Peter Hammill - live
Posted by: seagull on 21 February 2003
Well, I finally got to see Mr H. live, almost 30 years after first hearing Pawn Hearts and getting hooked. He was playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank last night. I had persuaded The Quizmaster to accompany me to the gig, Peter Hammill is not one of Mrs Seagull's favourites.
We arrived at the Hall about 20 minutes before the scheduled start and I mooched around the sparsely stocked stalls. Looking round the gathered throng it was obviously long term fans here, no teenyboppers then. Malcolm wasn't sure what to expect and gave an expression of horror when I told him that it would be PH accompanied by Stuart Gordon on violin!
We found our seats, some music was playing over the small PA system. Malcolm wondered whether artists chose the music that played before they come on to make them sound good. The lights dimmed and PH came on stage to rapturous applause. He seemed slightly embarrassed as he had to re-tune his guitar before starting.
The two of them managed an astonishing soundscape, just acoustic guitar, violin and THAT voice, swooping, soaring, impassioned vocals, everything I have come to expect of the man. Stuart Gordon was a revelation, his fiddling complimented the songs extremely well.
A few songs in PH swapped to piano, Malcolm later said that this was when the concert came alive for him. PH's keyboard tickling being better than his strumming. The songs each had a life of their own, quiet then loud then suddenly stopping and flying off at tangents again. During the sudden silences, you could here a pin drop as the audience sat in rapt silence listening to the performance unfolding before them.
Good though Naim kit is, the sound was superb, it was all there, emotion, PRaT - who needs a rhythm section with these two? No hi-fi can get close to this, it can give an impression of the performance. Whose signature says "Hi-fi is not as good as the real thing" or something like that? They are right.
All too soon PH announced that he was to play the last song - 'Modern' from Silent Corner. Malcolm hadn't heard this one before and said afterwards that he felt it was 'work in progress', its one of my favourites and merely sounded stripped back to the bones, lacking the attack of the LP version where PH wa backed by the rest of VdGG, I was sorely missing JaxonSax.
PH came back on for the inevitable encore. He said that the concert hadn't been planned and that an encore less so (the playing was so tight this was obviously a joke) he then slipped into 'Record exec' mode as he introduced the new signing to his label - a certain Hugh Banton who came on stage to huge applause. HB sat at the piano and the trio played Pilgrims off Still Life, this slipped seamlessly into the title song off the album and a shadowy figure appeared on stage holding two saxaphones to his lips - JaxonSax!!! This led to a huge cheer from the crowd even though the song was part way through and all the rest had been listened to reverently. Another figure appeared at the back, playing a tambourine was Guy Evans former drummer with VdGG. So albeit briefly the four members of my favourite ever band were playing there on stage!
The song ended too soon and the band left the stage to a standing ovation which lasted several minutes, the house lights came up but the ovation continued. PH returned on to stage and shouted something about not being able to play any more so we left for the station. I was doing a pretty good impression of the Cheshire Cat - I couldn't wait to get home and dig out my Hammill albums and play them all night. Good sense prevailled when I got home though, Mrs S was asleep and I've got work this morning, ah well!
Can't concentrate though, the songs are fighting for playback in my mind (at the moment '(On Tuesdays she used to do) Yoga'). It doesn't get much better than this - well, a proper VdGG reunion gig perhaps.
We arrived at the Hall about 20 minutes before the scheduled start and I mooched around the sparsely stocked stalls. Looking round the gathered throng it was obviously long term fans here, no teenyboppers then. Malcolm wasn't sure what to expect and gave an expression of horror when I told him that it would be PH accompanied by Stuart Gordon on violin!
We found our seats, some music was playing over the small PA system. Malcolm wondered whether artists chose the music that played before they come on to make them sound good. The lights dimmed and PH came on stage to rapturous applause. He seemed slightly embarrassed as he had to re-tune his guitar before starting.
The two of them managed an astonishing soundscape, just acoustic guitar, violin and THAT voice, swooping, soaring, impassioned vocals, everything I have come to expect of the man. Stuart Gordon was a revelation, his fiddling complimented the songs extremely well.
A few songs in PH swapped to piano, Malcolm later said that this was when the concert came alive for him. PH's keyboard tickling being better than his strumming. The songs each had a life of their own, quiet then loud then suddenly stopping and flying off at tangents again. During the sudden silences, you could here a pin drop as the audience sat in rapt silence listening to the performance unfolding before them.
Good though Naim kit is, the sound was superb, it was all there, emotion, PRaT - who needs a rhythm section with these two? No hi-fi can get close to this, it can give an impression of the performance. Whose signature says "Hi-fi is not as good as the real thing" or something like that? They are right.
All too soon PH announced that he was to play the last song - 'Modern' from Silent Corner. Malcolm hadn't heard this one before and said afterwards that he felt it was 'work in progress', its one of my favourites and merely sounded stripped back to the bones, lacking the attack of the LP version where PH wa backed by the rest of VdGG, I was sorely missing JaxonSax.
PH came back on for the inevitable encore. He said that the concert hadn't been planned and that an encore less so (the playing was so tight this was obviously a joke) he then slipped into 'Record exec' mode as he introduced the new signing to his label - a certain Hugh Banton who came on stage to huge applause. HB sat at the piano and the trio played Pilgrims off Still Life, this slipped seamlessly into the title song off the album and a shadowy figure appeared on stage holding two saxaphones to his lips - JaxonSax!!! This led to a huge cheer from the crowd even though the song was part way through and all the rest had been listened to reverently. Another figure appeared at the back, playing a tambourine was Guy Evans former drummer with VdGG. So albeit briefly the four members of my favourite ever band were playing there on stage!
The song ended too soon and the band left the stage to a standing ovation which lasted several minutes, the house lights came up but the ovation continued. PH returned on to stage and shouted something about not being able to play any more so we left for the station. I was doing a pretty good impression of the Cheshire Cat - I couldn't wait to get home and dig out my Hammill albums and play them all night. Good sense prevailled when I got home though, Mrs S was asleep and I've got work this morning, ah well!
Can't concentrate though, the songs are fighting for playback in my mind (at the moment '(On Tuesdays she used to do) Yoga'). It doesn't get much better than this - well, a proper VdGG reunion gig perhaps.