National Health is one of those rare English progressive bands whose classic mid-'70s output still sounds fresh today. Their sound prospered on imaginative linear musicality, often in a jazzy format that emphasized extended instrumental solos. In keeping with the collaborative spirit of the times, National Health had an ever-changing lineup, sharing members with other influential groups like Hatfield And The North, Henry Cow, Matching Mole, and others. After a pair of 1978 releases, National Health and Of Queues And Cures, the group issued 1982's D.S. al Coda and then fell silent. The overview Discography: The Complete Singles Collection appeared in 1990; Write To Death Two The Missing Pieces, a collection of outtakes, followed in 1996. in 2000, Cuneiform issued a live album, Playtime Is Over which was recorded at two different shows in 1979 and sequenced and mastered in 2000 by Phil Miller and Pip Pyle as a tribute to their late bandmate, Alan Gowen, who had died of leukemia in May 1981. ~ Myles Boisen, Rovi