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Hatfield and the North | |
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| Origin | Canterbury, England |
| Genres | Progressive rock, Canterbury scene, jazz fusion, psychedelic rock, experimental rock |
| Years active |
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| Past members | Phil Miller Pip Pyle Richard Sinclair Steve Miller Dave Sinclair Dave Stewart |
Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter. [1]
In mid 1972 the band grew out of a line-up of ex-members of blues/jazz/rock band Delivery, Pip Pyle (drums, who had since played with Gong), Phil Miller (guitar, who had joined Matching Mole), and Phil's brother Steve Miller (Wurlitzer electric piano, who had joined Caravan). [2] Replacing Roy Babbington on bass was Richard Sinclair (who played with Steve Miller in Caravan). [1] This line-up moved away from the blues idiom of the early Delivery towards pieces based on riffs in odd time signatures and protracted melodies associated with the Canterbury style.
The band played a few live shows between July and September that year, and gained their first record contract with Virgin Records with the 'Sinclair cousins'...as Steve Miller was replaced by Dave Sinclair (Hammond organ, also from Matching Mole and Caravan), the band soon changed their name to Hatfield and the North. [2]
Delivery reunited for a BBC session in November 1972 with Steve Miller, Phil Miller, Lol Coxhill, Roy Babbington (bass), Pip Pyle, and Richard Sinclair on vocals. (Steve Miller went on to release a couple of duo albums with Coxhill in 1973/74.)
Dave Sinclair left in January 1973, shortly after the band's appearance (with Robert Wyatt on guest vocals) on the French TV programme Rockenstock, and was replaced by Dave Stewart (from Egg) before the band's first recordings were made. [1]
The band recorded two albums, Hatfield and the North (1974) and The Rotters' Club (1975). [1] Backing vocals on the two albums were sung by The Northettes: Amanda Parsons, Barbara Gaskin, and Ann Rosenthal. On the autumn 1974 "Crisis Tour", which Hatfield co-headlined with Kevin Coyne, the opening act was a duo of Steve Miller and Lol Coxhill (also previously of Delivery) and Coxhill usually guested with Hatfield on the jamming sections of "Mumps".[ citation needed ]
After disbanding, Dave Stewart formed National Health with Alan Gowen from Gilgamesh; [2] Phil Miller was a member throughout that band's existence, and Pyle joined in 1977. (Richard Sinclair also sat in on a couple of gigs and a BBC radio session that year.) Hatfield and the North and Gilgamesh had played a couple of shows together in late 1973, including a joint "double quartet" set, in some ways the prototype for National Health. Miller, Stewart, Pyle, and Sinclair also worked together in various combinations on other projects.
The name of the band was inspired by the road signage on the main A1 road heading north from London, where there are a succession of signs (such as that formerly at the junction outside the Odeon cinema in Barnet) referred to the first major town, and the overall direction, as 'A1 Hatfield & the North'. [2] This style of sign from the 1970s has now been replaced by a slightly different variant, reading "The NORTH, Hatfield".
In March 1990, the group reformed to record a television programme with Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair, and Pip Pyle joined by Sophia Domancich (keyboards, Pyle's then-girlfriend and bandmate in Equip'Out). [1]
In January 2005, the band reformed again with Alex Maguire (from Pip Pyle's Bash!) on keyboards and toured between 2005 and 2006 (notable appearances included a short Japanese tour in late 2005, and the BajaProg and NEARfest festivals in North America). On a small number of European dates in June 2005, Mark Fletcher (from Miller's In Cahoots band) reinforced the band while Pyle was recuperating from a back operation and only played on part of each gig. Pyle died in August 2006 after travelling back from a Hatfield show in Groningen. Following Pyle's death, Hatfield played two previously booked gigs with Mark Fletcher on drums, including the Canterbury Festival in October 2006.
In 2005/2006, the band released two archival collections, Hatwise Choice: Archive Recordings 1973-1975, Volume 1 and Hattitude: Archive Recordings 1973-1975, Volume 2 , featuring the classic Miller/Pyle/Sinclair/Stewart line-up, distributed by the UK label Burning Shed. Both releases contained a mixture of BBC radio sessions and live recordings, along with the odd demo, which are still available on CD and support the musicians and family of Pip Pyle.
In 2007, Cuneiform Records re-released two albums by Steve Miller and Lol Coxhill with bonus material including 20 minutes of material by the proto-Hatfield and the North line-up of Delivery playing "God Song", "Bossa Nochance/Big Jobs", and "Betty" (a variation on some of the Sinclair bass riffs that also produced Hatfield's "Rifferama").
