(Canterbury) Hatfield and the North BBC sessions 73-74 - 73-7, FLAC (tracks)

Hatfield and the North (1975) - Dave Stewart (organ, electric piano and "tone generators"), Phil Miller (guitars), Pip Pyle (drums) and Richard Sinclair (vocals and bass)

Hatfield and the North were one of the defining bands of the so-called Canterbury genre.
Dave Stewart's main band. The Rotter's Club, their second album, is easily one of the best albums of the mid 70s. It features the 20 minute epic "Mumps."
Agreed. But both The Rotters Club and their self titled first are worth it as is the posthumous compilation Afters. Great and undeniably complex music with a dose of humour thanks to Pip Pyle's down to earth lyrics. Actually, pages could be written on these guys.
On first listen this did not strike me as being worth quite the commotion. However give it a chance and it will grow on you. Very complex, somewhat spacey at times and with a sense of humor that does not verge on total silliness.
I just got The Rotter's Club because I had heard so many good things about it but am finding it terribly hard to get into. Mumps is a nice piece, (annoying lyrics though) and the album in general is very jazzy and complex but their overall sound strikes me as kind of cheesy. As with many excellent prog groups though, they probably just need to grow on me more so don't take my opinion too seriously.
Quintessential Canterbury music, composed of ex-members of Caravan, Matching Mole, Gong and Egg. The debut has some real fine playing and provocative music, fans of the aforementioned will love this. "Son of 'There's No Place Like Homerton'" is a classic of the genre, and adds a Zappa-esque element to the music, and not just in the title. Also of note is the appearance of The Northettes, the band's female vocal backing trio, on this. Most of the songs are strung together in a sort of medley form. The album reaches a climactic point with "Lobster In Cleavage Probe," spotlighting Dave Stewart's symphonic organ playing. "Shaving Is Boring" is a hypnotic example of Caravan-esque riffing. The centerpiece of The Rotter's Club is the 20-minute, four-part "Mumps," another essential classic of Canterbury prog. Also important for the Sinclair favourite "Didn't Matter Anyway" and Pip Pyle's two excellent compositions: "The Yes No Interlude" and "Fitter Stoke Has A Bath." Afters is a posthumous compilation of non-LP music, now rare because most of this music has been reissued as bonus tracks on the CDs of the other two albums. I haven't heard this one in any form, as I only have the LPs. -- Mike Ohman
Wonderful jazzy progressive with a sense of humor. That one sentence gives you the essence of Hatfield and the North. However it doesn't give you the true scope of this band featuring Dave Stewart on keyboards. For the most part the Hatfields present a very evocative dreamy sound. They are considered to be Canterbury as such have a number of the stylings similar to those bands such as Caravan (with whom they share members). They have three albums that I am aware of Hatfield and the North, The Rotters Club, and Afters. The Rotters Club is their classic and is IMHO one of the top progressive albums ever done. Among other things it contains an absolutely brillant 20 minute track called "Mumps." And luckily for all of us, their first two releases are available on the Caroline Blue Plate Special line.
Classic progressive rock with Dave Stewart. Unlike National Health or Egg, Hatfield has a jazzier feel and the music allowed for more improvisation that did the heavily scored work of the other two bands. The music is fun, thanks to Sinclair's tongue-in-cheek lyrics yet is still quite complex which satisfy the most demanding prog fan. I recommend The Rotter's Club with the 20 minute classic, "Mumps."
Excellent example of the English "Canterbury" scene. Members included Richard Sinclair, Dave Stewart, Pip Pyle and Phil Miller. Two albums, one self-titled, then The Rotter's Club. An album called Afters was also released, made up of singles, live stuff and b-sides. I think that all of the new stuff on Afters was included as bonus tracks on the CD re-issues of the first 2 albums. Very jazzy, very "English" music with funny lyrics. TRC is one of my favorite albums in this genre.
[Dave Stewart is replaced by Sophia Domancich on the 1990 live album.]
News 1/31/05 [paraphrased from press release] - Hatwise Choice is the first of a planned series of the band's own selection of unreleased material culled from their large tape archive. It consists of over 68 minutes of live concert tapes and BBC (Peel sessions) radio recordings. Hatwise Choice is authorised and controlled by the four (original) musicians, with no record company involvement. You can help support further Hatfield archive releases by buying this CD directly from the link below. -- Fred Trafton

News 2/8/06 - Hatfield and the North reformed in January of 2005, so this is hardly news (though Richard Sinclair suspects there are still a few people who haven't heard about it yet). What is news is that they are playing a series of concert dates in 2006. The first of these will be the Baja Prog festival, followed by a series of concerts in Italy in March and April, with other possible concerts being discussed for Canada and of course the UK. Best of all (from my perspective, since I'll be there) is that they'll be playing at NEARFest 2006's pre-show on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 for their first-ever U.S. concert. See http://www.richardsinclair.net for up to date information.

This incarnation consists of the original members except for Alex Maguire replacing Dave Stewart on keyboards. They are already introducing new pieces of music into their live set, and a studio album may see the light of day at some point. The GEPR will let you know about it if and when it happens. In the meantime, the Hatfields (with Dave Stewart) are working on compiling a follow-up to Hatwise Choice, another release of archive material, which promises to be released before a new Hatfield and the North album. -- Fred Trafton

AUDIOCHECKER v2.0 beta (build 457) - by Dester - opdester@freemail.hu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-=== DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! ===-

Path: ...\Hatfield and the North BBC sessions 73-74

001 -=- 01.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
002 -=- 02.flac -=- CDDA (99%)
003 -=- 03.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
004 -=- 04.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
005 -=- 05.flac -=- CDDA (99%)
006 -=- 06.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
007 -=- 07.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
008 -=- 08.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
009 -=- 09.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
010 -=- 10.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
011 -=- 11.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
012 -=- 12.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
013 -=- 13.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
014 -=- 14.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
015 -=- 15.flac -=- CDDA (100%)

Summary 99,87% CDDA

23836804