{"id":160366,"date":"2025-09-22T01:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T01:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/160366\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T01:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T01:02:12","slug":"the-wild-story-of-family-the-british-hellraisers-that-john-lennon-loved-and-middle-america-hated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/160366\/","title":{"rendered":"The wild story of Family, the British hellraisers that John Lennon loved and Middle America hated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family were one of the great cult bands of the late 60s and early 70s. Spanning the worlds of rock, prog and blues<\/a>, the notched up a string of hits before imploding before they ever truly became massive. In 2012, ahead of their reunion the following year, Classic Rock sat spoke to the surviving members of the band to look back on a story of missed opportunities and thwarted ambitio.n.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Classic\n<\/p>\n

In the slightly surreal world of Family, it seems almost fitting to start their story at the end: October 13, 1973, the Holiday Inn, Leicester, a few hours after the band\u2019s last ever show at Leicester Polytechnic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was a big send-off, the grand finale, the last gig of a sold-out UK tour, in front of a partisan home audience. It was good, says Roger Chapman, the band\u2019s irrepressible lead singer. \u201cReally good.\u201d But the after-show party that night at the Holiday Inn? \u201cWell,\u201d he laughs \u2013 which he does heartily and often \u2013 \u201cthat was even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jon Lord was there. As was Ralph McTell, \u2018Whispering\u2019 Bob Harris, John Peel; everyone from the band\u2019s record company; footballers Frank Worthington and Lenny Glover from Leicester City; an assortment of nubile young ladies. There was beer, wine, Champagne, illegal substances; dark corners and dodgy behaviour. It was that kind of night.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 177 (October 2012) (Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

As the party spilled over into the pool area, a man appeared, wearing deep-sea diving gear. He leapt into the pool and started throwing bubble bath around. The buffet table ended up in the deep end. There was a food fight. A couple of dozen rubber ducks floated from the pool into the hotel lobby on a wave of bubbles, debauchery and excess. The fun and chaos went on all night. Rob Townsend, Family\u2019s drummer, left early when someone attempted to throw his pregnant wife into the pool.<\/p>\n

It was like a wild, end-of-term party, Bob Harris remembers, \u201cinvolving increasing nudity and general celebration. The party was eventually brought
to a halt by hotel management at around 5.30am, after many complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 6am, staff at the Holiday Inn decided to stage a full fire drill. It was their revenge, says Chapman. \u201cI can\u2019t say I blame \u2019em,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut that was what it was like back then. We went for it. We were never the kind of band to do things by halves. We never did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Family\n<\/p>\n

Family in 1968: (from left): Roger Chapman, John \u201c\u2018Charlie\u201d Whitney (back), Jim King (front), Rob Townsend, Ric Grech (Image credit: Pictorial Press Ltd)<\/p>\n

A wise man once said that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Which is where, today, you find Roger \u2018Chappo\u2019 Chapman. He\u2019s a curmudgeonly old bugger. And that\u2019s not us being uncharacteristically unkind, that\u2019s him being characteristically blunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy trouble,\u201d he says, long fingers scratching a stubbly chin, \u201cis that I get the hump. Always been the same. We can be playing somewhere, and everything will be going well, and then I\u2019ll hear some arsehole shout something from the crowd and that\u2019ll be it, I\u2019ll be on one. Or maybe the lighting man will do something wrong, and that\u2019ll set me off. I get mardy. It\u2019s not a kind of rock star excess, I\u2019ve always been like it. It\u2019s just the way I am. Too late to change it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapman turned 70 this year. He quite enjoyed it. \u201cI\u2019ve only ever felt slightly twitchy about my age once, when I was around 55, 56, and so many people said: \u2018Oooh, soon be the big six-o, eh?\u2019 that I was bloody relieved when I did finally reach 60.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He looks well. Better than he deserves to look, being honest, for a man who has lived the life he has. The debauchery stopped a long time ago. He quit smoking 20 years ago. He stopped smoking weed after suffering a psychotic breakdown during a press conference in a Paris hotel room in the 70s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body just gave up,\u201d he recalls, \u201cright in the middle of an interview with four or five journalists. I think they thought it was all part of my thing, you know, this weird act, the enigmatic English rock singer. It wasn\u2019t. I remember sinking further and further down in my chair, and then not being able to get up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He should have been sent home to rest, the tour cancelled. Instead, he played the show that night. The rest of the band were never told.<\/p>\n

