{"id":382,"date":"2019-03-29T10:09:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T09:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philipjetheridge.com\/?p=382"},"modified":"2022-05-20T10:29:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T08:29:21","slug":"34-my-friend-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/29\/34-my-friend-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"34. My Friend the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On the day the Stones played for free in Hyde Park, Saturday 5th<\/sup> July 1969, I was working at Woolworths in Finchley. We wanted to go but couldn\u2019t because our boss wouldn\u2019t let us have the time off. And naturally this really pissed us off. But it wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s House<\/em> and Entertainment<\/em>. They were released again on CD in the 90\u2019s and of course I bought them both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family were\nled by Roger Chapman, whose powerful voice often sounded like the bleating of a\ndemented sheep, with a very fast vibrato. His unique voice, along with the\nsongs, was the main attraction of the band. Chapman wrote most of the songs\nwith guitarist John Whitney and live they had a wild reputation. So wild that\nJimi Hendrix refused to follow them onstage. As the band were multi-instrumentalists,\nthe arrangements were often complex and interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music in a Doll\u2019s House <\/em>was produced by Dave Mason of the band Traffic and was Family\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Family: Bandstand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I ended up buying almost every album Family released: Anyway, Fearless <\/em>and Bandstand<\/em> (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\u2019t stand Roger Chapman’s singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Friend the Sun <\/em>is a great track from the 1972 Family album Bandstand.<\/i><\/span><\/font> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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