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.
“I got a call from Mo asking if I would like to return to Hamburg,” Albrighton told Classic Rock in 2005. “I went back immediately and Nektar was born.”
Their heady combination of space-rock noodling, impromptu experimentation and more obvious progressive stylings gained the band cult success during their first six studio albums, from 1971’s conceptual Journey To The Centre Of The Eye through to 1976’s Recycled. Like many bands of that era, Nektar put on a fabulous liquid-light show to complement their pulsating, psychedelic maelstrom, with former Pink Floyd effects designer Mick Brockett becoming their unofficial fifth member.
Nektar seemed to be on the verge of big things. Their fourth album, 1973’s Remember The Future, sold 250,000 copies in Europe, and peaked at No.19 in the US Billboard chart, and Recycled was similarly successful on the continent. But by the time of 1977’s Magic Is A Child (featuring 12-year-old actress Brooke Shields, later of The Blue Lagoon fame, on the cover), Albrighton had departed. New guitarist/vocalist Dave Nelson and synth wizard Larry Fast pushed the band in a more pomp-rock direction, but the band went on hiatus the following year.
When they returned in 1980, Albrighton was once more in the band. The partially reunited line-up, with American bassist Carmine Rojas replacing Derek Moore, recorded that year’s Man In The Moon album. Then… nothing. The band vanished for a second and seemingly final time.
When they returned in 1980, Albrighton was once more in the band. The partially reunited line-up, with American bassist Carmine Rojas replacing Derek Moore, recorded that year’s Man In The Moon album. Then… nothing. The band vanished for a second and seemingly final time.
“I had no idea why we stopped making records,” Albrighton told Classic Rock in 2005. “The contract had run out and was never renewed.”
It would be two decades before Nektar resurfaced. Albrighton almost died following a seriously liver infection in 1990s. After recovering he vowed not to waste any more time, and decided to resurrect Nektar.
“While I was laying there recuperating, I thought to myself that regardless of how long I have to live after this illness, I would spend it with my old band and make some more music,” he told Something Else! in 2012.
Nektar’s comeback album, 2001’s The Prodigal Son, featured Albrighton original guitarist Taff Freeman plus drummer Ray Hardwick and ex-Climax Blues Band bassist Derek Holt. Reaction outside of their immediate fanbase was lukewarm, and Albrighton nearly folded the band again, but a successful reunion of the original line-up in 2004 convinced him Nektar were worth sticking with.
Nektar released four more albums between 2004 and 2015, though Albrighton and Howden were the only constant members. Sadly, Albrighton died in 2016 following a long illness. Taff Freeman passed away in 2021 and Ron Howden in 2023, leaving Moore the last surviving founding member.
Confusingly, two competing versions of Nektar exist today – a German-based incarnation led by keyboard player Klaus Henatsch, who joined the Albrighton-led line-up in 2007 and continued it after his death, and an US version launched by Moore in 2018 and also involving 70s-era lightning engineer Mick Brockett (even more confusingly, the German band is known as The New Nektar).
More than 55 years after they formed, Nektar remain a cult concern, albeit one beloved by prog connoisseurs. One such person is Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris, whose band covered the 1972 Nektar song King Of Twilight, on the b-side of their Aces High single.
“I only met Steve once,” Albrighton told Classic Rock in 2005. “He didn’t believe who I was. I told him I’d been the guitarist in Nektar and he said: ‘Naah, get out of it, you’re not Roye Albrighton.’ And that was the end of that!”