary bombs on 10 January 1941, rebuilt 1955–59 by Ernest Berry Webber and reopened as the Guildhall by Queen Elizabeth II on 8 June 1959 — was the south coast's primary 2,000-seat concert venue. Strider support.
3
Saturday
Corn Exchange
Wheeler Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
The Cambridge Corn Exchange on Wheeler Street — Richard Reynolds Rowe's 1875 Florentine Gothic market hall, built in patterned coloured brick, where corn trading ceased in 1965 and pop use began with The Who's March 1969 booking — was a Cambridge City Council–programmed venue with a 1,681-capacity flat-floor format. Syd Barrett's last public appearance had been here the previous year (1972, supporting MC5); the year after Family's date, a Drifters no-show would trigger a 1,000-strong audience riot.
Cambridge Evening News reader letter (7 Feb 1973). Rowena Joseph of 25 Chedworth Street, Newnham, wrote in to the CEN the week after the show — confirms the booking as Saturday 3 February 1973, £1 standing, with the concert itself "very good" but post-show crowd disorder serious enough to merit a printed letter. The same paper's 2 February skating notice ("No Skating Friday 2 February owing to Hospital Ball") is a useful day-to-day reminder of the venue's primary 1973 use: in winter the Corn Exchange was a skating rink, with the rock-and-roll programming threading around the ice schedule.
4
Sunday
Fairfield Halls
Park Lane, Croydon, Surrey, England
Robert Atkinson & Partners' 1962 modernist civic complex on Park Lane — three halls under one roof (the 1,802-seat Concert Hall, the 763-seat Ashcroft Theatre, the Arnhem Gallery), opened by the Queen Mother on 2 November 1962, the design inspired by the Royal Festival Hall — was one of the greater-London circuit's most-booked rock venues through the 1970s. Family had recorded the live half of Anyway (Reprise, November 1970) at the Concert Hall in July 1970; this was a return to a recording venue. Family returned again later in the year (see 9 September on the farewell tour).
7
Wednesday
Brighton Dome, Concert Hall
29 New Road, Brighton, East Sussex, England
The Brighton Dome Concert Hall — William Porden's 1805 stables for the Prince Regent (Halle aux Bles–inspired, originally a 44-horse circular stable under an 80-foot glass dome), converted to a concert hall by Borough Surveyor Philip Lockwood in 1866–67, then radically remade as an Art Deco interior by Robert Atkinson in 1935 — was the south coast's premier 2,100-capacity concert hall and a reliable Sussex rock stop. The hall's recent rock pedigree was significant: Pink Floyd had premiered The Dark Side of the Moon here on 20 January 1972, just thirteen months before Family's date. Family returned twice more in the year (14 March, 15 September).
TV Broadcast
Saturday · 10 February 1973
Full House (BBC Two)
BBC Television Centre, London, England
BBC2's late-Saturday arts programme Full House, introduced by actor Joe Melia, featured Family performing My Friend the Sun and Top of the Hill. The latter played over the closing credits.
This is Family's final known full-band television performance. Roger Chapman later appeared in an interview on The Old Grey Whistle Test during the farewell tour.
Footage of Top of the Hill circulates, and the complete programme is held in the BBC archive.
Return to the Stevenage Locarno — Mecca's October 1961 ballroom in the New Town's central plaza, designed by Leonard Vincent (chief architect of Stevenage Development Corporation) at a cost of £150,000, with Canadian maple dance floor, revolving bandstand and a 2,000 fire-rated capacity (a Who concert reportedly hit 2,500). Family's third Stevenage Locarno booking of the arc — the tour-opener on 12 January and a return on 6 September on the farewell tour bracket this date.
