Search - National Health :: Playtime

A previously undocumented era of this phenomenal band...

01/30/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Wow - it never ceases to amaze me how it is possible to hear what is for all intents and purposes "new" music from a band that last played together in the early 1980's.However, die hard National Health fans take note: this album is vastly different from any of the other National Health recordings you may have heard. After the "Of Queues and Cures" album (but before "D.S. Al Coda") Dave Stewart ended up leaving the band and Alan Gowan rejoined! So, the lineup consisted of Alan Gowan, Phil Miller, Pip Pyle, and John Greaves. This incarnation of the band never made it to the studio to record an album, but they did tour - this CD is taken from two concerts which the band played in 1979.Other than the very brief, "Walking the Dog" clip on the "Missing Pieces" CD, there have been no legitimate releases by this incarnation of the band. Live tapes have circulated for years, but very few approach the quality of this CD. This band is *much* more free sounding than it ever was when Dave Stewart was involved - so once again, take note: you aren't going to hear any structured recordings like Stewart's "Tenemous Roads" etc. But these are brilliant performances nevertheless...and a very important documentation of this previously undocumented era of the band. If you own National Health "Complete" and "Missing Pieces" then you must buy this CD to complete the National Health musical story, despite the fact that it is far different from their other recordings.The sound is remarkable considering that these were 1979 concerts taped without any intent of release, and the liner notes by Canterbury expert Aymeric Leroy add the final chapter to the story which Dave Stewart so eloquently told in the liner notes to "Complete" and "Missing Pieces." Pip Pyle adds his own brief summation of this period in the liner notes as well.Anyway - I've said enough. If you like National Health, buy this amazing CD without expectations of hearing Dave Stewart's own remarkable and structured compositions, and hear the final untold musical chapter which this band has to offer."

Oodles of talent

WillieB | 11/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"National Health was such a great band. Their music (mostly instrumental) is timeless, complex, melodic, filled with passion and unique. The band mates are all virtuoso performers - a rare breed. The live material on this disc comes from two outings recorded in 1979, so the sound quality is limited. In fact, the clunker notes which are "fixed later in the studio" in most modern live recordings are audible here, and that adds to its charm. This is 100% live, mistakes and all. Also included are some interesting liner notes about the band.



I had the fortune of seeing them on their tour of the States in 1979 and can honestly say it was the best concert I have ever been to. I can still picture the huge ring Pip was wearing on his right hand, the cue ball that John used like a madman on his bass guitar, Phil throwing sheet music on the floor, and Alan pacing back and forth in his black leather jacket smoking a cigarette during a keyboard break. They had no light show, no gimmicks, just a balls to the wall here's what we got attitude. And it blew me, and the other eighty or so people in the audience, away. Never have I experienced anything like this and still haven't to this day! If your new to Health I would not recommend this as a starting point, try to get their studio releases if you can, but for fans, such as myself, this is a must have.

"