“A Fleeting Glance” is a Phil Miller composition first released on the Gower-Miller-Sinclair-Tomkins album Before A Word Is Said (1981). This earlier version, with John Greaves on bass and Pip Pyle on drums joining Phil and Alan, was one of the very few performances by National Health, who had rehearsed the piece during the 1979 US tour (see Lawrence, KS tapes on this site), but only performed in public on the final Scandinavian tour in February-March 1980. For the visuals, we have Tim Gravestock to thank – these are from that line-up’s debut performance a year earlier at London’s Bedford College.
Was at the Bedford College gig. If I recall, one of the ‘instruments’ was a dropped tray of cutlery, along with its own mic six inches off the floor, while, when asked to play an encore, the band said, “Sorry, we don’t know anything else”.