This has been one of my favourite songs for a long time. It makes me well up like a big sop every time. A real hidden gem.

"My Friend The Sun" sits alongside Ronnie Lane's best solo work in that subgenre that never really was but shoulda been - "neckerchief rock".
It's the sound of lounging around in an English field with friends on a sunny day and cocking a snook at the music industry and its material possessions.
Let's dig out our mandolins and start a revival!

I've been having a good old tasting session of late in the Britrock pie from a 70s recipe - and pulled out more than a juicy plum or two.

There comes a point - relatively soon for me I must confess - where ole Rog's "distinctive" vocal stylings become a little too rich for my palate. A few mouthfuls however are delicious. This in particular

just check his bass and backing vocals, oh and Ready to Go is the best "let's get dressed up, go out and have an Helluva! time" tune Evah!

wonderful album

Mug of mine" is also damn fine, great lyrics and performance.

I had a similar revelatory experience when listening to their previous album "Fearless" recently, also well worth checking out. A friend of mine on hearing "In My Own Time" on the BBC4 prog special demanded that I provide him with copies of everything. Could an ELO-like re-appraisal be in the offing?

Their entire canon is undervalued. Highly original, eclectic instrumentation including Chapman's unique voice, pastoral melodies mixed in with raucous workouts, they were much more substantial than ELO or any of the early seventies bands who have merited re-appraisal. Never too late to call them 'great.'

AND "Bandstand" is not by any means the Best Of Family... That honour goes to Family Entertainment...or is it Music From A Dolls House? Or perhaps A Song For Me? Or maybe Old Songs New Songs? You get the picture! Great(strange) band!
And Chappo told me to fuck off once!!!

Love this song, and coincidentally a cover of My Friend The Sun is on the new record from Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, late of The dB's.
Don't you love it when that happens - two favourite but seemingly disparate bands cross paths...?

the pseudonymous band Relation in Jenny Fabian's Groupie:
La gran groupie de la psicodelia inglesa, que cuenta con el dudoso honor de haber enamorado al siempre confuso Syd Barret. Famosa en el underground psicodélico londinense, escribió sus memorias, Groupie, en simultáneo con sus noches de ácido y sexo, y hasta les informaba a sus conquistas que serían parte de un libro. Nunca le creyeron boutros boutros gali.
Leicester's finest.

Blimey, thought I was their only fan in Blighty: fabulous LP "Mavericks" has been a firm favourite for years. Good to see they are still collaborating betwixt other business.
And agree with all the praise garnished on Bandstand, bought it when Burlesque was troubling the singles chart and still enjoy it now. Perhaps thru' familiarity I believe it to be family's best. Bought a dble CD retrospective a year or 2 back and was largely disappointed, with only 50% of the tracks travelling to i-pod. Solo Chappo a very mixed bag, as were Chapman-Witney Streetwalkers, who I thought may have had a mention in all this.

Possibly the best 3 minutes of English Psyche this side of Strawberry Fields. Great phasing, man.

I love Family - in addition from Chapman's mesmeric vocals, the musicianship is wonderful.
Drowned In Wine one of the best swagger songs of all time

Family are / were highly under-rated. I'm pretty sure that Ian MacDonald cites "Music In A Doll's House" as a strong influence on the Beatles in "Revolution in the Head"?

Family are due a revisit.Chappo was one of the great 1970's singers a fantastically intense manic live performer. My Friend The Sun and No Mules Fool are both unique and beautiful. The strangulated Hung Up Down is worth a shot as one of their best. Observations From A Hill and the mighty Weavers Answer deserve a mention too and also Strange Band Were We plus the epic Drowned In Wine. Great live band they should reform! Chapman/Whitney are very underrated as rock songwriters. Good shout Patrick

is an absolute stonewall classic. I also bought a 2 cd retrospective that I assume is the same one that Retro bought. If so the largest disappointment was The Weaver which is one of my favourite Family songs - the sound quality of that song on that disc is absolutely awful. No wonder the compilation was so cheap.

..there will be no Chapman/Whitney reunion... certainly not the original band Anyway (see wot I did there?).
On his website some years ago he was quite negatively vitriolic about ever teaming up with Charlie Whitney again... no idea why. Anybody any clues?
Also his hate for Ric Grech is quite undestandable, given the way that Ric left the band. The fact that he is also dead would prove an obstacle also, one would assume.
Jim King was effectively given the sack by Chappo, (once again, no idea why).
So..
That leaves him and Rob Townshend...
Chappo is doing a mini tour of the UK this year, and if you can catch him, you MUST do. Still a singer with few peers in this World, BUT do not shout "Give us some Family stuff", or ask him for his autograph, as I did as a callow 16 year old in 1969, or he will swear at you also.
The guy is a total bad tempered musical God!

...voted for most underrated guitarist? And why should Pagey get all the "double-neck Gibson" kudos?

God, I loved Family - a storming band altogether, but Fearless and Bandstand put the tin hat on it. I even have a soft spot for the much maligned "It's Only a Movie".