Music
Family
O2ABC, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
four stars
When Leicester's finest progressive rhythm and blues combo, fronted by the unique tonsils of Roger Chapman, reunited for a couple of gigs at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire at the start of 2013 - some four decades after the band had originally called it a day - there was electric feeling of celebration in the room. Many in the audience had only found the band through their recordings, while some of us had only just caught their final tour as a young teenager in the early 1970s. Add to that a line-up that, while it included four members from back in the day, only two (Chappo and drummer Rob Townsend) had played all the songs then, and there was an exploratory edge to the show that continued the group's musically restless heritage.
The best part of three years on, there is a remarkably settled and relaxed look to the nine-piece, two-drummer, chamber ensemble that returned to the city the band last played when the Apollo was still called Green's Playhouse. This time around, Chapman is quite shamelessly reading his lyrics from a music stand, and there are scores for other members, but the singer's expletive-strewn banter is more late-night club than concert hall, except when he chooses - apropos of not very much - to mention his regard for the young local lad Paolo Nutini, spoonerising his name for characteristic comic effect.
The time around the set does not seem to major quite so much on the later albums in Family's brief but prolific career, including a good number of songs from the 1960s. Weaver's Answer and Hung Up Down received storming renditions, but it was the range of the music that still impresses after all of these years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel