National Health – Playtime (2001)

National Health who were active from 1975-1980 had a shape-shifting line up which at some time featured most of the members of Hatfield and the North. They issued two albums in 1978 (first one here), which were exactly what the record buying public wasn't looking for at that time.

These albums caught snapshots of the band at two moments in time, but it wasn't until long after that music from the line ups before and after these two albums saw the light of day.

This album attempts to remedy that, with tracks from two gigs in 1979, after founding keyboard player Dave Stewart (not that one) had departed and been replaced by Alan Gowen, also a founding keyboard player who had left before the first album. Are you keeping up?

The first four tracks are from a French gig in April 1979. Flanagan's People is a fifteen minute epic (composed by (Alan Gowen) of prog type noodling, with some lovely guitar work from Phil Miller. However, that doesn't sustain the interest for the full length, especially as much of it sounds improvised and a bit abstract. Nowadays A Silhouette is a Miller composition, largely keyboard led, and again, a bit of a 'modern jazz rock without a hook' feel. Dreams Wide Awake, first heard on the Of Queues And Cures album is a bit more of a rocker, with guitar leading and pushing the sound along for the first couple of minutes, before there's a gentler keyboard feel but it again noodles on a bit. Pleaides is a Pip Pyle (drummer) composition, which with lyrics re-appeared on his solo album Seven Year Itch. It doesn't work as well in this embryonic instrumental version which after the opening theme seems unfocused and wandering.

The final five tracks come from a gig in USA in December 1979. It opens with two short pieces Rhubarb Jam, which really does just sound like a tuning up jam, before Rose Sob, a short John Greaves (bassist) song, which seems to stop just as it's grabbed the attention. This segues into Play Time, another Gowen composition, which while still jazz rock noodling, seems to engage my ears a little more avidly than some of the earlier ones. The album ends with the two parts of Squarer For Maude, a Greaves composition and possibly my favourite piece from the band (also off the Of Queues And Cures album), a brooding start, some top guitar riffing part way through, a melodic middle, and a frantic end.

This is a fitting record of the band at one point in time. The sound quality is good for live performance, but as happens live, jams and noodling go on much longer than you'd want on a CD. nevertheless, it's an enjoyable listen.

Link to Squarer For Maude part 1

3* - a decent snapshot of the band in the final months of their existence