+ Home, Hawkwind, Golden Earring (poster only — did not appear), Focus, Savoy Brown, Vinegar Joe, Mick Abraham's Band
Düsseldorf's second annual Hot Rock Night (after 1972, with another to follow in 1977) — a one-night indoor rock festival at the Philipshalle running an eight-act bill of European and British acts. Hawkwind appeared with Lemmy on bass; Golden Earring were on the printed poster but did not appear on the night. Family on a strong British contingent alongside Mick Abrahams Band (ex-Jethro Tull / Blodwyn Pig) and Vinegar Joe (the Robert Palmer / Elkie Brooks band).
27
Tuesday
Niedersachsenhalle
Theodor-Heuss-Platz 1-3, Hannover, Lower Saxony, West Germany
+ Home
The Niedersachsenhalle — Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Scholer's 1914 exhibition hall (originally the Ausstellungshalle), part of the Hannover Stadthalle complex inaugurated for the Hannover Music Festival on 11 June 1914, severely damaged in WWII bombing and rebuilt in the 1950s — was the mid-sized hall of the Hannover Congress Centrum, 1,512-capacity in row seating across 1,627m². Family on a two-band bill with Home — the Mick Stubbs / Laurie Wisefield / Cliff Williams / Mick Cook outfit on CBS; Wisefield would join Wishbone Ash in May 1974, Williams would join AC/DC.
(The earlier draft's 4,000-capacity figure was confused with the Kuppelsaal — a different and larger hall in the Stadthalle complex — and the 1954 build date refers only to the post-war reopening, not the building's 1914 origin.)
March 19732 events
7
Wednesday
Leeds University
Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ J.S.D. Band
This rescheduled performance replaced the show cancelled on 13 January due to Roger Chapman's illness.
14
Wednesday
Brighton Dome
Church Street, Brighton, East Sussex, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Second Brighton Dome date of the year (after 7 February). Around this time, the UK music press reported that an as-yet-unnamed minor 'supergroup' was forming to consist of ex-Family members Poli Palmer and Ric Grech along with Mitch Mitchell, Joe Jammer and Graham Bell — a project that never came together, though a Grech / Palmer reunion would briefly surface in the 1974 Streetwalkers orbit.
April 19737 events
7
Saturday
Civic Hall
London Road, Guildford, Surrey, England
+ Philip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The Guildford Civic on London Road — the 1,500-capacity 1962 council-built hall (demolished in 2004 and replaced by the G Live venue) — was the Surrey rock-circuit's primary room through the 1970s.
8
Sunday
Trentham Gardens
Stone Road, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
+ Philip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Trentham Gardens — the former Sutherland family estate at Trentham, converted to a leisure resort from 1931 — ran the Trentham Ballroom as one of the Staffordshire / west-Midlands circuit's primary dance-pop venues. A reliable mid-tier date: Trentham had hosted the Beatles (5 November 1962, 3 August 1963) through Pink Floyd and the full Midlands progressive circuit.
9
Monday
Town Hall
The Headrow, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ Philip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Leeds Town Hall on The Headrow — the 1,500-capacity 1858 Cuthbert Brodrick civic hall — was Leeds's senior formal concert venue, distinct from the University Union Riley-Smith Hall on Woodhouse Lane (see 7 March).
Support: Judas Priest, then still a regionally-circuited Birmingham outfit and more than a year away from their 1974 debut album, Rocka Rolla. The Birmingham Hippodrome on Hurst Street — the 1899 variety theatre converted to an 1,800-seat pop venue in the early 1970s — was the West Midlands' primary touring theatre.
16
Monday
City Hall
Malthouse Lane, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
+ Philip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Salisbury City Hall on Malthouse Lane — the 1,000-capacity Wiltshire council concert hall — was the Wessex circuit's junior partner to Bournemouth and Portsmouth.
24
Tuesday
Palasport
Turin, Italy
Kicking off a short but successful tour of Italy (24–29 April). While a wider European tour (Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy and France) had been mooted in the press for March, only these Italian dates materialized.
High Street, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England
+ Philip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The Stockton ABC — a converted 1930s cinema on Stockton High Street — was one of the ABC chain's cinema-to-rock-venue conversions that became routine touring stops in the early 1970s.
