National Head Band

The National Head Band was a 70's British rock group evolved from a group called The Business a quartet featuring Neil Ford (guitar, vocals), Dave Paull (bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals), Jan Schelhaas (keyboards) and John Skorsky (drums). After signing a management deal and changing their name they got a deal with Warner Brothers who, for some unfathomable reason, insisted that the group should have two drummers. Enter Lee Kerslake (drums, keyboards, vocals), fresh from recording the first Toe Fat album. However, no sooner had the band entered the studios than drummer Skorsky decided to quit! The remaining quartet had quite divisive musical tastes: Schelhaas was a soul fan, Ford was a bluesman, Paull was ostensibly a folkie and Kerslake was more into rock. Given the task of melding all these influences into a coherent album was Eddie Offord who had just completed work on The Yes Album. Offord was more than up to the task in hand and the results he achieved are admirable as elements of all of the individual members musical interests can be heard on the album, which fits neatly in with other albums released in the early seventies that are recognised as classics of the blooming progressive scene. Label incompetency, a mistimed and misplaced tour of Top Rank venues, and a whole batch of faulty album pressings did the band no favours who, unheralded, split later the same year.
==Links to Peel==
Peel discovered the group in the early 70's and the band recorded a session for his show in January 1971. He was also at the Roundhouse in May 1971, where the band performed at a gig and was also present when the group was recording a live concert at The BBC Paris Theatre in July 1971. 
After Peel's death in 2004, it was later found out that he had copy of their only album in his Record Collection: N. 
==Sessions==
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According to Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions book, the band were under a previous name called The Gods and did many Radio One pop sessions. Audition panel after watching the group perform called it, 'Specialist programmes only'.
1. Recorded: 1971-01-18. First Broadcast: 06 February 1971. Repeated: 17 April 1971
*Country Water / Hey Look At You Now / Listen To The Music (& Buttocks, not broadcast)
==Live==
Recorded live on 1971-07-01 at BBC Paris Theatre. First Broadcast: 25 July 1971
#unknown songs
#Stories People Tell
#Mister Jesus
==Other Shows Played==
*None
==External Links==
*Discogs
Category:Artists