Back then, he says, there wasn\u2019t much he didn\u2019t do. Dope, acid, speed, cocaine, heroin, pills, uppers, downers, it was no big deal. Everyone did it. You were considered a bit strange if you didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky, though,\u201d he says. \u201cI could turn my back on it on the way that others couldn\u2019t. I did drugs, yes, but I did them recreationally. I saw what it did to others, good friends, people I knew who couldn\u2019t stop, and I know I\u2019ve been very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of Family is one involving other-worldly musical creativity, excess, a stubborn insistence on doing things their own way, and commercial under-achievement. These things may, or may not, have been linked. \u201cI have no regrets,\u201d Chapman says bluntly. \u201cWe did things our way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the story of a working-class band who were working on building sites in Leicester one day, and attending swanky London parties with Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved from Leicester to a house behind the Kings Road in Chelsea. I remember going out for dinner one night to an Italian restaurant on the Fulham Road with actor Ben Carruthers [whose son, Dijon, went on to play drums in Megadeth]. He was in The Dirty Dozen, a big film at the time. He took something from his pocket and popped it in our champagne. \u2018Here you go,\u2019 he said. \u2018This should liven things up a bit.\u2019 That was my first acid trip. Did I like it? I must have done \u2013 I did it again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Leicester in 1942, Chapman was raised by his grandparents. His dad left when he was two, his mum died when he was 13. Roger and his elder brother Tony were in and out of care. It was tough. Rock\u2019n\u2019roll, he says, kept him out of trouble.<\/p>\n

He left school at 15. He told the careers advisor he wanted to go to art college to study painting. Instead they found him a job painting on building sites. At night, he sang in the local clubs. People told him he was good, that he could really sing. \u201cYou should join a band,\u201d they said. So he did.<\/p>\n

He joined The Xciters, who had a shy, young bass player called Ric Grech. Grech, whose Ukranian father had settled in Leicester after the war, was an introverted but highly talented musician who\u2019d swapped violin (he was classically trained) for the bass guitar after hearing The Beatles.<\/p>\n

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\"Family\n<\/p>\n

Family onstage in 1970 (Image credit: Pictorial Press Ltd)<\/p>\n

Grech left The Xciters to join The Farinas, Leicester\u2019s premier rock\u2019n\u2019roll band, led by brilliant young guitar player John \u2018Charlie\u2019 Whitney, and multi-instrumentalist Jim King, who also sang. When King switched from singing to harmonica and sax, the band needed a new singer. Grech took them to a building site in Leicester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember them coming to the site and asking me to join. I said yes straight away,\u201d says Chapman. \u201cI\u2019d seen them. Everyone knew of The Farinas. They were a classy band.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Farinas became the Roaring Sixties, decked out in questionable double-breasted suits. \u201cGod only knows what we were thinking,\u201d says Chapman. \u201cWe looked dreadful.\u201d US impresario Kim Fowley, who recorded an early demo by them, liked the look, insisting they looked like The Family \u2013 a reference to the Chicago mobsters of the 1920s.<\/p>\n

With the mobster suits soon ditched, they became Family. \u201cI fucking hated it,\u201d Chapman says. \u201cI thought it was an awful name for a band. I did for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family signed a management deal with John Gilbert, son of film-maker Lewis Gilbert, who had directed Michael Caine in Alfie. Gilbert had ambition, drive and an impressive contacts list, but not what you might call the band\u2019s best interests at heart.<\/p>\n

In early \u201968 they moved from Leicester to London, ditching drummer Harry Overnall and bringing in fellow Leicester lad Rob Townsend.<\/p>\n

