BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: Richard John Whitney
Description: Guitarist
Known For: A former member of both “Family” and “Streetwalkers”.
Instruments: Guitarist
Music Styles: Rock
Location: United Kingdom
Date Born: 24th June 1944
Location Born: Skipton, Yorkshire
CONTACT DETAILS
Web Site: http://members.aol.com/stwalkers/
Other Links: For other links about this entertainer click on the Links button above
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Charlie Whitney
Richard John Whitney (born 24 June 1944, Skipton, North Yorkshire, England), also known as John “Charlie” Whitney, John Whitney and Charlie Whitney, is a British rock guitarist and a founder member of the rock bands Family, Streetwalkers and Axis Point.
A British rock guitarist and a former member of both Family and Streetwalkers.
He has been alternatively credited as John Whitney and Charlie Whitney on various recordings.
Like many British teenagers in the 1950s, Whitney got into rock and roll, and while attending Leicester Art College in 1962, he formed his own band, the Farinas.
The group, which featured:
Jim King – saxophone and vocals
Tim Kirchin – bass
Harry Overnall – drums
The goup played rhythm and blues music, performing songs by Chuck Berry and The Coasters.
Personnel changes, with Ric Grech replacing Tim Kirchin and Roger Chapman joining as the principal lead singer, turned the group into a heavier, more blues-oriented band. Renaming themselves “The Roaring Sixties”.
The group changed their name to “Family” and replaced Overnall with Rob Townsend on drums. The band issued its first single as Family in 1967.
Though Family proved to be popular in Great Britain and continental Europe, success in the U.S. eluded them, and by 1973 the group disbanded.
Whitney continued working with Chapman in Streetwalkers, the project they founded in 1974.
Later career Charlie Whitney remained active in rock music, though not as visibly as Roger Chapman would in the 1980s and 1990s.