Just catching up on the thread. Thanks for all the replies re Universal. Over is my favourite Hammill album and I love the trio of albums by VDG Godbluff, Still, World Record and saw a few shows in that 75 - 78 period. Over review by Nick Kent I remember Nick's review but not sure if I already had the album or bought it a bit later. Love the cover and would have bought it for that alone!
Thats one of the best things about them (Though i admit my situation is abnormal I’m chronically ill and stuck home) I love how i can just lose myself in road to red for days i might be up for the VGG set depending on price They’re one of those John Lydon approved prog bands i always meant to check out
Hello Tim! If you like KC then Fripp appears on H to He and Pawn Hearts. Peter Hammill also adds frenetic vocals to a couple of tracks on Fripp's Exposure. Yes, Lydon was an admirer of Hammill, especially his pre punk era LP Nadir's Big Chance, which some see as a predictor of the punk phenomenon. Plenty for you to explore in the Hammill/VDGG canon.
Prog fan here who has never listened to Van Der Graaf Generator. As a big 5.1 fan, a stand-alone or inexpensive surround mix might be just the thing to get me to check them out. Dolby Atmos mix would be even better,
You are in for a treat. It easily matches what came before. The experimental prog/ punk/new wave trilogy that is pH7/Black Box/Sitting Targets. It wraps things up wonderfully.
The K albums lose a bit sonically and experimentally imo. I do love them though just not quite as much. Seems going forward with each record the production would take a little more of a hit into the mundane.
I was a huge fan of Van Der Graaf when I was a teenager in the 70’s....somehow, in the cd era, they mastered them lousy. I couldn’t get into them anymore as I didn’t have a turntable when I got the cds, so I couldn’t play my albums which were in storage at the time and eclipsed the cd sound IMHO.. Now, box set? 5.1 mixes? I thought if separated, I could go for my favs of those. H to He, ok..., The Least We Can do, ok..., Pawn Hearts? SLAM DUNK! No brainer....I know Fools Mate isn’t a Van Der Graaf album in name, but SLAM DUNK, no brainer, too...Vital live...ok...Godbluff SLAM DUNK...Still Life SLAM DUNK...World Record, ok....I guess I put my favorite albums in the slam dunk assessment. I’d buy the box set if all sound incredible.
Hammill should release a collection of his singles maybe. I remember liking the single for Paradox drive better then the album version. I wonder how many singles were different to the album versions ? Its been a while but I thought I remembered it being more aggressive. A friend made me a comp of the singles on cassette years ago and my player is currently down so Im going by old memory. Why I'm at it Foreign Town would have been so much better had it been recorded heavier and with analog equipment. Digital kit neuters that record. Hemlock could have been epic.
Check out the live Hemlock from Room Temperature. Vintage stuff with the very basic guitar/violin/bass ensemble. In fact all of these stripped down stuff from the 80’s work with that lineup. Love that album.
I have that I remember getting a live show with Stewart on vhs back then at the trade show. I love that record too. Its been a long time since I pulled that one out. I have to remedy that. Thanks.
From Facebook, new issue of Wire ”THE WIRE - ISSUE 448, JUNE 2021 Van der Graaf Generator special! With a new box set of all Van der Graaf Generator's albums being readied for release in July, and its singer and songwriter Peter Hammill about to release an album of cover versions as well as a new collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound Of London), the cover of the June issue will be a two-part special devoted to these perennial outliers of UK underground art rock. In part one, Emily Bick talks to Hammill, and fellow group members Guy Evans and Hugh Banton, about 50 years of collaboration; while in part two, Mike Barnes, author of A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s, contributes an extensive user's guide to the group's back catalogue, as well as Hammill's parallel and prodigious solo output.