Van Der Graaf Generator

Van Der Graaf Generator

“The Charisma Years 1970-1978”

(17Cd+3Blu-ray Virgin, 2021)

Musical pioneers, bold and visionary composers, Van Der Graaf Generator are rightly regarded as among the greatest names in progressive rock. They were born in the second half of the Sixties out of an idea by Peter Hammill, a science student at Manchester's liberal arts university.

The band's origins can already be traced back to the end of '67, when Hammill, on vocals and guitar, and his friend Chris Judge Smith, on vocals, began performing live with personal interpretations of blues and jazz standards. Once they discovered they were both songwriters, they soon decided to focus exclusively on their own material. A few months later they were joined by organist Nick Pearne, and at that point all the trio needed was a name to present themselves to the public. After discarding bizarre ideas like "Shrieking Plasma Exudation" and "Zeiss Manifold", they landed on the definitive moniker that would go down in history: Van Der Graaf Generator, a tribute to the American physicist, inventor and academic Robert J. Van de Graaf, who devised an instrument for generating static energy.

That line-up was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to record a demo, put together rudimentarily using guitar amplifiers cobbled from noisy household appliances, and to play live just once, at the University of Manchester in February '68. Hammill himself recalls that, on that occasion, the trio was chased off the stage with bottles thrown by a group of medical students.

Having lost Pearne along the way, Hammill and Smith went back to performing as a duo. After a few shows in small Manchester venues, they were joined by Hugh Banton, a gifted and innovative organist. It was during those months that Lou Reizner, head of Mercury Records in London, got hold of a copy of their demo and, sensing its potential, offered the band a contract. Hammill, still very young and naive, signed the deal without even reading the terms, and would soon come to regret it.

The trio spent the summer of '68 writing and rehearsing new material to commit to tape during a recording session at Chappell Studios on Bond Street in London, intending to submit it to Reizner. He was unimpressed by the work done by Hammill, Smith and Banton, and rejected the proposal.

The three young musicians nevertheless decided not to give up and, shortly after, even chose to recruit new members and hire a proper manager (Tony Stratton-Smith). Keith Ellis on bass and Guy Evans on drums joined Hammill, Smith and Banton. The quintet released their first single, "People You Were Going To/Firebrand" (1969), distributed in the United States by Tetragrammaton and in the UK by Polydor. The single was, however, withdrawn from sale within a few days, since releasing it under those labels breached the agreement previously signed with Mercury. In the meantime, Smith handed in his resignation. Despite everything, the band built up a decent following thanks to numerous shows on the British university circuit, many of them supporting famous acts such as Pink Floyd and Moody Blues. John Peel took notice of them and invited them to record a session for the prestigious Top Gear show. Poor earnings, growing disillusionment with the music business, and the theft of their van and equipment in London, however, drove the group to officially disband on 10 May 1969, following an appearance at the Nottingham Pop and Blues Festival.

Hammill performed live on a couple of occasions before heading to Trident Studios in London to record a new set of unreleased songs. With the support of Banton, Ellis and Evans, what would become the first Van Der Graaf Generator Lp, "The Aerosol Grey Machine" (1969), took shape - an album absent from the box set we'll discuss shortly. The record, not particularly brilliant, was meant to come out under Hammill's name alone, but Stratton-Smith managed to strike a deal with Mercury whereby the label would release the frontman from his prior commitments if the new work were published under the name of the full band.

The Van Der Graaf Generator name was thus restored just before the debut album was released in America (for label-related reasons it wasn't distributed in the UK until the Seventies). Keith Ellis was replaced on bass by Nic Potter, and David Jackson (singer, saxophonist and flautist) joined the group: this was the definitive line-up signed by Charisma Records, the one that gave rise to the extraordinary body of work contained in this box set.

"The Charisma Years 1970-1978", released on 3 September 2021, contains a whopping 17 CDs and 3 Blu-rays covering the work carried out between December 1969 and July 1978. It includes newly remastered versions of "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" (1970), "H To He Who Am The Only One" (1970), "Pawn Hearts" (1971), "Godbluff" (1975), "Still Life" (1976), "World Record" (1976), "The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome" (1977) and the double live album "Vital" (1978), as well as the previously unreleased 1976 Paris concert, all the BBC Sessions recorded between 1970 and 1977, and a considerable number of studio outtakes. On top of all this, we find the new stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Stephen W. Tayler of "H To He Who Am The Only One", "Pawn Hearts", "Godbluff" and "Still Life", all the TV appearances on shows such as "Beat Club" (1970, Germany), "Pop Deux" (1972, France), "Pop Shop" (1972, Belgium), "Godbluff Live" (1975, Belgium), "The Kohfidisch Open Air Festival" (1978, Austria), and finally the promotional films for "Wandering" and "Cat's Eye (Yellow Fever)". Rounding out this embarrassment of riches is an intense roughly 70-page book detailing the contents of the twenty discs, an exhaustive history of the band and its work penned by Mark Powell, with fascinating quotes from the musicians involved and dozens of previously unseen photos.

In closing the book, Peter Hammill offers the best definition of his own attitude: "I think our music has stood the test of time because we always made the music we were driven to make, without paying any attention to what anyone else was doing. We certainly didn't write music with an eye on what might or might not be successful, even though this was a recipe for absolute commercial disaster. We were lucky to have maintained such a loyal audience. Everything we have ever done has been true and loyal to some bizarre Van der Graaf ethos. That's the key to our longevity in my opinion". This has indeed been the hallmark of a band that, for over fifty years, has always stood out for its great creativity and consistency, writing music that transcended any boundary of time or genre. One need only think of the sheer variety of artists who, over the years, have shown love and respect for the group. John Lydon (Sex Pistols), Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Mark E. Smith (The Fall) and Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) are among them.

Although the price is certainly not modest (just under €130.00 on Amazon), "The Charisma Years 1970-1978" is undoubtedly one of the year's most significant releases, and the purchase is recommended to fans and newcomers alike: enjoying the remasters, the new mixes, the videos, and losing yourself in the gripping read that is the book will be an experience that rewards anyone for the hefty outlay. A word of reproach for Virgin, though, for the flimsy, inadequate cardboard sleeves the CDs were packaged in. It would have been worth considering options more befitting the contents.

(27 November 2021)

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01/05/2026