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4 May
Friends of the Family – Rotten To The Core

I’ve been wanting to do a Friends of the Family blog post for a while now. I usually don’t like to put anything up until I have all my facts straight, but unfortunately there’s not much I can go on. Info on this band is seriously hard to come by (next to none in fanzines or online). So if you know anything about them, please feel free to comment below.

Friends of the Family were from Yorkshire (I believe) and seemed to be together from 1986-88. They released two singles on Ediesta Records: “Rotten To The Core” 7″/12″ (CALC 017) and “Three Fat Men (On a Bicycle)” 12″ (CALC 039). Apparently Matthew Eaton was in the band, who was the original bass player in Delta, and later in Pram. They played some shows with The Sea Urchins in 1988 (I found a great post here about that).

I recently saw on Facebook that Stephen from the Please Rain Fall blog is also planning on writing a post about them and I surely hope he can fill in the blanks.

Listen to “Rotten To The Core” below which is my favorite track. It’s quite fantastic! It always reminded me a bit of “Talulah Gosh” by Talulah Gosh, which is never a bad thing in my book.

Friends of the Family – Rotten To The Core
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_friendsfamily.mp3]

4 Comments

  1. Hi Ed! Thanks so much for posting the song. It’s been a few years since I last heard it as my copy of the 7″ disappeared a long time ago. I first heard about the band when I saw an interview with them in ‘Kvatch’ fanzine, which is the ‘zine Claire Wadd used to write. Following on from this I also saw in a magazine called ‘Underground’ which had national distribution at the time, that Matthew Eaton was doing a fanzine called ‘Cathead’. Curious to see what the fanzine was like I sent off for it (I was also a fan of the American band The Catheads), and received a letter back from Matthew apoligising that he had decided not to proceed with the fanzine but instead included a copy of the ‘Rotten To The Core’ 7″. I loved the record – a pure pop classic.

    You are right, Matthew did go on to play in the first Delta line-up and was also in Pram at this time. The only other thing of note I know about them is that they played a great gig with The Sea Urchins at Birmingham University in October 1986. I only have second hand reports of the show but apparently it was a great night. I am pretty sure Rosie and Mattew moved to Birmingham to attend University and have remained in the city ever since.

    The above was going to be the basis for my post but I was having difficulty finding the song so thanks again for posting. As I said on facebook my two new cats are keeping me busy so I’m not sure when I would have been able to post anyway. The two cats love the song as well. :)

    Comment by Stephen — 4 May @ 3:15 pm

  2. Thanks Stephen! Glad I was able to help with the song. I’m always on the hunt for Kvatch zines, so the quest continues. Good luck with those cats! :)

    Comment by ed — 4 May @ 5:20 pm

  3. A fabulous song! Upbeat and rhythmic with percussive CHOPS. Love the synth line that runs through it. What a shame they didn’t do anything more or of significance. Maybe they put all their energy into this one track? Aw.

    Comment by jennifer — 8 May @ 1:43 pm

  4. Thank you for posting this song. I loved this 12″ way back in the 80’s, especially the b-side “september skies. Unfortunately i sold all my records in the 90’s. It would be great if you can also put “septemper Skies” on this side.

    The female singer “Rosie” is maybe the same “Rosie” of “Pram”?!

    Comment by Thomas — 26 Sep @ 12:03 pm

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