Dysfunctional Family

The newest members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be officially inducted later this week, and, as always, Family won't be among them.  Yes, Family were a groundbreaking rock band and remain the gold standard for any progressive act that wants to take rock where it's never been before and back, but they were never big in America, and last time I checked, a) the Hall is run by Americans, and b) it's called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not the Rock and Roll Hall of Recognition.  But if not for what happened 45 years ago today, things could have been very different.

With two stellar albums (Music In a Doll's House, Family Entertainment) on release by the spring of 1969, Family were on the verge of hitting the big time with a tour of the United States, with an opening show at New York's Fillmore East with the Nice and Ten Years After that was set for April 9 of that year - the day after Family lead singer Roger Chapman's twenty-seventh birthday.  Then, shortly before they left, Ric Grech, Family's esteemed bass and violin player, decided to leave and join Blind Faith, featuring guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker of Cream and keyboardist/vocalist Steve Winwood of Traffic.  Grech, though, somehow forgot to tell his bandmates in Family, and Chapman knew something was wrong when he read a interview with Jimi Hendrix, who was asked why he thought bands changed or broke up.  Hendrix replied, "People have got to move on, these bands split, like Family."

Family, of course, were not splitting up, but they were in fact the only band represented in Blind Faith that hadn't.  Further investigation by Chapman and Family guitarist Charlie Whitney led them to suspect Grech's intentions, and Grech's failure to give them adequate notice of his departure discombobulated the group, which at the time also included saxophonist Jim King and drummer Rob Townsend.  As it turned out, Grech and Family manager John Gilbert only informed the other four members the day before their first concert in America.  

"Obviously, Ric had told [Hendrix] and hadn't told us," Chapman said.  "The rumors are flying and these four berks at the back know nothing about it . . ..  He could have bloody told us before the tour began!"

Grech would stay on until Family could find a replacement for him, but things only got worse.  By the time they took the stage for their first U.S. concert at the Fillmore East, with Grech thoroughly stoned, the group was not at its best, playing rather haphazardly to a crowd that had come to see Ten Years After and were not necessarily in the mood to be "warmed up" by an opening act.  Furthermore, Family's equipment had been damaged in New York, putting them even more off balance.    Chapman finally lost his cool and angrily threw his microphone stand to the side of the stage.

It's too bad that Fillmore East impresario Bill Graham happened to be standing in the wings when that mic stand came hurtling toward him. :-O

Fortunately, the mic stand missed Graham by a few inches or so, and the group was later able to convince him that Chapman hadn't deliberately aimed the mic stand at him, but the damage was done.

"Obviously he was shocked when he saw how I dealt with the microphone; it was absolutely unusual and he was totally startled," Chapman said. "So he ran down the corridor and pulled down all of our posters.  Well, we understood one another afterwards in spite of that, and we did several concerts for Graham later, but I think several other concert organizers and other people in the music business followed Bill's example because he was an important person in the business, and expelled us."

John Weider, an English guitarist and violinist working in California, became Family's new bass player during the tour, joining Family in Detroit on April 26, 1969, where the group played a bill with Canned Heat.  But after a subsequent three-day engagement in Boston in early May, it was all over.  Chapman lost his visa and was deported, and the rest of the band  returned home shortly thereafter.  And the blackballing of Family among American promoters continued, despite favorable reviews like this one, of their April 15-16 engagement at Steve Paul's Scene in New York, from Billboard's Fred Kirby:

"The difference in Family was striking. Where the group had been loose, they were together. Where they had been languid, they were sharp. Where they were unsure, they were comfortable.  The [Reprise Records] artists displayed the high degree of musicianship that had raised expectations for their first U.S. tour. They were especially good in driving material, such as 'The Weaver’s Answer' and 'Observations From A Hill.'  Among the strong points were the strange, strong, tremulous voice of Roger Chapman, Rob Townsend on drums, Jim King on saxophone and recorder, Ric Grech on violin and bass guitar and [Charlie] Whitney on lead guitar."

Family would return to the U.S. in March and April of 1970, touring to support their LP A Song For Me - oh, man, I would have loved to see one of those shows! - and they would return again with Elton John as his opening act, on Elton's U.S. tour in the fall of 1972, which went as smoothly and flawlessly as the 1969 tour did not.  Family even got a lot of radio airplay in America as a result of the Elton John gig.  But it was obvious that promoters did not give them much support, and lack of familiarity (no pun intended) in America with the band meant that their records didn't stir up a lot of chart action.  After being unable to set up a U.S. concert tour in 1973, Family eventually broke up - "People have got to move on, these bands split" - and . . . well, if you want to know what happened next, go to my Family page here. 

Ric Grech, of course, saw his chance of a lifetime to play in a supergroup turn into a fool's errand when Blind Faith broke up after one album.  Despite stints in Ginger Baker's Air Force and a re-formed Traffic, he never gained great fame and left the music business in 1977, dying of substance abuse thirteen years after.  Family's Fillmore East concert could have been an historic breakthrough for the band, but thanks to bad decisions and bad luck, they made the wrong kind of history for all the wrong reasons.  This is why Kiss, not Family, are becoming part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's official history of the music we all love.

Family were and are too great a band to by forgotten because of what happened 45 years ago today.  Now, more than ever, they need to be recognized. Maybe none of today's bands - overshadowed by hip-hop - will ever make it in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the 2030s, but Family belong in there, goshdarn it, and I hope they get inducted soon while most of them are still alive.  

And a happy belated birthday to Roger Chapman (below), who turned 72 yesterday.