Newban has been played on NTS over 20 times, featured on 22 episodes and was first played on 5 November 2012.

One of the sweetest ensemble funk albums of the 70s, despite the fact that most people know little about the group! Newban have a sound that's almost a jazzier take on the Earth Wind & Fire groove of the time -- a style that's warm and fluid, and which really gets past the cliches of other larger funk acts -- and manages to find a space in sound that's all its own!

Creators of two extremely rare funk/rare groove LPs, not much was initially known about Newban, but it is now acknowledged that the group was an early incarnation of Atlantic Starr. The members included future Starr members Sharon Bryant, Jonathan Lewis, Porter Carroll and Joseph Phillips alongside Mark Slifstein, Keith Johnson, Albert Jones and Gregory Press. Newban was produced by mentor Malcolm Addey, and they recorded their two albums for the tiny Guinness label. Both were released in 1977, and the first Atlantic Starr album came out in 1978, leading one to speculate they recorded these albums quickly to get out of their obligations and rush over to A&M.