Killers, Angels, Refugees

Right Seagull, I guess we are the only two VDGG fans on the forum! I have all of their stuff. Sound quality not always very good, but music as intense as it can get.

Great to see that Peter has recovered from his heart attack.

Willem

No, I am sure there are lots of us who own many VDGG or PH waxings.

The opening riffs and lines to "Killer" have always lingered with me and were what first got me interested - especially after seeing them top the bill at Birmingham Town Hall (with Genesis and Lindisfarne for the princeley sum of 6 shillings)

Whereas I can usually play a VDGG album all the way through at any time, I find I have to be "in a certain frame of mind" to listen to many PH discs in their entirety. The only exception for me is "Chameleon" but the vinyl version because the CD I have is not a good recording for some reason.

"Intense" is an excellent description

Have a good weekend

Ron

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I guess we are the only two VDGG fans on the forum!...Great to see that Peter has recovered from his heart attack.

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Hi Willem,

I suspect there are others, but not many. I've been a fan since the early/mid seventies. Never got to see them live unfortunately apart from this... so I'm really looking forward to the gig, my tickets are sitting safely at home.

Saw PH again recently at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in a solo concert and very good he was too. He seems to have recovered and lost none of his intensity, just him and guitar or piano and his voice.

It just gets better...

From PH's own site (see link above...)

"I'll be writing more very soon in a newsletter but for now I can confirm the following: the line up will be Banton, Jaxon, Evans, Hammill. The show will be entirely VdGG (no "solo spots"). There will be new material as well as old. An album of new material will be released around the time of the show, almost certainly on Virgin. Virgin will definitely also be releasing remastered versions of the VdGG albums."

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Not so Willem! Just waiting quietly for the re-issues and enjoying "The Box".

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Just teasing, I sort of knew you'd bite

They were a great band, weren't they. I prefer them to most of Hammill's solo stuff, but Lizzy, that's mrs. willem, thinks the opposite. I love VDGG when the going gets very loud and complex. World Record and Godbluff are my favourites, but the first I heard from them, in 1976, was Still Life. I guess I sort knew Childlike Faith in Childhood's End by heart...
And then there is of course Vital.

Enjoy,

Willem

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I suspect there are others, but not many.

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Hi Seagull,

VDGG have always been accused of being slightly elitist. For me that has never been much of a problem. The band sort of fell apart because of there being not too many fans left.

Their coming back together sounds like good news. I can hardly imagine this new get together will be mainly for commercial reasons.

Enjoy the concert and let us know what it was like please?

Willem

When I used to get together with my fellow prog-fan friends in the mid-'70s, we'd play albums and have an unspoken "who's farther out" contest; I'd usually win by playing "A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" or something else by Van Der Graaf. They were the most committed prog act by far, and accidental rock stars in Italy!

Their history was littered with accidents (read the notes on The Box- fascinating reading of riots, near fatal swims and the Mafia!

"Aerosol Grey Machine" started out as a PH solo album and became the first VdGG album and is certainly not typical. PH's first solo album "Fool's Mate" (released about the same time as "Pawn Hearts") was the closest to that album.

Their best period being around the split and reformation... "Pawn Hearts", "Godbluff" and "Still Life".

Unlike most of the bands around at the time they didn't have a guitarist, let alone a guitar hero which made them different (unless you count Bob Fripp's guest appearances on "H to He" and "Pawn Hearts"). They seemed to get lumped in with a host of other bands at the time even though they were nothing like any of them. They always had an edge to the music that was lacking in the more 'polished' bands around at the time. Yes they wrote long songs ("A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" clocking in at well over 20 minutes but it was full of different movements and never descended into long solos.) and Peter Hammill's lyrics, though complex and overwrought at times showed real intelligence and insight.

I guess that their lack of commercial success (apart from Italy, as bhazen said) was the reason that they never compromised and became formulaic. Peter Hammill's solo career has been similarly unaffected by commercial pressures and he has never been a follower of trends. It could even be said that he released the first UK punk album ("Nadir's Big Chance") in early 1975 - the title song being about a young punk (his words) rebel smashing the system with a song.