Formed in Leicester in 1967 Family evolved out of
The Farinas, a R&B group who recorded for Fontana and were also known as The Roaring Sixties, but probably not the same band who in 1966 had recorded the then topical We Love The Pirates for Marmalade. The Farinas had been going since 1962 when Charlie Whitney had founded them at Leicester Art College.
In mid-1967 The Farinas moved to London and met up with American producer Kim Fowley who persuaded them to change their name to Family. They signed a one-off deal with Liberty in September 1967 for whom they cut a superb psychedelic single, Scene Thru' The Eyes Of A Lens, which also offered a foretaste of Chapman's unique vocals. It did not sell and is now extremely rare. You'll also find it on Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks. Their debut album, Music In A Doll's House (co-produced by
Traffic's
Dave Mason) was a brilliant mind-expanding effort, full of new ideas and diversity. It surely must rate as one of the best debut albums of the sixties. Family at this time were an important part of London's underground circuit along with
Pink Floyd,
Soft Machine,
Tomorrow et al. Their stage act was electric, the charismatic Chapman would contort around the stage in a demented haze and considerable use was made of light shows and smoke clouds.
Music In A Doll's House was self-penned, save for one
Mason composition, Never Like This, and contained daringly innovative material like The Chase, Mellowing Grey, Winter, See Through Windows, New Songs Old Songs and Peace Of Mind. This was mind-expanding music that highlighted Chapman's raucous vocal dexterity and utilized a wide range of instruments. Every track was a winner. Around this time the band achieved the dubious distinction of being the anonymous subjects of Jenny Fabian's novel 'Groupie'.
Family's reputation as one of Britain's leading rock bands was consolidated by their follow-up album, which was produced by John Gilbert and Glyn Johns. Although less consistent than the debut it contained some of their most powerful work, particularly on The Weaver's Answer which captures Chapman's vocals at their most manic, Hung Up Down and Observations From A Hill (Side one's three opening tracks). The album made No 6 in the UK Charts. After a series of unsuccessful 45s (in commercial terms, at any rate) 45 Chart success eventually came in 1969 when No Mule's Fool reached No 29 in the November of that year. 1969 was a tumultuous year, for the band witnessed the first of a series of personnel changes. Ric Grech left during their first US tour to join
Blind Faith. John Weider, who was then playing with an LA-based club band Stonehenge but who had previously been with
Eric Burdon and The Animals flew out to replace him. During the tour the group got into a misunderstanding with America's top promoter at the time, Bill Graham, and they never did make it big in the States probably as a consequence of that. When they returned to Britain they parted company with Jim King too. He was ousted due to some rather unpredictable behaviour and went on to play for an outfit called Ring Of Truth.
Upon King's departure, Poli Palmer, who had played in various Birmingham-area bands including Bakerloo Blues Line and
Deep Feeling joined. The band now enjoyed its most commercially successful, if not its most innovative, period. Not only did A Song For Me and Anyway reach numbers 4 and 7 in the Album Charts respectively, they also enjoyed three hit singles. In June 1971 John Weider left to join
Stud, who having recorded an album for Deram earlier that year, went on to record a couple for the German BASF label which weren't released in Britain. John Wetton came in to replace him from
Mogul Thrash but left 15 months later for
King Crimson. However, in this time the band produced two albums:- Fearless and Bandstand, which not only gave them more success in the UK Album Charts reaching Nos 10 and 15 respectively but also gave them their only US success making Nos 177 and 183 respectively in the Album Charts over there. After these Poli Palmer left to start a new band with Ric Grech which never got off the ground. Tony Ashton was drafted in as a replacement on keyboards, and Jim Cregan joined fromStud but by now the band was past its prime. A switch from Reprise to Raft for their final album, It's Only A Movie, did not ebb the tide and by October 1973 they were gone for good. Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney later teamed up in
Streetwalkers. Rob Townsend re-emerged in
Medicine Head and was later in The Blues Band.
"Ace of Wands" – 5:23
"Hands of the Priestess I" – 3:28
"A Tower Struck Down" (Steve Hackett, John Hackett) – 4:53
"Hands of the Priestess II" – 1:31
"The Hermit" – 4:49
"Star of Sirius" – 7:08
"The Lovers" – 1:50
"Shadow of the Hierophant" (Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford) – 11:44
bonus: 09. Ace Of Wands (Live At The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) 6:32
10. Shadow Of The Hierophant (Extended Playout Version) 17:01
All songs written by Steve Hackett; except where indicated
Steve Hackett: electric & acoustic guitars, mellotron, Harmonium, bells, autoharp, vocals on "The Hermit", effects
John Hackett: Flute, Synthesizer, bells
Mike Rutherford: Bass guitar, Bass pedals, 12-string guitar
Phil Collins: drums, vibes, percussion, vocals "on Star of Sirius"
John Acock: Elka Synthesizer, mellotron, harmonium, piano
Sally Oldfield: Vocals on "Shadow of the Hierophant"
Robin Miller: Oboe, English Horn
Nigel Warren-Green: Cello
Percy Jones: Bass guitar on "A Tower Struck Down"
Johnny Gustafson: Bass guitar on "Star of Sirius"
Tapestry of Delights: Emerson and Jackson had played with Gary Farr and The T. Bones and Emerson had also been in the short-lived V.I.P.'s prior to the above quartet establishing themselves as P.P. Arnold's backing group in 1967. The Nice would play their own set prior to her own show in which they would back her. They went down so well that Immediate offered them a recording contract in October 1967. They became very much a part of the psychedelic era in their appearance and dress and were popular among British underground fans in the late sixties. Musically, they were dominated by Emerson's virtuoso keyboard playing and concentrated on re-vamped classics. Their debut album was well-received including lengthy renderings of Rondo and War And Peace. O'List departed after this and was replaced for a while by Longstaff the following year. After his departure the band became more centred around Emerson and his highly theatrical keyboard playing. Their second album is certainly worth investigation and included Emerson's interpretation of Leonard Berstein's America from West Side Story which also reached No 21 in the UK when issued as a seven-minute single in the Summer of 1968. Side two of the third album was recorded live at the Filmore East, New York and included renderings of Rondo '69 and Dylan's She Belongs To Me!. Overall, the album had its moments but at times was frankly tedious. Their fourth album was their most ambitious to date. By this time Immediate had folded and the band had switched to Charisma. However, by the time of their fifth album Jackson and Davidson were beginning to resent Emerson's almost total dominance of the group and the band broke up amid considerable ill-feeling. The album is not really worth purchasing as two of the four tracks are merely new arrangements of earlier compositions, America and Hang On To A Dream. Often controversial (they were banned from London's Albert Hall in June 1968 after setting fire to the stars and stripes during a rendition of America, which Bernstein prevented them from issuing in the US), The Nice's music was unique. Despite their popularity, it was detested by some. Emerson, of course, went on to achieve greater fame with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. O'List re-emerged in the seventies in Jet. Both Jackson and Davidson, however, were relatively unsuccessful in their attempts to launch their own bands, Jackson Heights and Every Which Way.
