Van der Graaf Generator / Peter Hammill S& D, C or D?

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... or re-mastering or whatever

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 February 2006 13:32 (twenty years ago)

That Fool's Mate disc has been killing me recently!

― blackmail (blackmail.is.my.life), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:21 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

I came across this line today that made me smile: "Van Der Graaf Generator. Simultaneously the Orson Welles and Ed Wood of rock".

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Saturday, 4 March 2006 20:58 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

god, "Afterwards" ... gotta love that silly Bach piano deal ... 1st alb is so great... production is shit but these guys had it right out of the gate..

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 17 April 2006 04:11 (twenty years ago)

"Running Back" is so amazing

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 17 April 2006 04:19 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

I've been listening to Hammill's song "Pompeii" today. It might be the best thing he ever wrote. It fades in: the drums play basically the same pattern throughout, the guitar's v. restrained, sax too, and his voice takes a verse or so to reach its full volume. It swells up, like the Bay of Naples, and he sings these beautiful lines about the city basking under blue skies, little archeological details about the buildings and the people, and the whole thing moves towards the climactic fall of ash and then just fades out again, a sad dream. And I'm not doing it justice but you ought to listen to it.

― Shadow of the Waxwing (noodle vague), Saturday, 17 June 2006 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

I really love Nadir's Big Chance. I remember listening to it in the dark a few years ago, and it really struck me how incredibly bleak it is. Pompeii is great, but my favorite track has to be Shingle... Is it just the goth in me, or can anyone else imagine Andrew Eldritch doing a cover of it?!

I remember being really disappointed with VDGG after reading a rave about Pawn Hearts, the music just sounded ridiculously bombastic and too 'prog' for my ears at the time, then I suddenly had some kind of epiphany and love the whole thing - I don't think there's a bad moment on the album. My second fave is The Least We Can Do Is Talk to Each Other - those last doom-as-fuck organ chords in the coda to White Hammer!!!

― Rombald (rombald), Saturday, 17 June 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

Hopefully EMI/Virgin will get going and re-issue everything by Hammill from "Chameleon" up to, say "ph7". The booklets for the VDGG re-issues have some nice photos etc - but it's the style of booklet where all of them have the same text repeated...

Start with "Least We Can Do...", then buy "H To He", then you get "Pawn Hearts" (all re-mastered editions)...then "Silent Corner & The Empty Stage", "In Camera", "Nadir's", "Over", "The Future Now", "ph7" (all not-yet re-mastered).

― So Ho La (So Ho La), Saturday, 17 June 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

Shingle is fantastic.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Saturday, 17 June 2006 12:35 (nineteen years ago)

It's a rum old album, Nadir's. Several years since I first heard it and I'm still not sure those songs sit together. I like them individually, though.

― Shadow of the Waxwing (noodle vague), Saturday, 17 June 2006 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

PEOPLE YOU WERE GOING TO!!!!

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 17 June 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

I know I'm about 35 years behind but VDGG are the best band I have gotten into all year.

― LC (Damian), Saturday, 17 June 2006 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

I like the NBC version of "People You Were Going To" better than the original Van der Graaf recording. Some of the lyrics are a bit cringy, but then they wrote it as teenagers I think. Is that the track that Chris Judge Smith wrote? Or is it "Been Alone So Long"? Which is my favourite of the misery-ballads of that album, by the way.

― Shadow of the Waxwing (noodle vague), Saturday, 17 June 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

Regular Update: PETER HAMMILL IS JESUS

Thank you.

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

Aha. I call myself a prog fan but I own no VdGG. Mr. Vague, which album would you recommend I start off with, considering that my favourite works in the genre are Yes' two three-track albums?

― Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

Cos in "Solitude" that shivery Frippesque guitar goes "ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccckkkkkkkkk" from one speaker to the other backwards forwards and then he hits you with "Vision" and the world sobs all over yr head.

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

with VdGG I'd say say Still Life first, followed by Pawn Hearts, but they represent two different versions of the band and every fan has their own favourite era. And then there's Hammill's solo stuff which is glorious in whole different ways...

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:52 (nineteen years ago)

does that ho'mail address work, mister?

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

it does indeed, sah!

― Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

i still need to get Fool's Mate.... any word on remastering his other solo albums? there are so many of them and I only have them all as mp3s...