Northumberland Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
Newcastle City Hall on Northumberland Road — the 2,100-capacity 1927 civic concert hall, Newcastle's primary touring venue through the 1970s — was one of Family's most reliable Tyneside rooms after the closure of Club A'Gogo in 1968. Return visit on 7 September for the album-release-day farewell gig.
5
Saturday
McEwan Hall
Bristo Square, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
The McEwan Hall — Edinburgh University's 2,300-capacity 1897 Robert Rowand Anderson graduation hall at Bristo Square — hosted rock bookings through the University Union entertainments programme.
Radio Session
Tuesday · 8 May 1973
BBC Top Gear (Studio 1, Shepherd's Bush)
Shepherd's Bush, London, England
Family's 25th and final BBC session, recorded for John Peel's Top Gear on 8 May 1973 at BBC Studio 1, Shepherd's Bush, produced by John Walters. Broadcast on Top Gear 22 May 1973; repeated 31 July 1973. The set served as a preview of the forthcoming It's Only A Movie — three of the four cuts (Boom Bang / Buffet Tea For Two / Check Out) made the broadcast version.
Sweet Desiree — late discovery for the 2018 Madfish box. For decades the surviving record of this session was the three It's Only A Movie cuts that aired on the Peel slot. While compiling the At The BBC 8-CD box (Madfish, 2018), Ian Crockett's team turned up a previously-uncatalogued fourth track from the same session: Sweet Desiree. Brian Matthew's voice-over from the original broadcast was preserved alongside it: "Sad to say that could possibly be the last ever live studio performance by Family."
Ripon Road, Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England
The Royal Hall on Ripon Road — Harrogate's 1,200-capacity 1903 Frank Matcham theatre, part of the Harrogate Pavilion complex — was a Yorkshire dales circuit touring stop.
10
Thursday
Imperial College
London, England
+ Philip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Imperial College Students' Union at South Kensington — the Great Hall on Exhibition Road, ~1,200 capacity — ran Thursday and Saturday rock bookings through the university ents programme.
12
Saturday
Rainbow Theatre
London, Greater London, England
+ Fanny, 'Legs' Larry Smith
Support: Fanny, 'Legs' Larry Smith. The Rainbow — John Morris and Tony Stratton-Smith's 3,400-capacity 1930 Astoria cinema converted to rock venue and reopened 4 November 1971 — was London's premier large rock venue 1971–81. Fanny (the all-female Los Angeles rock band signed to Reprise) and 'Legs' Larry Smith (Bonzo Dog Band) made for an unusual three-act bill. First of two Rainbow dates in 1973; the September return would be the London farewell.
The night was the first ever Tea Pop Concert — a John Smith Productions booking sponsored by the Tea Council. The programme set out the conceit:
> 'John Smith Productions in association with the Tea Council present the first ever Tea Pop Concert starring Family, Fanny and 'Legs' Larry Smith. Refreshments during the interval are with the compliments of the Tea Council and we hope you will try the different teas being served here tonight. Then take the programme home and you have an instant guide to making tonight's tea recipes.'
> — Programme, 12 May 1973, John Smith Productions / Tea Council
John Hodson, in a recollection compiled on the Rainbow venue Facebook page, recalls the show as the most bizarre Family gig of the three years he saw them across — "While the drug culture was very much intertwined with the rock business at the time, it's hard to credit that this concert was sponsored on behalf of a legally grown substance — tea!"
Research note — Tea Council audio ad mystery. Whether the Tea Council sponsorship extended into a Family-recorded radio or TV spot is still unconfirmed. A long-standing YouTube comment on the studio recording of 'Broken Nose' (from Bandstand, 1972) claims the track was used as the soundtrack to a Tea Council ad in this period — possibly tied to the same John Smith Productions / Tea Council deal that brought the Rainbow gig. No copy of any 'Broken Nose' Tea Council ad has surfaced in the archive search to date. Fanny, the other top-billed act on the 12 May Rainbow concert, did record a separate Tea Council promo film in the early 1970s — surviving in the Huntley Film Archives catalogue as Film 1094297 and on YouTube as 'TEA AND FANNY'. The Fanny ad does not feature any Family material; whether the two ads were commissioned in the same wave of Tea Council music-band sponsorship is a research lead worth chasing.
