Customer Reviews

Live in Concert

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This CD includes performances from 2 very different versions of Family. The 1st 10 cuts are by the group who produced only the final Family album, "It's Only A Movie." The last 3 cuts are from mid-period Family, circa "Anyway."

The late-edition ensemble was outstanding in its own way, however, I can't help but wish there was more of the Family that produced the bulk of their recorded output. If you liked "It's Only A Movie," you would definitely enjoy the live CD. If "It's Only A Movie" struck you as too heavily R&B influenced for true Family, this won't help change your mind. Personally, I liked all the mutations of Family, & I find it amusing to hear Roger Chapman rip through a cover version of "Rockin' Pneumonia & Boogie Woogie Flu."

For people more attuned to the prior versions of Family, the last 3 cuts scratch that itch a bit. However, the sound quality for those cuts is pretty mediocre.

I suppose we should be grateful for any live Family. This one's a keeper. Apparently it's out of print as this is written, but it should pop up again one of these days.

As the reviewer below mentions, this is some fine live stuff from one of the best line-ups of one of the best bands ever. What's not to like? Well, some IDIOT at BBC (or whoever produced this) added an applause track that is a LOOP about 4 seconds long repeated over and over, with the same whistle coming along every four seconds. Did they think we wouldn't notice? It turns every segue into an excruciating exercise in frustration.

But: buy it for some good versions of Family standards, especially a powerful "Sat'd'y Barfly" and a few others from the peerless "Fearless" album.

Reviewing Family: Live in Concert poses a dilemma for me. Family is my favorite band, my favorites of and across any era of music. Though Family nurtured a nearly fanatical following in England and across much of Europe, the band never achieved great popularity in the United States. This live set showcases the talents of the Its Only a Movie lineup of the band for the first 10 songs, but the last three tracks were culled from recordings made during the John Wetton/Poli Palmer lineup that produced Bandstand and Fearless. Hence, the first ten tracks have a looser, sparser sound than the last three.

The band excels, as always, on Burlesque, and segues nicely into a jaunty rendition of Sat'd'y Barfly. Top of the Hill and Ready to Go bookend a nice set of four of Familys lighter tracks, including the classic My Friend the Sun. Roger Chapman takes the opportunity to scat a bit and tinker with the vocals on most tracks. Charlie Whitney, the most underrated guitarist on the planet, does his thing expertly throughout, and he delivers a blistering solo toward the final two minutes of Read to Go. My favorite track is the reworked Holding the Compass, a song that crackles with more energy than I would have thought possible when compared with the studio version of this number from Anyway. Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, the only song Family covered, at least the only one that has surfaced on a recording, is fun rock and roll with a sound a feel that foreshadows Chapman and Whitneys next band, Streetwalkers.

Of the other three songs, only In My Own Time really sounds sharp. Weavers Answer sounds too stripped down without the violin and horns that Grech and King contributed in the first line-up of Family.

Although these live performances are very good, the recording is marred by muddy mixing and, worst of all, canned applause that follows each track into the opening of the next track. After about three songs, hearing this same applause track over and over becomes very irritating. (There is a bootleg version of the first ten songs on this CD called in a different track order without the irritating applause tracks but with the stage announcements by John Peel, the legendary English DJ who ardently supported Family.)

One has to wonder if there are other live tracks by Family in the vaults somewhere. Other than the live half of Anyway and several bootlegs it seems strange that we dont have more testimonies to a band known for its killer live shows.

All die-hard Family fans will need to snap up this CD while it is still around, but neophytes sound probably go for the other CDs by Family.