Family - Live Playhouse Theatre 1971

Back From The Dead...
Originally posted January 17, 2015

Family - Live Playhouse Theatre
London, UK

November 1971
Soundboard @320

"Family's Live (Mystic Records UK, MYS CD 176) is an incredible document of the group's November 1971 tour of Britain to support their new album Fearless, in which the band pushed the envelope to find new vitality and new meaning in both their earlier songs and in selections from their new album. The lineup at the time, as always, was anchored by the three members who remained in Family from start to finish: drummer Rob Townsend, whose precise timekeeping and explosive fills always kept Family rock-steady; guitarist Charlie Whitney, whose biting solos sounded as menacing as his cocky sneer and his double-necked Gibson guitars looked; and lead singer Roger Chapman, who made Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant sound like a crooner with a bleating vibrato voice that was accurately described as the sound of an "electric goat." Rounding out the group in 1971 were bassist/vocalist John Wetton (yeah, the guy from King Crimson and Asia), who paced Family's music fluidly, and Poli Palmer, who contributed on the flute, piano, synthesizer, and vibraphone -- and excelled at all of them. These performances, from a tape found in Chapman's possession, are a chronicle of a rock and roll band that tore through material with a thunderous, relentless drive few of their peers in British rock could match."
~Unknown

Tracks:
01. Good News Bad News
02. Spanish Tide
03. Part Of The Load
04. Drowned In Wine
05. Holding The Compass
06. Between Blue And Me
07. Children
08. In My Own Time
09. Take Your Partners
10. Weavers Answer

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Playhouse '71

Family - Live Thru The Years (1972-73}

Family - Live 1972-1973

Boston & UK 

{The Playhouse Theatre, Paris Theatre and Peel Sessions}

Soundboard and FM Source Recordings

A blues-based band with art rock inclinations, Family were one of the more interesting groups of hippie-era Britain. Fronted by the deft and frequently excellent guitar playing of John "Charlie" Whitney and the raspy, whiskey-and-cigarette voice of Roger Chapman, Family were much loved in England and Europe but barely achieved cult status in America. While bands like Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, and the Keith Emerson-led Nice (and later Emerson, Lake & Palmer) sold lots of records, Family, who frequently toured with these bands, were left in the shadows, an odd band loved by a small but rabid group of fans.

After Family's demise, Whitney and Chapman formed the blues-rock Streetwalkers; other Family members (of which there were quite a few in the band's tempestuous eight years) such as John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia) and Jim Cregan (Rod Stewart) went off to find fame and fortune elsewhere.
~AMG

http://www.familybandstand.com/ 

 

Thanks to:
dkandroughmix-forgottensongs.blogspot.com
bigozine2.com

Years