Richard John Whitney (born 24 June 1944), also known as John "Charlie" Whitney, John Whitney and Charlie Whitney, is an English rock musician and a founder member of the bands Family, Streetwalkers and Axis Point.

Career

Whitney was born in Skipton, West Riding of Yorkshire. He attended Leicester Art College in 1962. His first appearance was at Fleckney Village hall Leicester, with his mates from Great Glen, Alistair Sutton, Tony Wilson and Arthur Sloper. The name of the band has escaped living memory, but may have been something to do with Jeans. Their second gig was cancelled due to snow and they never reformed. He then formed his own band known as The Farinas. They played rhythm and blues, and featured Jim King on saxophone and vocals, bassist Tim Kirchin and drummer Harry Overnall. They performed songs by Chuck Berry and The Coasters before releasing the single "You'd Better Stop" in August 1964. Later, Ric Grech replaced Tim Kirchin and Roger Chapman joined as the principal lead singer, giving a heavier blues sound before renaming the band The Roaring Sixties.

During 1966, The Roaring Sixties were renamed Family and they replaced their drummer Overnall with Rob Townsend. The band issued its first single as Family entitled "Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens/Gypsy Woman" in 1967^[1] and Family's debut album Music in a Doll's House followed in July 1968. Family's heavy, experimental rock music gained them a reputation as a progressive underground band. By 1970, with the release of their albums A Song For Me and Anyway, they made an appearance at the third Isle of Wight Festival on 28 August 1970. Although Family proved to be popular in UK and continental Europe, success in the US eluded them and in 1973 the group broke up.

Whitney and Chapman wrote most of Family's songs together as a team. Whitney also composed two tracks, the instrumental "Summer '67" and the childlike folk song "Processions", about a small boy enjoying a day at the seashore.

Whitney then formed Streetwalkers with Chapman in 1973. This new band included vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench, from The Jeff Beck Group and Hummingbird, future Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain who later moved on to play with Pat Travers and bassist Jon Plotel. They signed to the Vertigo label, recording an album entitled Streetwalkers (1974). The band broke up in 1977, ending eleven years of the Whitney-Chapman musical partnership.

Whitney remained active in rock music. He reunited with Rob Townsend, his bandmate from Family, to form Axis Point in 1978.^[2] The line-up for this band included piano player Eddie Hardin, vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench from Streetwalkers and former Taste bassist Richard McCracken. When Axis Point broke up in 1980, Whitney formed Los Racketeeros, a live unit which played blues and bluegrass music. Los Racketeeros recorded a debut album in 1995 with a line-up including Alan Rogers, Pete Tomlyn, and Tony Taylor. Whitney released a solo album in 1999, and played concerts with Robert A. Roberts, a singer-songwriter, vocalist, harmonica player and guitarist, who had been a founding member of the London Bluesband Roadhouse. They released a CD as The Whitney-Roberts Combo experimenting with folk music.

Whitney now lives in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, Greece

Discography

References