Jan Schelhaas

Who is Jan Schelhaas?

Jan Russell Schelhaas is an English musician, mostly known as the keyboard player from the bands Caravan and Camel.

Schelhaas started his career playing bass for several bands in Liverpool releasing a single on Decca's Deram label as the soul band Bernie & the Buzz Band in 1968 before finally turning to keyboards and starting the softrock band "National Head Band" in 1970 with Neil Ford on guitar & Uriah Heap's Lee Kerslake on drums. They released the album Albert One in 1971 produced by 'Yes' producer Eddie Offord, but without any success. Next stop for Schelhaas was the Gary Moore band and the recording of the album Grinding Stone from 1973. After the recording, he left Moore to do solo projects including an organ session on 'Thin Lizzy's Vagabonds album.

In July 1975, Schelhaas was asked to play keyboard in the band Caravan after Dave Sinclair left them. Jan Schelhaas toured the world around with the band and recorded three albums: Blind Dog At St. Dunstans, Better By Far and Cool Water, which wasn't released until 1994. The summer of 1978, Caravan had a break and Schelhaas accepted an offer to join Camel on their world tour for their album Breathless.