June 19736 events
Breakup Announcement
circa June 1973
Family announce farewell tour
Around this time, Family announce that they will break up following a farewell tour in the autumn. The announcement marks the end of one of Britain's most inventive and unpredictable rock groups, active since 1966 (as The Farinas since 1962).
9
Saturday
'Summer Rock Festival Berlin', Waldbühne
Glockenturmstraße 1, Berlin, Germany
+ On the Saturday 9 Jun bill alongside: Uriah Heep, Beck Bogert & Appice, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, Ekseption, Karthago, Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers, McKendree Spring
The Waldbühne — the 22,000-capacity amphitheatre built for the 1936 Berlin Olympics adjacent to the Olympiastadion at Glockenturmstraße 1 — had been a Berlin rock-festival venue since the 1965 Rolling Stones riot. Rob Townsend's MOJO recollection (August 1996) sets the context: following Beck, Bogert and Appice on this festival bill and then reversing the bill on the following night at Frankfurt.
Confirmed — MAMA Concerts ticket stub (Einheitspreis 20 DM, 12 Uhr start, two-day pass 9–10 June). The ticket sleeve is dated "1. Summer Rock Festival / Waldbühne Berlin / 9. 10. Juni / Samstag Sonntag / Beginn 12 Uhr / Einheitspreis 20 DM" — the inaugural MaMa Concerts summer festival, held at the 22,000-capacity Olympics-era Waldbühne on both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday 9 June bill (per rockinberlin.de): Uriah Heep, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Thin Lizzy, Family, Nazareth, Ekseption, Karthago, Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers, McKendree Spring (Edgar Broughton Band billed but no-show). Sunday 10 June bill: Osibisa, Groundhogs, Roy Wood's Wizzard, UFO, Vinegar Joe, Kin Ping Meh, Wild Turkey, Chicken Shack — Family were on the Saturday bill only in Berlin, before moving on to Frankfurt Radstadion for the 10–11 June continuation.
Eyewitness note (rockinberlin.de comment thread): Chapman was remembered as "total besoffen aber gut bei Stimme" — completely drunk but in good voice. Consistent with Val Mabbs's April 1973 Record Mirror feature, which had Chapman admitting the Mk VII lineup was now having "our first real drunken sessions" on the road after Ashton's arrival. A signature Waldbühne Chapman performance — bleary, lairy, and locked in.
“We played a festival in Germany and had to follow Beck, Bogert and Appice, who were absolutely stunning. The set knocked everybody sideways. We said that we had once played with that passion and that fire and we weren't doing it now. Perhaps it's time we called it a day… Mind you, the next night the billing was changed and we had to follow them, and we blew the arse off them.”
— Rob Townsend, 'Faulty Towers', MOJO, August 1996
10
Sunday
'1st Summer Rock Festival', Radstadion
Frankfurt, Germany
The Frankfurt Radstadion — the Radrennbahn Rödelheim, the old cycling stadium in Frankfurt's Rödelheim district — was the open-air counterpart to Frankfurt's indoor Festhalle. Two-day festival 10–11 June; see 11 June companion card.
MaMa Concerts tour-leg context — Family's Saturday 9 June Berlin Waldbühne set was followed by the Frankfurt Radstadion leg of the 1st Summer Rock Festival on Sunday 10 June and Monday 11 June. The two-city run was MaMa Concerts' early-70s rock-festival template, with touring-band bills moved between the Berlin Waldbühne and Frankfurt Radstadion on consecutive days. Per Rob Townsend's later MOJO recollection, Family and Beck Bogert & Appice reversed their bill positions from night to night.
