“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.’”John ‘Poli’ Palmer “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…
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Prog Italia (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 147