Tapestry of Delights: This New York psychedelic rock group, named after a popular American Ice Cream, formed in 1966 out of the ashes of (Mark Stein and) The Pigeons and began by specialising in doing slowed down version of other peoples' compositions. Their debut album included organ dominated versions of Lennon-McCartney's Ticket To Ride and Eleanor Rigby, Rod Argent's She's Not There and Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready- The remake of The Supremes' hit You Keep Me Hanging On reached No 18 in the U.K. in the Summer of 1967 and was later a U.S. hit. Their treatment of these songs was characterised by organ melodramatics and extravagant productions; the album sold quite well and the group had an uniquely distinctive sound. It is said that The Beatles were impressed with the band, with George Harrison playing their version of Ticket to Ride and Eleanor Rigby for anyone that visited them. Eleanor Rigby Pts I & 2 (Atlantic 584, 139) failed as a single in the UK, as did Where Is My Mind/The Look Of Love (Atlantic 584.170), a 1968 release. Their first album reached No 6 in the U.S. Album Charts. Their next album, however, was over-ambitious and pretentious, failing in its attempt to provide a history of 25 years of musical development on one LP! Nonetheless it still climbed to No 17. Rennaissance, which was released in 1968 and reissued in 1974 by WEA, showed some improvement, largely on account of their typically melodramatic nine-minute version of Donovan's Season Of The Witch which was somewhat surprisingly a minor hit in the U.K. in 1969. However, when the band attempted to write their own material, the result was usually a dismal failure. Vanilla Fudge described their music as 'psychedelic symphonic rock'. The 'symphonic' was an exaggeration, although one can detect a slight classical influence in their music. Rennaissance reached No. 20 in the Album Charts and Near The Beginning made No. 16. Side two was live. As the psychedelic era drew to a close, the band moved towards a more conventional heavy rock sound, finally splitting after their fifth LP which reached No. 34 in 1970. Appice and Bogert went on to play with Cactus then Beck, Bogert and Appice and then Rod Stewart, while Stein formed an abortive band called Boomerang.
"The Hurlyburly" - 4:38
"Interference Patterns" - 3:52
"The Final Reel" - 5:49
"Lifetime" (Hammill) - 4:47
"Drop Dead" - 4:53
"Only in a Whisper" - 6:44
"All That Before" - 6:29
"Over the Hill" - 12:29
"(We Are) Not Here" - 4:04
All songs by Hugh Banton, Guy Evans and Peter Hammill except where noted.
Peter Hammill – voice, piano, electric guitar
Hugh Banton – organs (including bass pedals), bass guitar
Guy Evans – drums, percussion
Side one "The Right Side" (Kirkby Gregory, John Cook) - 3:50
"Jekyll & Hyde" (Gregory, Cook) - 4:38
"Sooner or Later" (Gregory, Elmer Gantry) - 3:02
"Living a Lie" (Cozy Powell, Bernie Marsden, Don Airey) - 5:37
Side two "Cat Moves" (Jan Hammer) - 5:12
"Sunset" (Gary Moore) - 4:32
"The Blister" (Moore, Airey) - 4:22
"Hot Rock" (Hammer) - 4:36
Cozy Powell - drums
Elmer Gantry - lead vocals on "Right Side", "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Sooner or Later"
Frank Aiello - lead vocals on "Living a Lie"
Kirkby Gregory - guitar on "Right Side", "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Sooner or Later"
Bernie Marsden - guitar on "Living a Lie"
Jeff Beck - guitar on "Cat Moves" and "Hot Rock"
Gary Moore - guitar on "Sunset" and "The Blister"
Chris Glen - bass on "Right Side", "Jekyll & Hyde" & "Sooner or Later"
Neil Murray - bass on "Living a Lie"
Jack Bruce - bass on "Cat Moves"
John Cook - keyboards, Moog Taurus on "The Blister" and "Hot Rock"
Don Airey - keyboards on "Sunset" and "The Blister"
Mel Collins - saxophone on "The Right Side"
David Sancious - synthesiser on "Cat Moves"
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