The Family Cat
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The Family Cat was a British independent band founded in London in 1989. Three members were originally from Cornwall, one from Plymouth and one from Southampton.
The band played live for 5 years and recorded 3 albums, the mini-album "Tell 'em We're Surfing", released on South London independent label Bad Girl Records, and its full-length follow-ups, "Furthest From The Sun" and "Magic Happens", released by Dedicated Records. The band never quite capitalised on the momentum generated by the success of debut single "Tom Verlaine", although the band's final LP, "Magic Happens" entered the lower reaches of the album chart and "Airplane Gardens",about the same for a week on the UK Top 50 Singles. Mainly the Family Cat would place many singles on the Indie chart including their finest moment in "Steamroller", a slow burning 8 minute blast of rock'n'roll which would not have sounded out of place on Abbey Road and was melodically a slowed down rewrite of When the Saints go marching in.
They would also grab headlines by naming one of their songs "Bring Me The Head of Michael Portillo" and later turned their attention to Jonathan Aitken who was so incensed that the proposed single was shelved. It was in fact no more than John Lennon had done in the 70s but times had changed
Influenced by the last 30 years of popular music from the Beatles to Scott Walker to the Velvet Underground, their music was very melodic and radio friendly, but in spite of critical acclaim the band were unable to reach the heights of "Britpop" bands like Oasis or Blur.
Amongst their covers were a stunning version of the Beatles' Across the Universe,the Stones' Rocks Off and Scott Walker's Montague Terrace (in Blue).
Paul Frederick later formed Pure Grain, who made one EP for their own Supple Pipe label, entitled "Here Come The Millionaires". The cover painting of which was by Paul Morris of Vegetables at Last fame.
Choosing to concentrate on studio work, Pure Grain changed their name to Jack Adaptor [1] in 2004. Their first, self-titled album was released on Schnitzel[2] records in November 2004, with a single "No Logos" on the same label. The Internet-only "Right Royal", released on Supple Pipe followed in early 2006, while "Road Rail River" is due out later in the year. The band is now Paul Frederick (vocals) and Christopher Cordoba (all instruments/production).
John Graves is now a wine expert resident on the South Coast of England, while Stephen Jelbert is a freelance journalist based in London.
Tim McVay and Kevin Downing are working at Zebedees, a youth development centre in Truro, Cornwall. The project is heavily musically based and amongst other duties they both teach instruments, and help develop young bands. The real tragedy of the failure of the Family Cat to crack the mainstream is never knowing why. Their music was incredibly inventive touching on as many influences as possible to offer something different
[edit] Members
- Paul Frederick (guitar, vocals)
- Tim McVay (guitar)
- John Graves (bass)
- Stephen Jelbert (lead guitar)
- Kevin Downing (drums)