Jonathan Coe's 2001 novel The Rotters' Club takes its title from the band's second album. The novel also mentions them several times.
Saint Etienne also reference the band in the track "Popmaster" on their 2017 album Home Counties .
In 2022, Richard Sinclair assembled a tribute band of Hatfield and the North, with a particular dedication to Phil Miller and Pip Pyle. The group that made its debut in Palermo on December 10, 2022 is called the HAT Band and includes Richard Sinclair (vocals and bass), Alex Maguire (electric piano), Mezz Gacano (guitar and backing vocals), and Giulio Scavuzzo (drums).
George Lowen Coxhill known professionally as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist. He played soprano and sopranino saxophone.
Matching Mole were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album, The End of an Ear. He continued his role on vocals and drums and was joined by David Sinclair of Caravan on organ and piano, Dave MacRae on electric piano, Phil Miller of Delivery on guitar and Bill MacCormick of Quiet Sun on bass. The name is a pun on Machine Molle, the French translation of the name of Wyatt's previous group Soft Machine.
Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.
David Lloyd Stewart is an English keyboardist and composer known for his work with the progressive rock bands Uriel, Egg, Khan, Hatfield and the North, National Health, and Bruford. Stewart is the author of two books on music theory and wrote a music column for KeyboardMagazine (USA) for thirteen years. He has also composed music for TV, film and radio, much of it for Victor Lewis-Smith's production company. He has worked with singer Barbara Gaskin since 1981.
Barbara Gaskin is an English singer formerly associated with the UK Canterbury scene.
The Rotters' Club is the second album by the English Canterbury scene rock band Hatfield and the North, released in March 1975. It was also in part an inspiration for the 2001 novel of the same name by Jonathan Coe.
National Health were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band featured members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, including guitarists Phil Miller and Phil Lee and bassist Mont Campbell as original members. The band was named after Stewart's National Health spectacles. Bill Bruford was the initial drummer, but was soon replaced by Pip Pyle. Campbell was replaced by Neil Murray and then John Greaves. Alan Gowen left the group before its first album, but returned for their final tours, replacing Dave Stewart, who resigned after their second album. Amanda Parsons sang with the group in its original lineup but also appeared on the first album only as a guest; the group never had another full-time vocalist, although Richard Sinclair appeared a few times as a guest vocalist, and Greaves sang on one track of the second album and occasionally in concerts. Guitarist Phil Miller was National Health's only constant member.
Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France. He is best known for his work in the Canterbury scene bands Gong, Hatfield and the North and National Health.
Philip Paul Miller was an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist and a central part of the Canterbury scene.
Richard Stephen Sinclair is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.
Delivery was a British blues/progressive rock musical group, formed in the late 1960s. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock Canterbury scene.
Alan Gowen was an English fusion/progressive rock keyboardist, best known for his work in Gilgamesh and National Health.
In Cahoots was a Canterbury scene band led by guitarist Phil Miller, their main composer.
Mark Hewins is an English guitarist known for his connections to the Canterbury scene, a group of English progressive rock musicians during the 1960s.
Fools Meeting is an album by Carol Grimes with the British blues/progressive rock band Delivery, founded in the late 1968. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock Canterbury scene.
Hatfield and the North is the first album by the English Canterbury scene rock band Hatfield and the North, released in February 1974.
Afters is a 1980 compilation album by the English Canterbury scene rock band Hatfield and the North. Of the sixteen tracks, eleven are taken from the band's two studio albums Hatfield and the North and The Rotters' Club, three are live recordings, and the two remaining songs are the A- and B- sides of their 1974 single "Let's Eat " / "Fitter Stoke Has a Bath".
Live 1990 is a 1993 live album released by a reformed line-up of Canterbury scene band Hatfield and the North. This marked the band's first manifestation since its 1975 break-up. Original keyboard player Dave Stewart declined to take part and was replaced by French jazz pianist Sophia Domancich, at the time a member of drummer Pip Pyle's band Equip'Out. This line-up's activity was limited to this one appearance on Central TV's "Bedrock" series. In addition to a number of tracks from the band's classic repertoire, a large part of the concert was devoted to more recent material. This was to be Hatfield's swan song until the 2005–06 reformation.
Waterloo Lily is the fourth album by Caravan, released in 1972 on the Deram label.
Adam John Monck known as Jack is a British bass guitarist, songwriter and teacher.
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