11
Monday
'1st Summer Rock Festival', Radstadion
Frankfurt, Germany
Day two of the Frankfurt Radstadion festival at Rödelheim. Per Rob Townsend's MOJO recollection, the bill-order with Beck, Bogert and Appice was reversed from the 9 June Berlin Waldbühne date.
29
Friday
'In On The Park', Bedford College
London, England
+ Sandgate, Horslips, Harvey Andrews & Graham Cooper, Gary Moore Band, Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra, Moloney, Madden & Younger
Support bill (multi-act): Sandgate, Horslips, Harvey Andrews & Graham Cooper, Gary Moore Band, Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra, Moloney Madden & Younger. Outdoor festival on the Regent's Park grounds of Bedford College — the University of London college based at Regent's Park from 1913 until its 1985 merger with Royal Holloway (now the site of Regent's University London).
30
Saturday
Sheffield University
Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ Strider
Support: Strider. The same-day Sheffield University gig followed the formal breakup announcement (see companion milestone card). The Sheffield University Union on Western Bank was the 2,500-capacity student-union venue, distinct from the City Hall (1 February, 27 September). Third Strider bill of the year (after 1 February, 2 February).
July 19734 events
c.
July
Italy tour
Italy, Italy
Unknown Italian dates in July 1973.
2
Monday
Civic Hall
Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Wolverhampton Civic Hall on North Street — the 3,000-capacity 1938 hall (now part of the Civic at the Halls complex) — was the West Midlands' second-tier rock venue behind the Birmingham Odeon and Hippodrome.
27
Friday
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace Way, London, England
+ Argent (headliners), Glencoe, Ellis, Fumble
Support: Argent, Glencoe, Ellis, Fumble. The Alexandra Palace Great Hall — the 7,250-capacity 1875 north-London exhibition hall — was a Simon Downes / John Hopkins booking. Family were billed below Argent (then between All Together Now and In Deep); Glencoe were a Scottish folk-rock outfit, Ellis was Steve Ellis's Love Affair-successor band, and Fumble were a 1950s R&R revivalists outfit who had just come off supporting Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour.
Family were billed as Sunday-night headliners of the three-day Helsinki Rock Festival 1973 at the Keimolan moottorirata motor-racing circuit in Vantaa, outside Helsinki. The festival — organised by entertainment impresario Benny Hermansson in aid of Helsingin Nuorten Puolesta ry, trading under the "Rock Rendez-Vous" banner — was the second and final edition of the Keimola-Rock events after a rain-drenched, mud-bound 1972 inaugural. Other acts on the three-day bill included Yes, Linda Lewis, Back Door, American singer Warren Schatz (who was then based in Helsinki touring with Jukka Kuoppamäki), Make Honey, and Finnish acts Karma, Pepe & Paradise, Hurriganes (billed on the poster in their earlier "Nemu & Hurricanes" spelling, after founding drummer-vocalist Henry "Remu" Aaltonen) and Petri & Pettersson [Helsinki poster].
The 27 July opening day is ruled out by Family's concurrent Alexandra Palace booking in London, placing their Finnish set on the festival's closing weekend. The 1973 edition is widely remembered in Finnish rock history as one of the most troubled festivals of the era: contemporary and later accounts describe stage problems, unreliable billing, and technicians and performers left unpaid at the close of the weekend. The Keimola poster is the principal surviving document of Family's Finnish booking.
Opening night of Family's farewell tour at Great Yarmouth's Britannia Pier Theatre, with Phillip Goodhand-Tait in support — a support slot he would hold for most of the tour. Listed in setlist.fm's Britannia Pier Theatre concert index.
4
Tuesday
Free Trade Hall
Manchester, Lancashire, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Second Manchester Free Trade Hall date of the year (after 26 January) — the 2,400-capacity Peter Street civic hall, Manchester's primary 1970s rock venue.
5
Wednesday
Birmingham Town Hall
Victoria Square, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Birmingham Town Hall on Victoria Square — the 1,100-capacity 1834 Joseph Hansom concert hall, Birmingham's oldest formal venue — was the counterpart to the Hippodrome (see 15 April) for smaller-scale rock bookings.
