The Big Eyes Family Players

The Big Eyes Family Players

The Big Eyes Family Players are a folk rock group associated with Leeds and Sheffield. They begin as a project started by James Green in Leeds in 2000, initially as a private attempt to make classical music, before expanding into a full band. The group is active from 1999 and remains present.

Formation and line-up

James Green leads the project and later turns it into a more collaborative arrangement based in Sheffield. The group’s members include Shaun Alcock, Jeremy Barnes, James Green, Rachel Grimes, Neal Heppleston, James William Hindle, Suzy Mangion and James Yorkston.

Recordings and collaborations

Big Eyes record four albums in their first four years and split in 2004. Under the name The Big Eyes Family Players, they release five albums of experimental chamber folk-pop. Their work includes collaborations with Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Terry Edwards of Gallon Drunk and Tindersticks, Rachel Grimes of Rachel’s, James Yorkston and James William Hindle.

Green also appears on two Rachel’s albums, Systems/Layers and Technology Is Killing Music. In 2009, the group releases Folk Songs with James Yorkston on Domino Records, and later records a follow-up.

Live work and performances

The group performs live film scores for films by Czech animator Jan Švankmajer at the Roundhouse in London and at The Green Man Festival. They also appear on BBC Radio’s Loose Ends with Clive Anderson, record a session in Amsterdam for VPRO, and perform at VPRO’s Dwars Festival.

They share stages with Alasdair Roberts, Nancy Elizabeth, Volcano The Bear, Sir Richard Bishop, Efterklang, Daniel Johnston, James Blackshaw, Marry Waterson, Damo Suzuki of Can and Josephine Foster.

Later work

Family Favourites appears as the group’s later album and their first release on Karate Body Records in the United States. It consists of reworked older songs, new material and a cover of Dirty Three’s “Three Wheels.”