John Weider (born April 21, 1947 in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England) is a rock musician who is equally proficient on guitar, bass, and violin. He is best known as the bass player for the British band Family from 1969 to 1971.

Early years

Before joining Family, Weider had already accumulated a formidable list of credits despite being only 22 when he joined to replace Ric Grech after Grech defected to Blind Faith. He played with the legendary Steve Marriott as a teenager in a pre-Small Faces band called Steve Marriott and the Moments. He then went on to replace Mick Green as lead guitarist in Johnny Kidd and the Pirates - no small feat, as Green was regarded as one of the first British guitar heroes in rock and roll, Pete Townshend being one of the many guitar players singing his praises. (Green had been known for his raunchy playing.) Weider, though, amply filled the bill for Johnny Kidd.

In 1966, Eric Burdon, frontman for the Animals, put together a new Animals backing group when the original members departed (Eric Burdon and the New Animals, sometimes called Eric Burdon and the Animals), and he recruited Weider to play guitar. The first album for the new ensemble was the 1967 LP Winds of Change, in which Burdon abandoned the old blues sound of the Animals and went psychedelic. Weider stayed with the group through 1968, recording The Twain Shall Meet, Every One Of Us, and Love Is, the latter being a soul-based psychedelic rock album that also included future Police guitarist Andy Summers. By 1969, though, Weider was in California playing in an obscure group called Stonehenge when Ric Grech abruptly left Family during that band's first, disastrous U.S. tour and the band needed a new bassist immediately.

Family

Weider was the perfect replacement for Grech in Family. Like Grech, he was a bassist, but also like Grech, he was a fine violinist as well, and many of Family's songs had incorporated violin in their arrangements. Weider joined midway through the tour, which ended prematurely owing to lead singer Roger Chapman's visa problems, but Weider made his presence felt pretty quickly. The single "No Mule's Fool," Family's first single with Weider on board, took the band in a country-rock direction, with Weider providing a strong bass line and a lovely violin solo in the middle eight.

Weider appears on Family's two 1970 albums, A Song For Me and Anyway, released ten months apart. Weider's standout moments on A Song For Me features a tense bass line on the opening cut "Drowned In Wine," a fine country fiddle solo on "Song For Sinking Lovers," and some horrifying violin passages on the title song that sound like ghosts swooping out of a haunted house. The half-live, half-studio Anyway features his heavy violin playing on a live recording of "Strange Band" and a lovely waltz on the same instrument on the studio instrumental "Normans." Also in this period was the April 1970 single "Today," co-written by Weider, Chapman, and Charlie Whitney, and featuring luscious slide guitar lines from Weider that suggested the slide playing George Harrison would later become known for.

After Family

Weider left Family in the summer of 1971. Though he had replaced Ric Grech as Family's bassist, he was primarily a guitarist and wanted to get away from the bass for awhile. He joined Stud, a group that coincidentally featured guitarist-bassist Jim Cregan, who would become Family's final bass player in 1972. After Stud broke up Weider did some session work and released his homonyously titled debut solo album in 1976. In the mid-1970s, he was member of the band Moonrider with Keith West. His more recent albums (listed below) are more in a New Age vein than in a folk, rock, or country style.

Other John Weider albums

• Inervals In Sunlight (1987)
• Essence (1989)
• Ancients Weep (1990)

Reference

Strange Band: The Family Home Page