6
Thursday
Locarno
Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Return to the Stevenage Locarno at 12 Town Centre — the venue Family had opened the year's touring at back in January, and had returned to in February. Third visit of the year; this one the farewell-tour stop.
Northumberland Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The album-release-day gig (It's Only A Movie released same morning — see separate release card) at Newcastle City Hall on Northumberland Road. Return to the 4 May room, now with the record on shelf.
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Return to Fairfield Halls on Park Lane — the second Croydon date of the year after 4 February.
11
Tuesday
Colston Hall
Colston Street, Bristol, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The Bristol Colston Hall on Colston Street — the 2,000-capacity 1867 concert hall (renamed the Bristol Beacon in 2020) — was the south-west's primary rock venue. Same hall that had hosted Family's 2 November 1969 King-to-Palmer handover gig.
13
Thursday
De Montfort Hall
Granville Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Family played De Montfort Hall in their hometown of Leicester on 13 September — exactly a month before the last-ever gig elsewhere in the city.
Thursday 13 September 1973, 7:30pm. Tickets £1.50 (Stalls, standing) per the venue poster reproduced in Pete Feenstra's "Once Upon A Time" box-set book. First of Family's two final Leicester shows — the other being the Poly on 13 October.
The Leicester Mercury reviewed the show the following day under a piece by Tony Stewart (syndicated with his NME work). The applause after the final number, "The Weaver's Answer", was reported as deafening; Family returned for two encores.
“The applause following their final number 'Weaver's Answer' was deafening and Family were brought back to play two encores. The reaction has been the same all over the country and you may wonder why they are quitting at all.”
— Leicester Mercury, 14 September 1973
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Third Brighton Dome date of the year (7 February, 14 March, 15 September) — the Church Street civic hall's farewell-tour visit.
16
Sunday
New Theatre
George Street, Oxford, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The New Theatre Oxford on George Street — the 1,800-capacity 1934 touring theatre (now the Oxford New Theatre, formerly the Apollo) — was the Thames Valley circuit's primary venue.
20
Thursday
Empire
Liverpool, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Liverpool Empire on Lime Street — the 2,400-capacity 1925 Frank Matcham touring theatre — was one of the north-west's senior touring rooms.
22
Saturday
Rainbow Theatre
London, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait, Linda Lewis
Family's London farewell show at the Rainbow Theatre on 22 September featured both Phillip Goodhand-Tait and Linda Lewis as support. The Rainbow gig was the marquee London date of the tour; the Rainbow-history site's year-by-year concerts listing preserves the date.
Ray Fox-Cumming's Rainbow farewell review captured the London goodbye in the week after the show. On the walk-on: "To the stoic strains of The British Grenadiers on came Family for their last live appearance in London. It was a sad occasion, made more so since their set was only occasionally good and too often pretty bad." On Chapman's voice, Ashton's keyboard, and the PA: "Roger Chapman was in great voice throughout, but, for once, the PA wasn't loud enough and Tony Ashton's keyboard work was sometimes, to put it politely, somewhat suspect." On the set's high-water mark — Cregan switching from bass to lead: "The highspots of the set came next with Buffet For Two and My Friend The Sun… For these two everything was just right, unhurried and beautifully controlled." On the stumbles: "After that came Sweet Desiree and Burlesque. Neither worked at all. The introductions were almost totally unrecognisable. Weaver's Answer was greeted with huge applause, but seemed to disintegrate in the middle. Something seemed to be rotten in the state of the guitars department." And the sign-off — quoted in every Family obituary since: "So now they're gone: in seven years they deserved more success than they actually got. Shame, but thanks anyway for some beautiful music." (See Press Archive: Family — Rainbow Theatre farewell review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, c. 29 September 1973.)
The Southport Floral Hall on the Promenade — the 1,500-capacity 1932 civic hall (now Southport Theatre) — was the Lancashire coast's primary rock venue.