At 19, Townsend was the baby of the band. Nicknamed the Grapefruit Kid (\u201cI played in pubs with bands, underage, and I couldn\u2019t drink. I had grapefruit juice\u201d), he eschewed the rock\u2019n\u2019roll lifestyle: \u201cI know that period is generally regarded as a time of drugs and partying, but it wasn\u2019t for me. I think I had a joint once, and I was sick everywhere, so that was pretty much it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family signed a record deal with Warner Bros offshoot Reprise, and the band members shared a house behind the Kings Road. The management deal they signed ensured John Gilbert received 50 per cent of Family\u2019s songwriting royalties from their first two albums. He still does to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get me started on that,\u201d Chapman growls. \u201cThere\u2019s a clause in the deal that says he gets half the royalties \u2018in perpetuity\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

They wouldn\u2019t have known what that meant back then \u2013 if indeed they ever read it. Then, rock musicians paid scant attention to the paperwork. It was all about the music, man, and the vibes and the drugs and the parties and the chicks. Late-60s swinging London was a good time and place to be in an up-and-coming rock band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d stay in all day, smoking joints and writing songs, then we\u2019d go out to a club, or some party, get back at 5am, sleep all day, get up, and then do it all over again. We were just kids from the provinces. We\u2019d seen nothing like it. It was brilliant. We had the time of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s first album, Music In A Doll\u2019s House, released in July 1968, was an ambitious and sometimes challenging listen, elevated by Chapman\u2019s extreme, bleating vibrato. \u201cThis man\u2019s voice could kill small game at 100 yards,\u201d said one reviewer.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just the vocals that set Family apart. It was Whitney\u2019s tasteful guitar playing, Grech\u2019s impressive bass and violin work, and Jim King\u2019s all-round musical dexterity. Townsend nailed it all together with his distinctive drumming. Individually, they were good. Together, like all great bands, they were more than the sum of their impressive parts.<\/p>\n

Produced by Traffic guitarist Dave Mason and engineered by Eddie Kramer at Olympic Studios in Barnes, south-west London, Doll\u2019s House reached No.35 in the UK. Brimming with horns, Mellotron, violins, studio effects, other-worldly sounds and, on one track, the Tubby Hayes Orchestra<\/a>, Family\u2019s first album is the sound of the acid-drenched underground; five men pushing at the musical boundaries of the era, experimenting, sometimes nailing it, sometimes not, but daring to be different.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Family\n<\/p>\n

Family with bassist John Wetton (right) (Image credit: Jorgen Angel\/Redferns))<\/p>\n

