 |
Jan Schelhaas | |
|---|---|
 Schelhaas in 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 11 March 1948 Liverpool, England |
| Genres | Progressive rock |
| Instrument(s) | Keyboards |
| Years active | 1960s to present |
Jan Russell Schelhaas (born 11 March 1948) is an English musician, mostly known as the keyboard player from the bands Caravan and Camel.
Schelhaas was born in Liverpool, where he started his career playing bass for several bands and releasing a single on Decca's Deram label as the soul band Bernie & the Buzz Band in 1968 before finally turning to keyboards and starting the soft rock band, National Head Band, in 1970 with Neil Ford on guitar and future Uriah Heep's Lee Kerslake on drums. They released the album Albert One in 1971 produced by Yes producer Eddy Offord, but without any success. Next stop for Schelhaas was the Gary Moore band and the recording of the album Grinding Stone from 1973. After the recording, he left Moore to do solo projects including an organ session on Thin Lizzy's 1973 Vagabonds of the Western World album.
In July 1975, Schelhaas was asked to play keyboard in the band Caravan after Dave Sinclair left them. Jan Schelhaas toured around the world with the band and recorded three albums: Blind Dog at St. Dunstans (1976), Better by Far (1977) and Cool Water , which was not released until 1994. In 1978, Caravan had a break and Schelhaas accepted an offer to join Camel on their world tour for their album Breathless (1978). At that time, the band also included cousins Richard Sinclair (bass and vocals) and Dave Sinclair (keyboards) with whom he had already played in Caravan.
Schelhaas worked with Camel until 1981, when he contributed to I Can See Your House from Here from 1979 and the album Nude from 1981. [1] From 1982 to 1989, he played on two of Lee Fardon's albums: The God Given Right and The Savage Art of Love and the EP Palestine. Schelhaas had met Fardon when they both played with Ross Stagg in the early 1970s.
In 2002, Schelhaas was once again asked to join Caravan due to Dave Sinclair having left because of musical differences. He recorded The Unauthorized Breakfast Item with them in the same year plus a tour. Although there was a hiatus in the band's activities from 2005-10 (during which he released his first solo album, Dark Ships, in 2008), Schelhaas remains a member of Caravan and appears on their latest albums, 2013's Paradise Filter and 2021's It’s None of Your Business'.
Camel are an English progressive rock band formed in Guildford, Surrey, in 1971. Led by guitarist Andrew Latimer, they have released fourteen studio albums and fourteen singles, plus numerous live albums and DVDs. Without achieving mass popularity, the band gained a cult following in the 1970s with albums such as Mirage (1974) and The Snow Goose (1975). They moved into a jazzier, more commercial direction in the early 1980s, but then went on an extended hiatus. Since 1991 the band has been independent, releasing albums on their own label.
Caravan are an English rock band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings, and Richard Coughlan in 1968. The band have never achieved the great commercial success that was widely predicted for them at the beginning of their career, but are nevertheless considered a key part of the Canterbury scene of progressive rock acts, blending psychedelic rock, jazz, and classical influences to create a distinctive sound.
Andrew John Ward is an English progressive rock drummer.
Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter.
William MacCormick is an English bassist and vocalist. He is also a politician and author.
David Sinclair is a British keyboardist associated with the psychedelic/progressive rock Canterbury Scene since the late 1960s. He became famous with the band Caravan and was responsible as a songwriter for creating some of their best-known tracks: "For Richard", "Nine Feet Underground", "The Dabsong Conshirtoe", "Proper Job/Back to Front".
Jackson Heights was a British progressive rock band from England. It formed in 1970 after The Nice organist and pianist, Keith Emerson, decided to leave the trio to form another band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, leaving bassist-vocalist Lee Jackson and drummer Brian Davison on their own.
Richard Stephen Sinclair is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.
Colin Bass is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 1979, he has been a member of the British progressive rock band Camel, who, after a ten-year hiatus due to the ill health of bandleader Andrew Latimer, returned to active touring in 2013. From 1984 to 1992, he was also a core figure in the pioneering World Music group 3 Mustaphas 3. He has also made two solo albums under his own name and three albums recorded in Indonesia under the name Sabah Habas Mustapha. The title track of the first, "Denpasar Moon", became a hugely popular song in Indonesia in the mid-1990s and has been covered by over 50 Indonesian, Malaysian, Japanese and Filipino artists. As a record producer he has worked with a diverse range of international artists including: the Klezmatics (USA), SambaSunda (Indonesia), Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird (USA) Krar Collective (Ethiopia), Etran Finatawa (Niger) and 9Bach (Wales) amongst others. As a guest artist he has appeared on albums by a number of internationally acclaimed artists including top Malian singing star Oumou Sangare, playing on all tracks of her 1993 Ko Sira album.
Breathless is the sixth studio album by the English progressive rock band Camel, released in 1978. It is the last album to feature the group's original keyboardist, Peter Bardens, who left the group before the tour for the album.
Caravan of Dreams were a British progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene. Led by Richard Sinclair, it evolved from the short-lived Going Going.
I Can See Your House from Here is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band Camel. Released in 1979, a new line up was introduced with founding members Andrew Latimer (guitar) and Andy Ward (drums) joined by bassist Colin Bass and keyboardists Jan Schelhaas and Kit Watkins who replaced Dave Sinclair. At one point, the album was going to be called Endangered Species.
The Polite Force was a British progressive rock band in the Canterbury scene from 1976 to 1978. The name comes from the 1971 Egg album of the same name.
Blind Dog at St. Dunstans is the seventh studio album by Canterbury Scene rock band Caravan. It was released in 1976.
The Show of Our Lives – Caravan at the BBC 1968–1975 is a double album of tracks recorded for the BBC in the period 1968–1975, for John Peel's Top Gear, amongst others by the British Canterbury scene progressive rock band Caravan.
Cool Water is the eleventh album by English progressive rock band Caravan, released in 1994. It is a compilation of old recordings, including their unreleased 2nd Arista album shelved in 1978.
The Unauthorised Breakfast Item is the thirteenth studio album by progressive rock band Caravan, released in 2003.
Ether Way: BBC Sessions 1975-77 is a live album by the progressive rock band Caravan released 1998.
John G. Perry is an American-born British bass guitarist and singer. He was born in the U.S. to British parents and when he was young, the family moved back to England.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