25
Tuesday
Empire
Edinburgh, Scotland
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The Edinburgh Empire on Nicolson Street — the 2,700-capacity 1892 Frank Matcham touring theatre, renamed the Festival Theatre after its 1994 refurbishment — hosted the Scottish farewell. An audience recording survives and gives one of the only externally-preserved 1973 Family setlists: 'Top of the Hill', 'It's Only A Movie', 'Check Out', 'Processions / No Mule's Fool', 'Buffet Tea For Two', 'My Friend the Sun', 'Sweet Desiree', 'Burlesque', 'Peace of Mind', 'Hung Up Down', 'The Weaver's Answer / Hey Mr Policeman', 'In My Own Time'. Same night as the BBC-2 Old Grey Whistle Test Chapman interview (see separate TV Broadcast card).
Presenter: Bob Harris. The 25 September episode of The Old Grey Whistle Test carried Edinburgh-Festival reggae coverage and included an interview segment with Roger Chapman framing the farewell tour. The Bob Harris Archive preserves the broadcast date and playlist. Same night as the Edinburgh Empire gig (see separate gig card for setlist and performance context).
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The newly-renamed Glasgow Apollo — the ex-Green's Playhouse on Renfield Street, re-opened just three weeks earlier on 5–6 September with Johnny Cash under new lessee Unicorn Leisure — hosted Family among its first dozen acts under the Apollo branding. The room would become one of the UK's most celebrated rock venues until its 1985 closure.
27
Thursday
Sheffield City Hall
Barker's Pool, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Second Sheffield City Hall date of the year (after 1 February) — the 2,270-capacity Barker's Pool civic hall.
28
Friday
Capitol Theatre
Cardiff, Wales
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. The Capitol Theatre on Queen Street, Cardiff — the 2,400-capacity 1921 cinema-theatre converted to rock use from the mid-60s (demolished 1983, replaced by the Capitol Centre shopping mall) — was Wales's primary touring rock venue.
30
Sunday
Hard Rock
Bournemouth, England
+ Phillip Goodhand-Tait
Support: Phillip Goodhand-Tait. Family played the Hard Rock on 30 September. Source note: external sources differ on the location — some list Bournemouth's Hard Rock (Holdenhurst Road / Bournemouth Winter Gardens, Wessex Roadshow promotion), others Manchester's (then at 35 Oxford Street before the 1974 move). Geography favours Bournemouth on a Sunday, sandwiched between Cardiff Capitol (28 Sep, Friday) and Portsmouth Locarno (2 Oct); the site's archive-authoritative determination is Bournemouth.
October 197310 events
2
Tuesday
Locarno
Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
The Portsmouth Locarno — a Mecca-circuit Southsea ballroom, distinct from the Guildhall (2 February) — was a 1,500-capacity secondary venue for the south-coast farewell run.
3
Wednesday
Top Rank
Southampton, England
The Southampton Top Rank — part of the national Top Rank Suite Mecca chain — was Southampton's primary 1,800-capacity Mecca-era rock venue.
4
Thursday
Orchid Ballroom
Purley, England
The Orchid Ballroom on Purley Way — the 1,800-capacity 1933 Art Deco Mecca ballroom in south London — had been hosting touring rock acts since the late 1960s. (The original Rolling Stones had played it on 30 April 1963.)
5
Friday
Brunel University, Refectory Building
Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, England
+ Duster Bennett
Support: Duster Bennett. Booked through the Brunel University Students' Union; the Refectory Building at Brunel's Kingston Lane campus was the union's largest hall. Duster Bennett — the solo blues one-man-band guitarist and Mike Vernon / Blue Horizon signing — had been a Fleetwood Mac associate and played support slots across the early-70s progressive circuit until his 26 March 1976 death in a car crash.
6
Saturday
Aston University
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Aston University's Students' Union on Gosta Green — the ~1,000-capacity Great Hall at the university's central Birmingham campus — ran weekend rock bookings through the SU ents programme.
