Family: Music In A Doll's House

A perennial favourite lp from one of my all time favourite groups; and in my mind tops Family Entainment which followed.. It was 'Entertainment' along with ITCOTCK and some Procol Harum lps that Richard MacPhail brought to the Cottage where Genesis all lived together prior to recording Trespass..

One of the things that set Family a bit apart was the provincial background of the band, coming from the area around Leicester- the 'Scene' (using that phrase in its 60's meaning) was predominantly London based and very much middle class, Art School.. Family were (to use their phrase) a bunch of 'Scruffy Herberts' from the sticks.. before becoming Family (The Family) they were The Farinas and then the Roaring 60's.. much more hard R&B like the Pretty things and at one point they used to wear Italian mafia get ups! Roger Chapman's aggressive stage persona and the strange selection of instrumentation made audiences nervous and they had to work REALLY hard to get some of the limelight which came so easily to others. I think this provincial 'hunger' and work ethic to get noticed also applied to the Moody Blues..

Music in a dolls house benefited from Dave Mason's involvement in that (A) Traffic were a big deal (B) he helped and guided them through the production process (C) had access to Mellotrons and Sitars and probably most importantly(D) he had access to the best weed.. The only downside to Mason's involvement is the song he 'contributed' 'Never like this' which is the weakest on the lp and much like what he was writing for Traffic at the time. Of course they had the 2 best engineers of the era looking after things in the forms of Eddie Kramer and George Chkiantz..

Its a period piece; there is no other lp quite like it.. is it prog etc etc? who cares. Was it influential? yes definitely but subtly though they were always a bit too eccentric and rough around the edges for the mainstream to accept. John Peel really rated Family right from the start and (unlike some bands) stayed with them right through their career.. He appreciated that rough edge as sign of genuine passion and creativity.

My final comment is that the 1967 first single 'Scene through the eye of a lens' which didn't make it on to the original lp is just fantastic, one of the most telling debuts from any band.