Critics said Family were progressive. And yet while the music was adventurous, it was never highbrow. \u201cYou could never call us pretentious. We were a rock\u2019n\u2019roll band,\u201d says Chapman.
\u201cA rock\u2019n\u2019roll band that liked to experiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an incredible period of musical creativity, really. We were bursting with ideas. I remember we\u2019d sit in the house we shared, and Charlie would pick up a guitar, strum a few chords, and I\u2019d write the lyrics and the melody, and then Jim King would come in and take it somewhere else. And we\u2019d write two, three songs a day like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as vocals, on Doll\u2019s House Chapman is credited with tenor saxophone. It was a lie, he admits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t play the saxophone. I had one, and Jim tried to teach me, but I couldn\u2019t play it. Jim picked one up and, I swear to God, he learned it in two weeks. I could parp out a few notes, but it would be a lie to say I could play it. I put it on the floor once during a rehearsal, and one of the PA speakers fell over and crushed it. The band were like: \u2018Oh, Rog, your sax.\u2019 But secretly I was relieved because it meant I wouldn\u2019t have to play it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven months after Doll\u2019s House came Family Entertainment. Unusually for a second album, there was no pressure, says Chapman. \u201cIf there was, we didn\u2019t feel it. We were just churning it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, he says this period was the high-water mark of the band. During an interview in 1969, John Lennon singled out Family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusically,\u201d Lennon said, \u201cthey\u2019re about the most interesting band out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was right. \u201cFor 18 months or so we were just couldn\u2019t go wrong,\u201d Chapman says. They were writing brilliant songs, and wooing audiences with their manic live performances. It was magical, and effortless. \u201cWe took it for granted, as if it would always be like that.\u201d It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Their second album was a more straightforward affair than their debut. But it wasn\u2019t meant to be. They were hoodwinked by their manager, says Chapman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d finished the album and we were on tour up north somewhere, so, in our absence, John Gilbert and producer Glyn Johns [Beatles\/Stones\/Led Zep] mixed the album. We hated it. The songs on there are good, but it all sounds a bit too smooth, a bit too \u2018safe\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bit too \u2013 whisper it \u2013 commercial. And Family were nothing if not wilfully uncommercial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe released a single, In My Own Time, and then we wouldn\u2019t play it live because we thought that was selling out. We didn\u2019t even put it on an album. We never liked playing [much later] our most popular song, Burlesque, because we thought we were being too commercial.\u201d Stupid, he says. Brainless. \u201cBut there you go. If it was a mistake, at least it was ours, nobody else\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ric Grech especially was peeved at the smooth sound of the second album. \u201cI remember him nagging at me about the bass on one song, and my vocals drowning him out. \u2018Bloody hell, Ric,\u2019 I said, \u2018it\u2019s not my fault. I was on tour in Leeds with you when it was mixed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Family Entertainment reached No.6. Album opener The Weaver\u2019s Answer, a moving lament about an old man nearing the end of his life, became the band\u2019s signature song.<\/p>\n

Family were building a formidable reputation, especially for their dynamic live performances. Later it would help them get big gigs like supporting the Stones in Hyde Park in 1969, and on the Isle of Wight Festival bill the same year and in 1970.<\/p>\n

By early \u201969 the buzz had spread to the States. Dates were booked there, beginning with a run of big shows at the Fillmore East in New York, arranged by big-shot US promoter Bill Graham.<\/p>\n

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\"Family&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

Family\u2019s Roger Chapman onstage in the early 1970s (Image credit: Jorgen Angel\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

April 8, 1969 should have marked the beginning of a glorious new chapter for Family. Instead it was a disaster, says Chapman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in a hotel in New York hotel, just by Central Park, and I remember John Gilbert and Ric Grech deep in conversation in the lobby,\u201d the singer recalls.<\/p>\n

Gilbert announced that Ric had something he wanted to say. Grech said he was leaving the band. Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood were forming a new group and they wanted him as their bass player. And, in fairness, who would have been able to turn down an offer like that?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d known for weeks. But we were told on the day we were playing our first gig in New York!\u201d Chapman exclaims, the exasperation still evident in his voice 40 years later.<\/p>\n

Family were a thrilling live band. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the albums we did, but we always struggled to capture the real essence of the band, the way we sounded on stage,\u201d says Chapman, who would whip the audience into a frenzy with his manic shape-throwing and trashing numerous tambourines against his mic stand.<\/p>\n

That first night at the Fillmore, however, was awful. \u201cRic was so pissed, so stoned, that he could barely stand up. He was holding himself up on his bass amp for most of the gig,\u201d says Chapman.<\/p>\n

The singer was furious, and hurled his mic stand across the stage \u2013 to the side where Bill Graham stood watching. \u201cI didn\u2019t aim it at him,\u201d he says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t deliberate. I was just on one.\u201d But Graham took huge umbrage, marching round the venue tearing down Family posters and chastising the band for their lack of professionalism.<\/p>\n

Chapman was made to finish the tour with his hands by his side; no tambourine, no theatrics, no personality. \u201cIt was terrible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Later that week the band had all their equipment stolen. Chapman lost his passport en route to Canada, which meant all the Canadian shows had to be pulled. His visa was revoked. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Having set out with high hopes, they returned to England early, and without a bass player.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur card was marked after that,\u201d he says. Success in the US always eluded them. \u201cI put it all down to that first show and tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back home, the show had to go on, and it was the beginning of a relentless round of musical chairs for Family. John Weider, formerly of The Animals, was brought in on bass and violin to replace Grech, and they returned to Olympic to record their next album.<\/p>\n

