Nektar the band, another one you missed or forgot

Despite a career that was plagued by misunderstanding, confusion and line-up changes, Nektar made some of the most innovative progressive rock records of the 1970s.A common misapprehension was that they were a German band, a belief that stemmed from the fact that the group’s unmistakably English core of guitarist/vocalist Roye Albrighton, keyboard player Allan ‘Taff’ Freeman, bassist Derek ‘Mo’ Moore and drummer Ron Howden met at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1969, and went on to sign to German label Bellaphon Records.Albrighton met his future bandmates when his band, Rainbows, were invited to play the Star Club, the fabled venue where a pre-fame Beatles cut their teeth. Freeman, Moore and Howden’s own group, Prophecy, were the club’s resident band at the time, and Albrighton would jam with them in their downtime. Soon afterwards, the latter returned to the UK to join the backing band for the musical Hair.