Strange Band

One of the great and most original progressive bands of the late 60s/early 70s, Family were an influence on so many groups that came along after them. Fifty-two years after its release, Prog talks to Roger Chapman and Poli Palmer about one of their best albums, Bandstand.

- Mike Barnes

“We weren’t trying to sound different, we just were different,” vocalist Roger Chapman says about his former group, Family. And while never a vehicle for double concept albums or displays of flashy virtuosity, Family were one of the first and among the most open-minded of the late-60s/early-70s progressive rock groups, mixing songcraft with a multitude of styles, from jazz to soul, to heavier rock forms, to folk, classical and Eastern influences. They were also a dynamic live act, with Chapman a particularly intense frontman. In a time when musically different was embraced by the record-buying public, all this contributed to a series of UK Top 40 albums and singles before Family’s dissolution in 1973.

John ‘Poli’ Palmer had a background in jazz drumming. He’d had spells with Blossom Toes and folk-rock band Eclection before joining Family in 1969, playing flute, keyboards and vibes. Looking back, what does he think of Family’s position in the 70s progressive-rock milieu?

“We used to get on with a lot of the other guys, but any [musical] kinship was probably more with bands like Traffic than Yes,” Palmer says. “Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but a lot of musicians who talk about Family say, ‘Oh, you were a proper band. You weren’t like a bunch of posers.’ There was no thought of what you called it. We all came from different areas of music and thought whatever sounded good to our earholes would probably sound good to other people. We were naïve as that, really.”

Family formed in 1966, having come up through the Leicester rock’n’roll scene as The Farinas and The Roaring Sixties, and in 1968 released their debut album, the postpsychedelic, proto-prog masterpiece