John Weider

John Weider (born 21 April 1947, Shepherd's Bush, 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 alongside 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.

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 by the new ensemble was the 1967 effort, 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 thus replaced 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. The single "No Mule's Fool", Family's first single with Weider on board, took the band in a country-rock direction.

Weider appears on Family's two 1970 albums, A Song for Me and Anyway released ten months apart.

After Family

Weider left Family in the summer of 1971. Although he had replaced Ric Grech as Family's bassist, he was primarily a guitarist and wanted to get away from the bass for a while.^{[citation needed]} 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 self titled debut solo album in 1976. In the mid 1970s, he was also a 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.^{[citation needed]}