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 01:04 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.sofasound.com/

is usually the best place to check for news.

LJ i am drunkenly flailing at emails. eventually one might get thru.

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 01:07 (nineteen years ago)

did you not copy-and-paste my handle? ;-)

― Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

The fault is my end and my sausage fingers and sausagemeat brain. Anyway, check yr mail in about an hour *emotiwink*

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 01:12 (nineteen years ago)

Like about now.

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 02:16 (nineteen years ago)

Jeez, the whole album? Wow, cheers! Your generosity shall not be forgotten...

― Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 02:27 (nineteen years ago)

Johnny Rotten liked this band?

*promises to listen to NMTBHTSP after VdGG*

― Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 02:40 (nineteen years ago)

I dunno the extent to which Lydon followed VdGG. If I'm remembering my history right, he bigged up Hammill as opposed to the band. Hammill released Nadir's Big Chance in 75, it's often described as his punk album. (It's no more or less Punk than the next couple of solo albums he released. I feel plenty of lyrical/vocal similarities with Lydon.)

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 02:49 (nineteen years ago)

someone here mentioned Hammill's "Over" lp? One of the greatest break-up albums ever. and yes, "vision" is so good.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

I've only ever listened to the 1st VDGG album, which I liked, it's more psych than prog though (which is probably why I liked it).

Nadir's Big Chance is great - if his other solo albums are similar it's about time I gave them a try as well. *mental note to get on SoulSeek tonight...

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 06:53 (nineteen years ago)

Nadir's Big Chance is great - if his other solo albums are similar it's about time I gave them a try as well

They aren't

― dud Hab 'C' dEva (Dada), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

The Future Now and pH7 aren't wildly dissimilar. You might wanna check those next, Colonel. Or go straight to Jaxon's Saxes of Doom with ver Van der Graaf.

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 08:44 (nineteen years ago)

Chance discovery - VdGG's "A Place to Survive" = Laurie Anderson's "From the Air".

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 09:16 (nineteen years ago)

any word on remastering his other solo albums? there are so many of them and I only have them all as mp3s...

The three albums after Fool's Mate were due for a re-issue and then yanked from schedule for some reason - I'm quite sure I saw them advertised in a mag along with one batch of VDGG re-issues, but then nothing. I have seen promo copies of the remasters with bonus tracks on eBay, minus the finished artwork.

― LC (Damian), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

The other day somebody told me my guitar playing reminded him of Peter Hammill's solo stuff. That came out of left field for me.

Anybody care to rank his solo stuff?

― Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not good with ranking. My favourite five are probly: Fool's Mate, The Future Now, Nadir's Last Chance, A Black Box, Enter K.

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

as reported on nuILX, the first batch of Hammill remasters are out sept. 28 in the UK (through Nadir's). The next four are out later this year.

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 2 September 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

six months pass...

I need to go to FOPP and see if the remasters are £5 yet.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 23 March 2007 01:33 (nineteen years ago)

ilx be goin' prog CRAZY tonight! :-D

― unfished business, Friday, 23 March 2007 01:44 (nineteen years ago)

or a couple of people are.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 23 March 2007 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

or were

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 23 March 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

still crazy after all these hours

― unfished business, Friday, 23 March 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

I've got the remasters of the early period. Are the new versions of Godbluff/Still Life/World Record worth getting, in terms of sound quality or bonus tracks? (I'll probably end up buying them someday anyway.)

― todd, Friday, 23 March 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

Does anyone else think "Afterwards" is a very underrated song?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 March 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

It's nice. I like that early pop-psych phase. Kind of like the first couple of Yes albums. Easily the best song on that album, tho.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 26 March 2007 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Easily. But there's another couple of really good songs on the album though.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 March 2007 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

The version of "Darkness" on the BBC bootleg is fabulous. There's a bit where Hugh holds down this organ chord for a year. And then later on Jaxon blows some mentalist solo.

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

I love MAIDA VALE. It's BBC sessions. Can't recommend it enough.

― chaki, Friday, 3 August 2007 19:34 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Saturday Morning = BLASTING VdGG

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 18 August 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago)

Peter Hammill interview in the Terrorizer prog special, jim.

― Herman G. Neuname, Saturday, 18 August 2007 11:56 (eighteen years ago)

Sweet. Thanx Herman.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 18 August 2007 11:58 (eighteen years ago)

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