The Canterbury Scene of the late 60s and early 70s marked a remarkable period in the history of British progressive rock music and, most notably, the development of jazz fusion. It was rich with names such as Kevin Ayers (Soft Machine), Daevid Allen (Gong), Fred Frith and Robert Wyatt (Henry Cow), and National Health’s Dave Stewart among many others.

Despite being originally a geographic term, as many of the bands heralded from the Kent cathedral city, it is now used to capture the style of the vibrant musical experiments of its main exponents of the time. These two superb examples from the mid 70s have been re-issued and provide the perfect illustration of the wealth of material now available again.

National Health – Of Queues And Cures (ECLEC 2130)
Dave Stewart had already been an inspirational part of Uriel, a band that had included Steve Hillage later of Gong and The Orb, Egg, Hillage’s Khan, and Hatfield And The North. In fact any family tree of the Canterbury Scene would provide a mass of links of membership from one band to another with the lines of connection spreading far and wide and becoming ever more intricate.

When Stewart formed National Health in 1975 he brought in Hatfield And The North pair, drummer Pip Pyle, who replaced Bill Bruford (later of King Crimson and Yes), and guitarist Phil Miller. Keyboard player Alan Gowen of Gilgamesh, Phil Lee and ex-Egg bass player Mont Campbell completed the original line-up.

Named after Dave Stewart's round-rimmed National Health glasses (the type previously made famous in the mid 60s by John Lennon) they played a gloriously rich fusion of lengthy and highly complex compositions that remain as vibrant and absorbing today as when they were first heard over thirty years ago.

Their first self-titled album, recorded in March 1977, arrived in the midst of the ongoing punk revolution. The second, Of Queues And Cures, was recorded in Yes singer Jon Anderson’s mobile studio at Ridge Farm near Dorking in Surrey. The title had been aptly taken from a newspaper article bemoaning the state of the National Health Service and in particular the length of hospital waiting queues.

Article Author: Jeff Perkins

Jeff is a writer who lives in France. He writes CD/DVD box sets, music reviews and has had a book published about David Byron of Uriah Heep. He is 'busy' exploring the music of Europe with his wife Debbie and dog Dylan. It's Dylan that does the writing of course. …

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