I've always found VDGG to be one of the least listener-friendly of the classic '70s prog bands. If the box has all of their studio work remastered, some nice 5.1 mixes of Pawn Hearts and Godbluff, say - I'll probably splurge for it and hope some of their other albums make me more of a fan.
I have the VDG and PH albums from the 70s on vinyl and a few different cd masters including the 2005 ones done with bonus tracks. Be nice to see them coming out again like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Be Bop Deluxe etc. The below sacds from Japan are good but out of print I think. https://www.discogs.com/Van-Der-Graaf-Generator-Pawn-Hearts/release/9584402
I don't think each album needs one DVD/BluRay for its 5.1 mix, particularly if they opt for BluRay discs. Even with DVDs, for sure Vital will not need two discs. So there is definitely room for more than the BBC stuff.
This is excellent news. I would have been more excited if the 70's Hammill solo output was being reissued as there are no decent sounding cd releases, and the VDGG SACDs are already very good, and a few are excellent. But, sign me up. I can't wait! And hopefully Vital is included, since it was not included in the Japanese reissues.
You had me at 20 disc box.... I'll never get rid of my VDGG vinyl, but I'm also a sucker for a nice 5.1 mix. If this box is somewhat affordable, I'm in. I haven't heard the BBD 5.1 stuff, as those were a bit out of my budget for a SDE. The XTC ones were perfect, as was King Crimson (price per disc that is, bloody big investment overall though, but c'mon its KC).
Crimson box sets really are fantastic but also time consuming. It is really hard to find time to listen to all of that. I would choose Tull and Marillion booksets as the best reissues overall in music business.
This could be a great opportunity for fans of the band but apart from the expense of these mega sets, I’m rapidly running out of time to listen to all my favourite bands! I’m intrigued about the extras. When Pawn Hearts was reissued 15 years or so ago the extra disc of the originally conceived double was unearthed but they still squeezed it in at the end of the PH disc. Previously we’ve been served up relatively poor quality live material from bootlegs wonder if some truly great stuff has come to light? Peter’s demos maybe?
Poor bootleg sound quality to be sure, but not poor quality performances - anyway both the box and the remasters contained a few tracks taken directly from audience bootlegs, but I don't remember them duplicating any tracks (putting the same tracks on the box AND also as bonus tracks on the remasters).
Unfortunately the Peter H solo albums were not done in the mini sleeve sacd Japan series. I sort of went into VDGG backwards as the first album from the 2 catalogues I bought in 1975 was a PH solo album although a friend had a couple of VGGG albums.
I love the song off of Time Vaults called Roncevaux. Poor quality but written maybe for a follow up to Pawn. Can't remember what the notes said off hand. Anyway , its a epic tune and It would be great if a better recording showed up. To bad they took that break until Godbluff always felt something missing between it and Pawn that the solo stuff didn't capture. I honestly don't care the cost on this as long as the mastering is top notch. My favorite prog band hands down.
Yes Nadir's Big Chance. Bought from a record shop in Aylesbury who's name I have unfortunately forgotten. I was just browsing but knew who PH was and the album was newly out. I would have seen reviews in all the music papers that kind of circulated at school - I tended to buy the NME but Sounds and Melody Maker were always around. I bought Bob's Blood on the Tracks around the same time. Still have them both and they were first played on my old Alba standalone record player but they still sound fine.
That's awesome. That album influenced a lot of bands. One of my favorites. I have a UK first press that I cherish. My sons favorite is Sitting Targets I can't pick just one myself I love that entire run ending with K group live. After that its hit and miss for me.
For a great sounding (DR13) complete Vital you should go to the original 1989 japanese 2CD edition, faithful to the 2LP set: https://www.discogs.com/Van-Der-Graaf-Vital/release/3006577
Yes, they can surely pack more than one album into a single DVD or BD for the 5.1 mix, but i guess they will follow the 1 album 1 disc as a rule. The fact is that there isn't abundance of extra material to begin with. They don't even have a single soundboard recording of a single performance in their archives, to my knowledge.
The is quite the news. Though I’m not set up for 5.1 and don’t imagine I will be anytime soon, the idea of 2.0 remixes of the Charisma albums is enough to make me me giddy at the thought.
I have tried and failed to get into these guys so far. Perhaps the 5.1's will open their stuff up for me... This could be interesting.
I listened to a couple of the albums people mention .... I think H to He and Pawn Hearts. To be honest, I think it's the vocals I struggle with.... but initially it was the vocals I struggled with for Gentle Giant, but they sit in my favourite bands now.
Yep. Thats the curse of Hammill. Later on he smoothed his voice out, check out Godbluff, or even some of the more recent stuff where he doesn't wail quite so much. Grounding In Numbers and Trisector are worth your time. I love H to He but Godbluff/Still Life/World Record are where they really shine for me.
