Peter Hammil & Rob Halford (Judas Priest)

 

There definitely are not two chart postings in Armando's book (his book was my bible for several years from the time I bought it in '80). There is only the Italian chart listing which shows VdGG at #1 with Pawn Hearts.

 

I'm not sure how high Pawn Hearts charted in France (or if it even charted at all) but it definitely didn't make #1. The band themselves would have known about it and knowing them personally I can tell you that it would be news to them after all these years. If there was any justice, though, that album would have been a #1 best seller all over the world.

 

I do know the Armando Gallo Genesis book (I interviewed Armando a few times for our VdGG book) and the Chart picture you're talking about. It's from the Italian magazine Ciao 2001, Feb '72. VdGG's Pawn Hearts is at numero uno and you're right about Genesis' Nursery Cryme being at #4. Also on there are PFM at #2, ELP #3, and various others (Zeppelin 4, Yes Fragile, etc).

 

In countries like Germany, Belgium, France, and (especially) Italy, they're definitely a known entity (although Italy was the only place where they could legitimately be called superstars).

 

I know for a fact that they never played in Denmark (I'm not even sure that Hammill has played there solo, and he's played almost everywhere!) so I would imagine they're pretty obscure there!

 

Yes and No. Here in the States the answer is 'yes'. There is no press to speak of and very little airplay save for the odd track on some college radio station. That's on the band itself as they never toured the U.S. You'll get the odd music fan in his 40's or 50's who remembers the band from their college days in the 1970's when your hipper young Americans would turn onto the more experimental European bands.

 

In Britain, at least, there have been feature length articles in all of the major music mags (and even good coverage in the regular newspapers). I think that even if they're not familiar with any of the music, the average Brit music fan (or maybe slightly above average!) has at least heard the name Van der Graaf Generator. And I saw them 7 times in '05 in the U.K. when they played in auditoriums that ranged in size from 1,500 - 3,000 and always drew a very respectable crowd (some were sold out completely). So, that alone would tell you that there is a healthy following. They're not ever going to be on the 'charts' with a single or album, but they're not completely 'obscure' either. They're at least somewhat known. And they're even more well known in other European countries (but probably less so and more obscure in others still).