Richard Roman Grech, November 1, 1946 – March 17, 1990. November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... This article is about the year. ...

Born in Bordeaux, France in 1946, Grech was a versatile, accomplished, and sought after British rock musician. He originally gained fame in the United Kingdom as the bass player for the progressive rock group Family. City motto: Lilia sola regunt lunam undas castra leonem. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ... Martin EB18 Bass Guitar in flight case The electric bass guitar (also called an electric bass, or simply a bass) is an electrically-amplified string instrument similar in appearance to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer-scale neck and four strings tuned an octave lower in... This is about the British rock band Family. ...

Grech joined the band when it was a largely blues-based live act in Leicester known as the Farinas; he became their bassist in 1965, replacing Tim Kirchin. Family released their first single, "Scene Through The Eye of a Lens," in September 1967 on the Liberty label in the U.K., which got the band signed to Reprise Records. The group's 1968 debut album Music In a Doll's House was an underground hit that highlighted the songwriting talents of Roger Chapman and John "Charlie" Whitney as well as Chapman's piercing voice, but Grech also stood out with his rhythmic, thundering bass work on songs such as "Old Songs New Songs" and "See Through Windows," along with his adeptness on cello and violin. Leicester city centre, looking towards clock tower Leicester (pronounced ) is the largest city in the English East Midlands. ... Roger Chapman on the cover of his 1996 album Kiss My Soul Roger Chapman (Roger Maxwell Chapman) is a British singer (born on 8 April 1942, in Leicester, England). ... Richard John Whitney (born June 24, 1944) John Charlie Whitney is a British rock guitarist and a former member of both Family and Streetwalkers. ... A cello The cello (the c is pronounced /ʧ/ as the ch in church) or cello, short for violoncello, is a stringed instrument and a member of the violin family. ... The violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart, the lowest being the G just below middle C. It is the smallest and highest-tuned member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello. ...

Released in February 1969, Family Entertainment, the group's second album, was a major turning point for Grech personally. In addition to playing excellent bass and violin lines on Family's signature song "The Weaver's Answer", he wrote three of the album's other songs: "How-Hi-The-Li," "Face In the Cloud," and the exciting rocker "Second Geneeration Woman," which was first released as a single in Britain in November 1968. This song featured Grech on lead vocals, leading Family through a cheeky lyric about a woman who "looks good to handle from a personal angle," with an arangement that recalled the Beatles's "Paperback Writer" and owed an obvious debt to Chuck Berry. Tellingly, however, all of Grech's songs contained obvious drug references - "How Hi-The-Li" wondered aloud if Chinese premier Chou En-Lai "gets high with all the tea in China" - and drugs would eventually plague Grech throughout his career. The Weavers Answer is a song by the British progressive rock band Family that is the first track on their 1969 album Family Entertainment. ... The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 as part of their first tour of the United States, promoting their first hit single there, I Want To Hold Your Hand. ... Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Chuck Berry (born October 18, 1926 in St. ... Zhou Enlai (Simplified Chinese: 周恩来; Traditional Chinese: 周恩來; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnl i; Wade-Giles: Chou En-lai) (March 5, 1898 – January 8, 1976), a prominent Chinese Communist leader, was Premier of the Peoples Republic of China from 1949 until his death. ...

In the spring of 1969, former Cream guitarist Eric Clapton and former Traffic frontman Steve Winwood formed the supergroup Blind Faith; in need of a bassist, they immediately recruited Grech, whom they'd both jammed with when Clapton was in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Winwood was in the Spencer Davis Group. Unfortunately, Grech failed to give Chapman and Whitney adequate notice, and Family was due to start a U.S. tour with Ten Years After. Grech agreed to go on the tour until Family could replace him, but he proved to be unreliable when Family played their first American show on April 8, 1969 at the Fillmore East in New York. Though that show is remembered for Roger Chapman throwing a microphone stand at Bill Graham, Grech contributed an indignity of his own; he was so disoriented he could barely play. Cream (also The Cream) was a seminal 1960s British rock band which featured guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. ... Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born March 30, 1945), nicknamed Slowhand, is a Grammy Award winning British guitarist, singer and composer, who became one of the most respected and influential musicians of the rock-era, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ... Traffic on the cover of their eponymous 1968 album. ... Stephen Lawrence (Steve) Winwood (born May 12, 1948 in Great Barr, Birmingham, England) is a British singer, songwriter, and musician who, in addition to his solo career, was a member of the bands the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith. ... The cover of the bands only album, Blind Faith The alternate cover of the bands only album, Blind Faith Blind Faith was a band formed in late 1968 when Eric Clapton (ex-Cream) and Steve Winwood (ex-Traffic) were at a loose end following the demise of their... John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album cover John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers was a pioneering British blues band that included such luminaries as: Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce (both later in Cream), Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood (later all in Fleetwood Mac), Mick Taylor (later in... The Spencer Davis Group was a mid-1960s British rock band founded by Spencer Davis (born 1942 in Swansea, Wales). ... Ten Years After is a British blues rock band popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... Fillmore East was promoter Bill Grahams rock palace in the East Village area of New York City. ... Bill Graham (January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was a well-known concert promoter, beginning in the 1960s. ...

