An album that takes me back, The years fall away and I'm eight years old . It's yesrerday once more. One of seven again. In a large house in Nottingham called Private Road. A little boy in short trousers with a proud head of curly hair. Two older brothers. Two sisters. One older . One younger sister. A mum and dad. Struggling with money and a new life. But all very happy together. In the Seventies. One of the strangest but most wonderful decades of all.
We were just back from Zimbabwe. Where we'd returned from in 1972. Adjusting to a different climate and a different world. My mother retraining as a Social Worker. My father had a job with Boots. One of the most prominent employers in Nottingham. Dad travelled off to Eastern Europe every few months. Trialling Nurofen behind the Iron Curtain.
Enough of my Family. Back to Family. They came from neighbouring Leicester. Where my father had been born in 1934. But had long since decamped to London where they were surrounded by glamorous women and dressed in gowns, beads and saffron. Patchouli oil and incense sticks. They were much feted. The next big thing
Their first album was produced by Dave Mason of Traffic who has recently passed. Jimmy Miller was also in the mix. The record was called The Doll's House which reputedly led The Beatles to change the name from the same name to The Beatles (yeah, The White Album).
The Doll's House is a staggering, evocative album . Like so many of its time. It's a world that's effectively gone now. But AI and The Internet can recover and carry you back apparently, This effectively is the very reasin I started thus blog 13 years and counting back. And why I continue working in the seam. So let's put Bandstand on and spin back in time.
It's their sixth album, bands worked hard back in those days and this one came out in 1972. The exact year the seven of us departed Africa and arrived in England. The original sleeve was a Die-Cut in the shape of a Bush TV22 screen. Family are going straight. Or as straight as they can. Utilising more conventional song structures and arrangements. Wistful sentiments and stylings.
Vocalist Roger Chapman is the only Family constant. This is John Wetton's last album with the band. He's off to King Crimson. But first there's My Friend The Sun. One for the ages. I turn over the sleeve. Gaze down at the valves and wires on the back sleeve of the sleeve. 'I know that you're waiting. Come out from your shell... although there's been rain and it's coming again. Change has to be here. Obviously...'
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