What brings people back to National Health is never a chorus. It is the writing: long forms built from themes that return transposed, meters that turn without warning, voices used as one more line in the ensemble. Two keyboard players and a guitarist founded the band in 1975 out of the Canterbury circle, and it stopped in 1981, leaving a particular appetite behind — jazz harmony with rock weight, composed end to end, hardly ever jammed. Reviewing Of Queues and Cures, AllMusic called it one of the last and finest examples of the instrumental Canterbury sound put on record in the 1970s. The six prog rock albums for National Health fans below are chosen for that appetite, and each is tied to the band by something checkable on paper: a shared player, a shared label, a catalogue number. The group’s own story is on the National Health band page.

Hatfield and the North — The Rotters’ Club (1975)

Nothing sits closer. The keyboard player who went on to found National Health came straight out of this band, and so, in stages, did its guitarist and drummer; the newer group formed the year this record appeared. Virgin issued it as V 2030; it reached No. 43 in Britain, the band’s only chart entry. No named magazine’s verdict on this album could be reached, so here is the nearest one: the Q and Mojo Classic prog special placed the group’s earlier debut at No. 34 in its 40 Cosmic Rock Albums. Sung vocals are central here, and even the guest voices carry over: a singer credited on this album later joined National Health outright. More on the Hatfield and the North band page.

Gilgamesh — Another Fine Tune You’ve Got Me Into (1978)

The link is printed on the label copy as well as in the line-up. When Hatfield broke up in 1975 its keyboard player spent a short spell in Gilgamesh; the plan he made with Gilgamesh’s own keyboard player became National Health, which for a while used this band’s guitarist too. Charly put the two groups out back to back: this album is CRL 5009, National Health’s Of Queues and Cures CRL 5010. It was cut in June 1978 by keyboards, guitar, bass and drums, with no singer credited. One honest gap: no review in a named publication could be reached for it, so no verdict is quoted. See the Gilgamesh band page.

Bruford — One of a Kind (1979)

The same method, carried into a band led from the drum stool. The drummer whose surname the group took says on his official site that he took part in National Health’s music making in the mid-1970s, and the keyboard player on this album is one of National Health’s founders, so the overlap is double. EG released it in 1979, catalogue POLD 5020 in Britain. AllMusic credits it with good-humoured twists and turns and files it next to Return to Forever and Brand X, while the Penguin Guide to Jazz called it strongly melodic and freewheeling. One caution against filing it as a wholly instrumental record: spoken voices open one track.

Egg — The Civil Surface (1974)

Egg is the prehistory. The organist here went on to found National Health, and this is where that writing turns most uncompromising: it was taped in August 1974, after the trio had already broken up, in the same Worthing studio where Hatfield would record The Rotters’ Club a few months later. Caroline issued it as C1510, two of its seven pieces scored for wind quartet and played by oboe, bassoon, clarinet and flute players from outside. It is not an instrumental album: one track is credited to a three-voice vocal group. All About Jazz, reviewing the reissue, credited it with filling an important gap in the history of the Canterbury sound. The Egg band page has the rest.

Henry Cow — Western Culture (1979)

One transfer explains this pick. Henry Cow’s bass player left the group in March 1976; by 1978 he was playing bass on Of Queues and Cures, which Charly put out that year, while the band he had left was in Switzerland taping this, its last album, at a studio in Kirchberg. Broadcast, the group’s own label, released it the following year as BC1. The original LP is instrumental, with bassoon, oboe, saxophones, clarinet, trombone and violin carrying the melody, though a later CD edition added a sung bonus track. Christgau’s Record Guide graded it A minus and described it as chamber music made with rock instruments. The Henry Cow band page has the wider story.

Steve Hillage — Fish Rising (1975)

Same label, same year, adjacent shelf. Virgin issued Fish Rising as V 2031, the number immediately after The Rotters’ Club, and the keyboard player who founded National Health that year is credited on organ and piano. The bassoonist heard on Western Culture plays here too, and the guitarist’s first band was the outfit that turned into Egg. It reached No. 33 in Britain. The long opening suite runs to almost seventeen minutes and one of its sections is titled Canterbury Sunrise. Uncut called the guitar playing on it frequently a thing of sheer splendour.

Where to start

Take The Rotters’ Club first: sung across much of its length, and the long suite only arrives once you already trust the band. Fish Rising is the natural second step, sung as well. One of a Kind and Another Fine Tune You’ve Got Me Into sit in the middle: neither carries a singer, and both work in separate pieces rather than side-long structures. Leave The Civil Surface and Western Culture until last: both are scored for wind and brass as much as for a rock group, and both were made by bands that had already stopped being bands.

Go deeper

The quickest way to widen this out is to follow the same people sideways. The Hatfield and the North recommendations page covers the other half of the same address book, and the wider prog rock recommendations hub collects every guide in the series. British jazz-rock of the same decade is the next room, and a beginner’s guide to Nucleus is the door.

If it was the jazz end of National Health that caught you, two sister guides go there: albums for Return to Forever fans and albums for Mahavishnu Orchestra fans, both built on documented links. For single tracks instead of whole records, try the best progressive rock songs of all time. And a book-length account of the British scene, Beyond the Thames, in the Beyond the Sound series, covers the same ground in far more detail.

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