By Jim Rowland
When you look back at the greats of British progressive rock of the 1970s, whilst perhaps not as commercially successful as the likes of Genesis, Yes or King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator were every bit as good. They were also the only prog band to be revered by the punks of the late 70s, with John Lydon and Siouxsie Sioux both having gone on record to state their admiration for Peter Hammill. The first VDGG album appeared an astonishing 53 years ago now, and although they haven’t been active for the whole of that time, they are still going strong today, as proved by tonight’s performance at the London Palladium.
With a wealth of material to choose from, the set has been changed on each night of the tour, with just over half of tonight’s set culled from the more recent albums made since the band reformed in 2005, leaving only five carefully chosen selections from the classic 70s’ albums. That may have disappointed some who were perhaps hoping for more vintage material, but I have to say the opening two numbers – ‘Interference Patterns’ from 2008’s ‘Trisector’, and ‘Every Bloody Emperor’ from 2005’s ‘Present’ – were as entertaining as anything performed in the set tonight. It wasn’t lost on most that the excellent and very apt ‘Every Bloody Emperor’ is parachuted into the set on the very day that Putin decided to wage war by invading Ukraine.
The set is divided into two halves with an interval in between, with the epic and grandiose oldie ‘Childlike Faith In Childhood’s End’ being the only track from the 70’s to feature in the first half, and deservedly gaining a standing ovation. Elsewhere in the first half, ‘Over The Hill’, ‘All That Before’ and ‘Go’ prove that whilst an ultimately satisfying listen, some of the more recent material can also be a complex and challenging listen.
The second half is much heavier on the older material, with ‘Lemmings’, ‘Scorched Earth’ and ‘Man-Erg’, all epic and grandiose VDGG classics, sounding magnificent and gaining rapturous receptions, and the encore of the quite beautiful ‘Refugees’ going back the furthest in time to 1970, and arguably saving the best until last.
Van Der Graaf Generator give a delightful performance of complexity, power and precision tonight, with Peter Hammill reminding us what an eccentric and unique talent he is and Hugh Banton reminding us what a virtuoso musician he is. In Guy Evans, VDGG have a drummer with more soul and groove than a lot of his contemporaries, which helps to differentiate the band from other purveyors of prog. Yes, the saxophone of David Jackson is still missed, as that did also help to differentiate the band, but it is what it is. I’ve heard from more than one source that this may well be the last we will see of Van Der Graaf Generator. Whether that’s true, I don’t know, and there was certainly no indication of that from the stage. Here’s hoping that’s not the case, as tonight’s performance was quite wonderful.
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- PHOTO CREDIT: Photos by the author.
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