The Book!!!!!! Van Der Graaf Generator

 Jim Christopoulos, Phil Smart  -   Phil And Jim Publishing  - ISBN 0-95513-37- 0X

Although a relatively hefty investment, this awesome and luxurious coffee table-sized book is much worth seeking, not least because it will most likely sold-out soon, especially if the quality is part of the word-of-mouth. The work of two long-time fans, this book does have an amateur feel to it, but this is part of its charm. Apart from small imperfections in the layout, only the choice of police character is a bit of a surprise, but the subject is so interesting that this quickly is forgotten. Not as easily forgotten (but this is also a welcome change) is the writing style: neither of the two writers are professional and the texts are perfectible (especially when comparing with Paul Stump or other rock writers) and they do make some rookie mistakes. When collecting the different views from the different actors, too many repetitions are slowing the reading process down. Unlike a professional writer, they chose also to print some clearly bizarre facts and odd situations/coincidences, which are very entertaining, but do make a certain impression of embellishment of the story of the group, as if this fascinating group really did need supernatural feats to make their tale more interesting.

The overview of the career of all protagonists is complete within the time span of the book: we still follow what Chris Judge Smith is doing in the mid-70’s, all Hammill solo records are well discussed, we have a complete run down of activity during the break-up years, we discover in detail which tour went great and which broke the group up (finance and health-wise) and we see that Banton was clearly more subjected to bad luck than his comrades. Two facts are however not fully made to light: it seems that the controversial artwork of Silent Corner got the silent treatment, and we still do not know how Guy Evans was seen hanging from the wrong side of a third-floor hotel balcony, this fact was simply not discussed with the main proponent. Too bad, because this explanation would probably be at least as juicy as that famous artwork ;-).

Visually-speaking many delightful pictures scattered within the whole book (a welcome change from all these books where the scarce photos are concentrated in the middle glossy page section) and many artefacts and documents (the tour schedules instructions from their management are fascinating), and much group memorabilia (not always of the best of taste around the Godbluff and World Record era), justify fully the price of the book.

2005 came as a magic year for the Generator, with the reunion album Present ( not discussed in depth though), a not-extended-enough tour, the remastering of all of their albums (which was much-needed as well as long-overdue) and, icing on the cake, this phenomenal book, which is clearly a must for all fans of the group. A thorough job from two unconditional fans whom are no professionals, but are we ever glad they are not.