National Health: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Videos
• Photos
• Groups/Boards
• Fan Sites

• D.F.A.
• Soft Machine
• Caravan
• Henry Cow
• Miriodor
• Camel

• Yes
• Colosseum
• Soft Machine
• Miles Davis/Charlie Parker
• John Coltrane
• King Crimson

• Episode

• Hatfield and the North
• Dave Stewart
• Amanda Parsons
• Gilgamesh
• Egg
• Matching Mole
• Gong

• Alan Gowen
• Pip Pyle

Formed:

Jan 1, 1975

Disbanded:

Jan 1, 1982

Genres:

Rock Music, Progressive Rock Music

Decades Active:

1970's|1980's

Artistic Quality

Low

Ratings Guide

National Health is one of those rare English progressive bands whose classic mid-'70s output still sounds fresh today. Their sound prospered on imaginative linear musicality, often in a jazzy format that emphasized extended instrumental solos. In keeping with the collaborative spirit of the times, National Health had an ever-changing lineup, sharing members with other influential groups like Hatfield and the North, Henry Cow, Matching Mole, and others. After a pair of 1978 releases, National Health and Of Queues and Cures, the group issued 1982's D.S. Al Coda and then fell silent. The overview Complete appeared in 1990; Missing Pieces, a collection of outtakes, followed in 1996. in 2000, Cuneiform issued a live album, Playtime which was recorded at two different shows in 1979 and sequenced and mastered in 2000 by Phil Miller and Pip Pyle as a tribute to their late bandmate, Alan Gowen, who had died of leukemia in May 1981.

- Myles Boisen, All Music Guide