Before work even commenced, Jim King was shown the door for \u201cerratic behaviour\u201d \u2013 a common 1960s euphemism for drug problems. \u201cYou have to remember, Jim was always a bit left-field, brilliant but eccentric,\u201d says Chapman. \u201cWhatever substances you\u2019re taking \u2013 and I\u2019d guess that, for a long time, Ric and I were probably the worst \u2013 then you go your own way. By that time, let\u2019s just say that Jim seemed to be further out on a limb than the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In came John Palmer on keyboards, synthesiser, flute and vibes. First, though, he needed a new name. \u201cThey refused to call me John, there were too many Johns in the band,\u201d says Palmer. \u201cSo they called me Poli. I didn\u2019t like it, but what can you do? You can\u2019t pick your own nickname, can you?\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been Poli ever since. \u201cI think only my bank manager calls me John.\u201d And besides, he says, it could have been worse. \u201cWhen John Wetton joined two years later, they found out his middle name was Ken, so that was it: Ken. He bloody hated that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parts for the new album that had been written for King\u2019s sax were rewritten for Palmer\u2019s flute. It gave Family a different dimension, an unexpected new direction. The album, A Song For Me, produced by the band this time, reached No.4 in the UK.<\/p>\n

But the gap between the band\u2019s two driving forces \u2013 Chapman and Whitney \u2013 was beginning to widen. \u201cI was smoking weed, he was drinking whisky,\u201d says Chapman. \u201cThe two things didn\u2019t really go together.\u201d Whitney was now writing more reflective, acoustic-style numbers with Weider. \u201cI liked what they were doing, but it was too straight, too Joni Mitchell \u2013 and not Family.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Family\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Michael Putland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Anyway, Family\u2019s fourth album, with one live side recorded at Croydon\u2019s Fairfield Halls, and one studio side, was released in 1970. Overall, it was underwhelming. \u201cI remember the recording equipment arrived at Croydon at 7pm that night,\u201d says Palmer. \u201cMics were hastily taped here and there. It was done on an old eight-track \u2013 bass and violin on one track. It was rushed. And I think you can tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the revolving door marked \u2018personnel\u2019 continuing to turn, out went Weider and in came John \u2018Ken\u2019 Wetton, just as the band were recording their fifth album, Fearless.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn [Wetton] was a good man, and a fine bass player,\u201d says Chapman. \u201cHe was a good influence, I think, on the band. He took us in a different direction again.\u201d Wetton lasted just a year, before he left to join King Crimson.<\/p>\n

Bandstand, released in 1972, was a return to form for Family. Still far less experimental than the band\u2019s early work, song for song it was one of their most consistent records. It also gave Family their last, and best-known, hit single, Burlesque.<\/p>\n

After Wetton, Family\u2019s next bass player was Jim Cregan, from soft rock band Stud. He was a guitarist, but he was joining on bass \u2013 a point that seemed to elude him at first, drummer Rob Townsend remembers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offered him the job, and he said yes immediately. \u2018It\u2019s bass, though,\u2019 we said, \u2018not guitar.\u2019 There was a pause, which was him realising it wasn\u2019t what he thought it was. Then he said no. He rang back later that day and said: \u2018Go on then, I\u2019ll do it \u2013 as long as you teach me to play bass.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He mastered it in no time. \u201cHe was good,\u201d says Townsend. \u201cNot particularly flashy like Wetton or Ric, but rock solid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bandstand was also Poli Palmer\u2019s last album with Family. Today it\u2019s still one of his favourites. \u201cSome of the arrangements on there are good,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I do remember we couldn\u2019t think of a name for it, we didn\u2019t have an idea. In the end our manager thought of the name. That had never happened before. I just thought it was kind of symbolic of the state we were in \u2013 a bit tired, creatively exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Family\n<\/p>\n