8
Monday
Top Rank
Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales
The Swansea Top Rank — part of the Top Rank Suite Mecca chain — was Swansea's primary 1,500-capacity rock venue, distinct from the University Students' Union.
12
Friday
Bradford University
Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
The University of Bradford Students' Union — the ~1,500-capacity Great Hall on Richmond Road — was the West Riding student circuit's primary venue alongside Leeds University Union.
13
Saturday
Leicester Polytechnic
Leicester, Leicestershire, England
The last-ever Family gig. The tour closed at Leicester Polytechnic's Hawthorn Building — not De Montfort Hall, as many secondary sources misreport — on Saturday 13 October 1973, in the band's hometown.
NME's review called the gig "several hours of the most memorable music I've ever seen them perform." Phil Barlow, filing for Riggi, caught the high-water mark on My Friend the Sun: Chapman "needed to do very little — the audience sang so loudly" that the vocal role became ceremonial rather than performed. Chapman had taken the stage in a bowler hat, fell into the pit during Burlesque in signature form, and closed the set with In My Own Time. Tony Ashton then led the band plus eleven on-stage guests through a rock-and-roll flashback before the whole company decamped to the Holiday Inn.
Support act Philip Goodhand-Tait, who'd travelled the entire farewell tour, captured its mood in a sentence: "It was a happy tour. Family, like all bands, had their stresses but they also had a wonderful, band-humour… I would try to give you one or two examples of Family's humour but I don't know if they'll be printable."
(The companion final-gig milestone gives the post-breakup summary; the post-show Holiday Inn party detail is preserved on the It's Only A Movie LP entry.)
“It was like a wild end of term party, involving increasing nudity and general celebration. The party was eventually brought to a halt by hotel management at 5.30am after numerous complaints.”
— Bob Harris, in his biography
Post-breakup paths:
- Rob Townsend joins Medicine Head with John Fiddler.
- Charlie Whitney and Roger Chapman continue together as the Chapman/Whitney duo, then as Streetwalkers (with ex-Family John Wetton and Poli Palmer among the early line-ups).
- Jim Cregan joins Rod Stewart's band for the mainstream-success years.
- Tony Ashton continues performing, recording and producing until his death in 2001.
Roger Dopson's coda for the 1998 See For Miles reissue: "Few bands split at exactly the right moment — they tend to hang around an album or two too long and outstay their welcome. Family were careful never to fall into this particular trap — and therefore, all the memories which are left, are good ones." (See Press Archive: The Family Story — Part Two by Roger Dopson, See For Miles CD reissue SEECD 200H, 1998.)
“The farewell tour was good fun, we had a wonderful party at the end of it — which was exactly the right time to go out - everybody on a high. We were all in it for our own reasons, and none of it was to be just sitting on the sidelines. If there wasn't any music to be played or we were getting bored, then there was no point in doing it. I certainly felt like we were just going through the motions then. By this time that was what the audiences wanted - they wanted us to be repeatable and we were never that. So we just thought 'Bollocks' - and knocked it on the head.”
— Roger Chapman, Art Into Dust interview with Jay Strange, Spring 1994
Memories, corrections, and additions for 1973. Add yours below.
D
Dermot Mitchell16 Nov 2019
Hi
Do you know why some of the recordings do not play, eg the South Bank gig and Rockin’ Pneumonia from the Irish gig? (I don’t wish to sound ungrateful – this is a wonderful treasure trove)
Reader comments — 1973 (3)
Memories, corrections, and additions for 1973. Add yours below.
Hi
Do you know why some of the recordings do not play, eg the South Bank gig and Rockin’ Pneumonia from the Irish gig? (I don’t wish to sound ungrateful – this is a wonderful treasure trove)
The site needs quite a bit of work and maintenance. Hopefully soon it’ll be working smoothly! Thanks for tuning in
On 25 May 1973 played Family with Deep Purple and Rory Gallgher in Baltimore, USA.
https://www.purple.de/dirk/purple/mark2.php#1973-may