Returning to England, Grech recorded the first Blind Faith album with Clapton, Winwood, and drummer Ginger Baker, a former bandmate of Clapton's in Cream. Their self-titled debut album was regarded as a disappointment by critics, but Cream and Traffic fans in America enjoyed it, and the quartet toured the U.S. to support it. Clapton was disappointed with the quality of the music and the performances, and Blind Faith called it quits. Grech and Winwood stayed with Baker to form Ginger Baker's Air Force; when that group foundered, Winwood reformed Traffic with original members Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi, and Grech soon joined as their bassist. Peter Edward Ginger Baker (born August 19, 1939) born in Lewisham, London, is a British percussionist who gained fame as a member of Cream from 1966 until 1968 with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, and later joined Clapton and Steve Winwood in the 1969 group Blind Faith. ... Ginger Bakers Air Force was a Jazz-rock fusion band comprised of Baker, Graham Bond on saxophone, jazz drummer Phil Seaman, Chris Wood and Harold McNair on saxaphone and flute, Denny Laine on guitar and vocals. ... Chris Wood (June 24, 1944 – July 12, 1983) was a founding member of the British rock band Traffic along with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Dave Mason. ... Jim Capaldi (2 August 1944 – 28 January 2005) was a British musician and songwriter and a founder member of Traffic. ...

Grech remained a vibrant musician as a member of Traffic. As in Family, he lasted two albums with the band, Welcome To the Canteen and The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys. Grech's bass playing on the title song of the latter album was stirringly moody. Drugs, however, remained a problem, and Winwood and his bandmates eventually decided they had no alternative but to dismiss him.

Grech remained active in session work, playing with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, and Muddy Waters. He also performed in Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert in January 1973, and he even reunited with Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney when the duo recorded an album in 1974 after Family's breakup. Grech was one of many special guests on that record, which led Chapman and Whitney to form the group Streetwalkers. Grech, however, was not in that band. Roderick David Stewart (born January 10, 1945) is an English born singer and songwriter of Scottish descent, most known for his uniquely raspy, gravelly, hoarse-sounding voice and personable singing style, as exemplified in his signature song Maggie May. In a career now entering its fifth decade, Stewart has achieved... Singer, songwriter and bass player Ronnie Lane (April 1, 1946 - June 4, 1997) (nicknamed Plonk) is best known for his membership in two prominent British rock bands, The Small Faces (1965-69) and The Faces (1970-75). ... McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1915 or 1913–April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered the father of Chicago blues. ... Eric Claptons Rainbow Concert was an album recorded live at the London Rainbow theatre, released in 1973. ...

Grech made at least two reported attempts to start a new rock group in the seventies; he hoped to start a new band with fellow Family alumnus John "Poli" Palmer in 1973, but that plan fell apart. He also planned to start a new group with former Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell around Joe Jammer, a guitarist they'd both discovered. That group was in fact never formed, and Jammer went on to form his own band, the Olympic Runners. James Marshall Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and cultural icon. ... Mitch Mitchell John Mitch Mitchell (born 9 July 1947) was a drummer for Jimi Hendrix. ...

Eventually Grech grew tired of the rock scene and retired in 1977, returning to Leicester to sell carpet. He eventually developed a drinking problem, and in 1990 he died of liver and kidney failure at the age of 43.

External link

• A detailed biography (Geocities.com)