Manchester has ‘Elbow’, Sheffield ‘Pulp’ and Southampton has its own band who’ve stuck at it for many years before getting a deal: ‘The Family’ (picture by Stephanie Ross)
Formed over ten years ago they’ve slowly morphed from a psychedelic band to, as guitarist Ash told me, “a blues band with pedal steel guitar as lead.”
It is the strength of friendship that keeps this band together and ‘The Family’ are back on the circuit following a six month enforced lay-off and looking for a deal.
Its not that they aren’t handy with all the marketing tools available in this ‘MySpace age’, they just: “Want a deal!” bass player Aiden told me, and his reason: “The people in the company know what they are doing.”
Sharing music and influences is what ‘The Family’ love best and they would rather spend their time making and performing their excellent music instead of dealing with the promoting and managing that band’s are expected to deal with these days.
However they have never been short of a good descriptive quote from a journalist and my favourite has to be: “swaggering, bourbon-drenched, cosmic country”
But someone will have to come up with a new tag line for ‘The Family’ as they are shifting their sound towards the British blues of the 60’s which the Stones and The Who are famous for.
Add a manager and the band could be quickly back to their habit of selling out The Joiners and Soul Cellar and filling 52 seat coaches to London.
When you have the bottle to describe your music as “Swaggering, bourbon-drenched, Cosmic Country” you need to back such a grand claim with cracking songs.
Once you’ve heard tracks like: “Who’s In Who’s Out”, “The Byrd” and “Let The Love Shine In” you’ll find yourself floating on heady concoction seemingly brewed in the southern states of America.
Yet with their roots firmly in Southampton you realise The Family have something special.
Born out of blues band Jupiter Few they found this new style by simply adding Hag on pedal-steel guitar and piano.
According to lead singer Brad Weeks things are looking good for the band as a unit but they still need: “a manager, publisher and a record deal.”
As budgets contract in 2009 these will be harder to find but luckily they have been given a free video and, says Brad: “You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Shot by Dan Bridge at the Green Wave Festival this could be an essential gift.
Although the presentation isn’t in the same style of the band’s web sites and CD covers you still get a great impression of how passionate The Family is about their music.
Once you have seen the band on screen I am sure you’ll want to see them live and that is why every act should have one.
