Biografie
Richard Roman Grech (1 November 1946 – 17 March 1990) was a British musician.
Born in Bordeaux, France in 1946, Grech was a versatile, accomplished, and sought-after British rock musician.
He originally gained notice in the United Kingdom as the bass guitar player for the progressive rock group Family. He 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 UK, 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.
Released in February 1969, Family Entertainment, the group's second album, was a major turning point for Grech personally. In addition to playing bass and violin, he wrote three of the album's other songs: "How-Hi-The-Li," "Face In the Cloud," and "Second Generation 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 arrangement 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.
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.
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 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, a "supergroup" which also included Denny Laine (ex-Moody Blues) on guitar, Chris Wood (ex-Traffic) on sax and flute, and several other musicians; when that group ended, Winwood reformed Traffic with original members Wood and Jim Capaldi, and Grech joined as their bassist.
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