I suppose it could be said this is my favourite band. Maybe. I can never make my mind up about things like that.
They were a great night out, in the days when big names still played on small stages in university dining halls. Back there in the early seventies, (the old feller muttered, grasping his walking-stick,), going to see a band meant, well, seeing them. Not being half a mile back in a sea of heads, watching the action on a sixty-foot high tv screen. And I saw Family quite a few times. On one occasion, Roger Chapman, the lead singer, passed me a bottle of his beer. well, yes, the bar was open, but he'd just chucked a tambourine into the sky in a fit of wild exuberance. Unfortunately, it smashed the glass globe of a light above me. My injuries were minor, but bled well, and I spilled my pint... It was a masterly stroke for Chappo to stop singing, peer in my direction through the bright lights, say "Are you alright? Sorry..." and then proffer a bottle of Sam Smith's Nut-Brown Ale.
Good man. Ta for that.
Why don't I know them? Am I too old or have I just forgotten them?
ReplyDeleteNag:When they went to tour America, a whole heap of things went wrong, Rick Grech defected to join Blind Faith, there was a bust-up with management, and an altercation with Bill Graham, the promoter at the Fillmore East. BG was a very powerful man in the tour promotion business, and absolutelt the last person to offend if you want to make it in America.
ReplyDeleteOnly the pleas of the Jimi Hendrix Experience persuaded Graham to let them on stage the next three nights. The tour was a washout, with negative press, and the Canada dates were cancelled. Their records were not strongly promoted in the US or Canada, and got little airtime.
Other criticisms made against them were that they didn't fit neatly into any particular box, their music was rarely singalong stuff, and people couldn't dance to it.
Chapman says they were selling heaps of records in the rest of the world, touring and pulling big crowds, yet they were always broke. The labels, the suits, the managements, all seemed to be doing nicely out of Family, but the band were rattling along the highways in worn out tour-buses, sleeping in third-rate hotels...
The question, though, unanswered as yet, is do you like the music?
Hi Souby! I like them alright, especially that first song. And any band that has a lead singer that will throw an instument in the air (even if its just a tamborine) is alright, especially if he puts down for a Brown Ale.
ReplyDeleteGuy that used to work with me was a big Family fan, and Audience too. Of the two I probably would prefer Audience.