1974

Air Studios, Hampstead

Early 1974, at Air Studios in Hampstead — Chapman and Whitney assemble a studio-only project with a rotating cast of session players. Released in May 1974 on Raft (Reprise) as Chapman and Whitney's Streetwalkers, it is effectively a Chapman/Whitney solo album in all but name — a response to the end of Family six months earlier, and a deliberate clean sweep: new band, new album, new management.

News of the project first surfaced in the NME in October 1973, under the headline "Family Come Home": "Charlie and Roger have already been recording at Air Studio with Mel Collins, Ian Wallace, John Wetton and Max Middleton in preparation for an album, using various rhythm sections. Apart from that they'll be looking to begin a new band."

Studio personnel:
Roger Chapman — vocals
Charlie Whitney — guitar
Neil Hubbard — guitar
Mel Collins — sax, woodwind
Tim Hinkley — keyboards
Max Middleton — keyboards
Poli Palmer — vibes, electric piano
John Wetton — bass
Phil Chen — bass
Ric Grech — bass
Ian Wallace — drums
Mike Giles — drums
Godfrey McLean — congas
Backing vocals: Linda Lewis, Jim Cregan, Boz Burrell

Several of these players also ran with Dick & The Fireman — a loose, un-recorded pick-up collective of the same early-70s London scene featuring Steve Marriott, Zoot Money, members of the Grease Band, Neil Hubbard, Mel Collins, Tim Hinkley and Boz Burrell. Chapman and Whitney had both sat in with them, and the network of friendships that fed Streetwalkers Mk I ran straight out of that circle.

Management: Harvey Goldsmith and John Smith took on Chapman and Whitney (Family's previous agent, the John Smith Agency, provided the through-line). When Goldsmith got swept up in Genesis/Phil Collins business, he handed the reins to Michael Alfandary — a figure who would loom larger, and less happily, in the band's later years.

“Streetwalkers … well, I guess, for the most part, was mine and Charlie's band. We called the shots … The first album was like our solo album. And even when we settled on a line up: me, Charlie, Bobby Tench, Nicko McBrain, Jon Plotel … Charlie and I had been around the block.” — Roger Chapman

It's Only a Movie (LP, United Artists UA-LA181-F) — US release

US release of the Family farewell LP on United Artists Records, 21 January 1974 — three months after the UK release on Raft on 7 September 1973. Billboard's Hollywood bureau carried the release as a short item: "Hollywood — The farewell LP from the British rock group Family, has been set, for a Jan. 21 release by United Artists Records. The collection, entitled 'It's Only A Movie,' was recorded in mid-1973, just prior to the disbanding of the band. Family began in 1966 in Leicester in England. They have toured American on three occasions, have had singles and albums on the U.K. charts, and are known internationally."

Note — personnel error in the Billboard item: "Family's personnel at the time of the breakup in mid-1973 consisted of Roger Chapman, Rob Townsend, Jim Cregan, John Whitney and John 'Poli' Palmer." This is incorrect — Tony Ashton had replaced Poli Palmer on keyboards in January 1973 (as documented in the 2 December 1972 Mk VII lineup entry). The Mk VII farewell lineup that recorded It's Only a Movie was Chapman / Whitney / Cregan / Ashton / Townsend. The Billboard piece was presumably working from stale reference copy or conflating the Bandstand-era (Palmer) and It's Only a Movie-era (Ashton) lineups.

Chapman, Whitney, and most of the debut-album crew take to the road in May. Bobby Tench has yet to join. The seven-piece includes two King Crimson alumni — Mel Collins (saxes, 1970–72) and Ian Wallace (drums, 1971–72) — alongside Neil Hubbard on second guitar, Tim Hinkley on keys, and Phil Chen on bass.

Roger Chapman — vocals
Charlie Whitney — guitar
Neil Hubbard — guitar
Mel Collins — sax, woodwind
Tim Hinkley — keyboards
Phil Chen — bass
Ian Wallace — drums

“That first touring band was like a seven piece, and we took it on the road and it was good. It was a lovely band… a great band. We had members of King Crimson, guitarist Neil Hubbard, Tim Hinkley on keys, Mel Collins on woodwind, Ian Wallace on drums and a great bass player called Phil Chen. I really liked that band.” — Roger Chapman

BBC Studios, London (Delaware Road)

Streetwalkers cut a five-song session for Peel at Maida Vale, the only BBC studio date the Mk I lineup completed. The tapes — "Get Out Of My Life, Woman", "Roxianna", "Systematic Stealth", "Tokyo Rose" and "Hangman" — feature Chapman, Whitney, Wetton or Grech on bass, Mike Giles or Ian Wallace on drums, Max Middleton on keys and Mel Collins on saxes, and were included as bonus tracks on the Cherry Red 50th-anniversary CD in 2024.

BBC Radio 1 · Sounds of the Seventies

Broadcast at 10pm on Radio 1 — Bob Harris "Sounds of the Seventies" session, the first Chapman-Whitney BBC session after the debut album release.

Bobby Tench joins on second guitar and vocals in the late summer — the band settles into a more compact unit. Blue Weaver sits in on keyboards for the Reading Festival on 25 August, filling in for Tim Hinkley.

Roger Chapman — vocals
Charlie Whitney — guitar
Bobby Tench — guitar, vocals (new)
Neil Hubbard — guitar
Mel Collins — sax, woodwind
Tim Hinkley — keyboards
Phil Chen — bass
Ian Wallace — drums

“I came in pretty much after that debut album. It was then that they asked me to join. The band became a lot more compact and we kind of knew what we were writing for.” — Bobby Tench

At the end of 1974, Phil Chen and Ian Wallace depart; bassist Jon Plotel and drummer Nicko McBrain step in. Tim Hinkley and Mel Collins also leave around the Downtown Flyers sessions. The five-piece that settles records both Downtown Flyers (1975) and Red Card (1976) at Scorpio Studios, then tours Britain, Europe, and the United States through the spring of 1976.

Roger Chapman — vocals
Charlie Whitney — guitar
Bobby Tench — guitar, vocals
Jon Plotel — bass (replaced Phil Chen)
Nicko McBrain — drums (replaced Ian Wallace; later Iron Maiden)

With the release of Downtown Flyers on 10 October 1975, the band drops the Chapman-Whitney prefix. From autumn 1975 onward, they are simply Streetwalkers.

“When I look back on that whole period, it was just so coked-up. I don't really think about too many of the gigs. There was just too much racket too and too many drugs.” — Roger Chapman on the Downtown Flyers era