National Park - outside
£9.00 - £24.99
National Park - outside
£9.00 - £24.99
PRE-ORDER, RELEASED ON AUG 21ST, 2026.
‘outside’ is a collection of singles, EPs and unreleased home recordings by National Park, spanning the years 1997 - 2026.
National Park is based around the songs of lead singer John Hogarty (guitarist with The Pastels since 2010), with additional contributions on this album from Scott Walker and Sushil Dade (Future Pilot AKA).
Their music has been described as having some similarities to The Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500 and Yo La Tengo “without sounding like anything else” (Byron Coley, The Wire). They describe themselves as occupying the space between the visceral and the whistleable.
National Park was formed by former Telstar Ponies member John Hogarty and Scott Walker. In August 1997, Simon Shaw and Michael McGaughrin joined Hogarty and Walker, on bass and drums, for the band’s first gig, at The Pastels’ club, “Illumination”.
National Park's first single, "Great Western", was a 10" released on Earworm records; a ten-minute-long improvisation. It was recorded on a tape deck at an early rehearsal session. Despite the length of the track, it was playlisted on Xfm London. Around this time, Hogarty was also part of the Phantom Engineer project with David Keenan and Bill Wells. Collaborations with Future Pilot AKA then followed, leading to a second single on Earworm Records.
The band have played live with many of their favourite bands, including opening for Movietone in Bristol, and Belle and Sebastian at the Shepherd's Bush Empire.
Scott Walker left the band in 1999, and was replaced briefly for some dates by Alasdair Roberts (of Appendix Out) and later by Gerard Love (of Teenage Fanclub). Walker returned briefly to record "No More Rides" for the compilation You Don't Need Darkness to Do What You Think is Right, released by Geographic, in 2001.
In 2003, the band released a lathe-cut 7" single, “Secret Songs”, on Australian label, Background Frequencies. In 2005 National Park released "The Only Stars" in Japan, which featured contributions by Bill Wells (piano), Sarah Martin (flute) and Mick Cooke (horn) of Belle and Sebastian. The song was released in the UK on 7” in 2006, backed by “La Solara”.
Since 2024, the band have been playing regularly with the settled line up of John Hogarty, Simon Shaw (V-Twin, Trembling Bells, Dragged Up), Finlay Macdonald (wor_kspace, Teenage Fanclub) and Jennifer Hamilton. In 2025 they released a new collection of recordings on cassette, ‘Solo Demos’.
EHW020: Available from Aug 21st, 2026 on all major streaming platforms, as a digital download and on limited edition vinyl with 12x12 8 page full colour booklet (vinyl purchase includes digital download).