Family in 1973 (Image credit: Michael Putland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In the autumn of 1972 Family began a US tour, supporting Elton John. This was where the band began to fall apart, says Townsend. Elton rarely had a day off. They played night after night, travelling huge distances from one state to another. They played to a million people in less than two months. It was a tough tour. The audience response was mixed.<\/p>\n

Family did well in the more urbane east and west coast areas, but in other places it was a different story. \u201cThey just didn\u2019t get us in the Midwest,\u201d Palmer remembers. \u201cIt was fine in New York and LA and San Francisco. Everywhere else \u2013 and that\u2019s a big area \u2013 we were met with a kind of quiet bemusement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The camaraderie was different, too. \u201cThe band had changed,\u201d says Townsend. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t these likely lads from Leicester any more, living in the same house. It was more of a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the Elton John tour had finished, Palmer became the latest band member to take the exit door. \u201cIt was time to go,\u201d he says. \u201cFamily were an intense band. By that time, I think, we\u2019d run out of intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In came keyboard player Tony Ashton, previously of Ashton, Gardner And Dyke, who\u2019d had a Top 3 hit with The Resurrection Shuffle. By now Family was a shadow of its former self, and on its last legs. They released one more album, It\u2019s Only A Movie, in \u201973, which received lukewarm reviews, before succumbing to the inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my favourite Family album,\u201d says Townsend. \u201cI know people talk about Doll\u2019s House, but Doll\u2019s House, to me, sounds like 1967; It\u2019s Only A Movie, I think, is more timeless. Tony Ashton had come in and he was a piss-head, basically, but a great fun-time bloke to have around. We had a laugh. I enjoyed recording it. A couple of the previous albums, they were so laborious to record, but we did this so quickly and easily. The pressure was off.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Family\n<\/p>\n

The reunited Family onstage in 2013 (Image credit: Gus Stewart\/Redferns via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Only A Movie wasn\u2019t great box office and in October 1973 Family split. \u201cI think we\u2019d just all had enough,\u201d says Roger Chapman. \u201cWe were tired, a bit stale. It wasn\u2019t as creative as it once was. There were these little niggles and arguments, too. I don\u2019t have many regrets about my time in Family but one of them is that we never really had any rows. No big, fucking clear-the-air shout-outs, which I think would have been better for us.\u201d Instead, he says, there was just lingering resentment.<\/p>\n

Chapman and Whitney went on to form Streetwalkers, with guitarist\/vocalist Bobby Tench and a couple of former King Crimson men, among others. Between 1974 and 1977, and with a number of line-up changes, Streetwalkers released six albums. Today, that widening gap between Chapman and Whitney, who had once formed a potent songwriting partnership that was pivotal in Family\u2019s early career, is so big that the two are not even close. \u201cWe don\u2019t speak,\u201d says Chapman. \u201cWe communicate by email, maybe twice a year. He lives in Greece. There\u2019s nothing more to say\u2026 \u201cWe didn\u2019t fall out. Not really. But\u2026 it\u2019s complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitney went on to form Axis Point and country band Los Racketeeros. Poli Palmer played in Chapman\u2019s solo band and worked with Pete Townshend, Linda Lewis and others. Rob Townsend turned down the chance to join Marc Bolan\u2019s band and instead played drums with Medicine Head. Today he plays with The Blues Band and The Manfreds.<\/p>\n

After Family, John Weider played on a number of records, and has released several solo albums. Jim Cregan played with Steve Harley\/Cockney Rebel before finding big success for many years as bandleader, co-producer and co-writer for Rod Stewart. And you know about John Wetton\u2019s adventures in Asia.<\/p>\n

No one had heard much from Jim King since he left Family. He passed away in February 2012. Also no longer with us is Tony Ashton, who died of cancer in 2001. And Chapman? He\u2019s still doing it. Of course. \u201cI keep saying I\u2019m going to retire,\u201d he says, \u201cand I mean it, too. I\u2019m not just saying it. But then as long as I keep waking up at 4am with a tune in my head, I guess I still have to carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 177 (October 2012)<\/p>\n

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