On the day the Stones played for free in Hyde Park, Saturday 5th July 1969, I was working at Woolworths in Finchley. We wanted to go but couldn’t because our boss wouldn’t let us have the time off. And naturally this really pissed us off. But it wasn’t worth losing a job to see the Stones and I needed the money. Seeing the Stones would have been fun, but even more fun would have been seeing support bands King Crimson and Family. I was particularly keen to see Family, who had already released two great albums: Music in a Doll’s House and Entertainment. They were released again on CD in the 90’s and of course I bought them both.
Family were led by Roger Chapman, whose powerful voice often sounded like the bleating of a demented sheep, with a very fast vibrato. His unique voice, along with the songs, was the main attraction of the band. Chapman wrote most of the songs with guitarist John Whitney and live they had a wild reputation. So wild that Jimi Hendrix refused to follow them onstage. As the band were multi-instrumentalists, the arrangements were often complex and interesting.
Music in a Doll’s House was produced by Dave Mason of the band Traffic and was Family’s only psychedelic album. After that they became more prog than anything else. Their manager at the time was a guy called John Gilbert who coincidentally owned the house I moved to when I left home. We shared the house with his son Ian and a bunch of other people (including Eike Erzmoneit). Though I had no idea who Gilbert was at the time. He also managed another prog band, Gentle Giant.
I ended up buying almost every album Family released: Anyway, Fearless and Bandstand (as well as the first two) but never got to see them live, which was a great pity. These days, if I want to listen to them, I need to do that either alone in the house or alone in the car. My own family can’t stand Roger Chapman’s singing.
My Friend the Sun is a great track from the 1972 Family album Bandstand.