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John 
Forum Groupie
Joined: June 07 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 42
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 Topic: VDGG in Amsterdam
Posted: July 25 2005 at 03:59 |
Did anyone see VDGG in Amsterdam? Despite the crap sound this was DEFINITELY THE BEST CONCERT I'VE EVER BEEN TO!
There must be a God after all... not only have VDGG reformed, but they've made one of their best albums to date and now I've seen them live...!
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BaldJean
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 28 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 10387
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 04:03 |
unfortunately we couldn't attend; what was the track-list?
I just read the news that VdGG will be playing a gig at the "Leverkusener Jazz-Tage" ("Jazz Days of Leverkusen", an annual festival) on Nov 5th. since Leverkusen is only a few miles from us we will definitely be there. if you ask "what is VdGG doing on a jazz festival?": we saw Magma there a few years ago, and what were they doing there? the audience was enthusiastic about Magma, by the way
Edited by BaldJean
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 A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Peter Pan
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 17 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 82
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 05:30 |
 BaldJean wrote:
if you ask "what is VdGG doing on a jazz festival?" |
Jazz is one of the main influences of them. Especially David Jaxon comes from Jazz - as you can easily hear  , also Guy Evans. The influence on Hugh Banton is classic, on PH classic, rock and blues.
Speaking of the Leverkusen Festival they broadened their range to fusion forms.
Leverkusen should be easy to attend to Englishmen also because it is in
reach from Rhein-Main-Airport. Budget airlines fly from London for a
few bucks.
I am trying to get information about the program on this evening,
because there are 3 acts. I suppose VDGG will play at the end though
the web site places them at the start.
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Peter Pan
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 17 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 82
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 05:42 |
Peter Pan wrote:
I am trying to get information about the program on this evening,
because there are 3 acts. I suppose VDGG will play at the end though
the web site places them at the start.
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They answered me instantly:
Einlass: 17:30 Uhr
VdGG: ca. 20:30 Uhr
I can't wait to see them. I attended Peter Hammill shows several times - solo, accompanied by VDGG musicians, and with The K Group, but never the band. No wonder sice I heard the first tune of them in 1977 on the radio. It was "Killer" and it was the time when good tunes were played by some radio stations here in Germany. Long time ago. Now it's just "Wir spielen die Hits!" 
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Moogtron III
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 26 2005
Location: Belgium
Status: Offline
Points: 10616
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 06:12 |
I'm not the kind of person who remembers tracklists in detail, but the evening was fantastic! One of my friends, who attended the London concert, said that the latter one was better, but since I wasn't there, I didn't care at all  ...
For me the highlists were Sleepwalkers and Man-Erg, but I was surprised that the 2 new songs on the setlist, about the bloody emperor and the Nutter Alert, also belonged to absolute highlights of the evening.
A warm audience reception followed when VdGG not only played Undercover Man, but immediately after that also played Scorched Earth. Did they do that elsewhere? I was happily surprised. They played all of Godbluff except Arrow.
Killer was also one of the highlights of the evening, as far as I'm concerned. Still Life was also great.
Darkness was the opener by the way, and it sounded fantastic, although during the first 3 tracks the sound wasn't very good yet. I especially liked it when Hammill shouted his famous "Blessed the baby born today..." words.
Guy Evans really is an incredible drummer, one of the best I EVER heard, BTW. Hugh Banton looked like a very distinguished gentleman, playing very concentrated. David Jackson wore his famous leather beret in the beginning of the concert, and well... all of the band were good, actually.
I'm happy that Hammill is still going strong after his heart attack. It was high energy music and the audience was very enthousiastic. I think the band enjoyed this concert, the last one of their tour if I'm not mistaken.
One of the friends of my friends, who was just checking the band out, couldn't appreciate some of the organised chaos of the band (read: sheer genius  !), and left halfway during the concert. Too bad: some of the more addicted fans (Sean Trane?) should have had the ticket instead. But well, the guy leaving the concert in shock... that's the kind of thing that happens when people encounter real art, isn't it?
A friend of mine says that they'd return in november in The Hague. If that is true, I'm certainly planning on going back. It was one of the best live concerts I ever saw. It was really HAPPENING, so to say.
Great that such music is still being played live today. Classic uncompromising, high quality prog!!! 
Edited by Moogtron III
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Moogtron III
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 26 2005
Location: Belgium
Status: Offline
Points: 10616
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 06:28 |
Oh yeah, and they played a lot from World Record. The last encore was Wondering.
Someone in the audience asked for Refugees, but Hammill sind in a somewhat teasing way: "Well, we'll play whatever we bloody like, 'cause that's the kind of troupe we are" . They didn't play Refugees at all, and I thought that that was an exception on their European tour.
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BaldJean
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 28 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 10387
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 06:36 |
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other artists that will be playing at the Leverkusener Jazztage: Soft Machine, Weather Report with the WDR-Big Band (arguably the best big band in the world), Terry Bozzio, Billy Cobham, José Feliciano, Marianne Faithfull and the Earth, Wind & Fire Experience. to name just a few
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A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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JrKASperov
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 07 2004
Status: Offline
Points: 904
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 06:58 |
It was an awesome set, some comments:
Guy Evans was playing really good, I read somewhere he is the weak link
(perhaps just on PRESENT), but he played like on the albums, it was
quite good.
Banton and Jackson were playing like regular experienced stagemen, not
virtuosos but very emotional and adding. The only problem I had was the
CRUMMY SOUND OF THE SAXOPHONES! I hardly heard them when everyone was
playing! And I like that solo of Sleepwalkers so much 
Peter Hammill was for me the weak link. Not because his voice is old,
because believe me, he can still sing it, but he should really stay
away from guitar. His guitar parts added nothing but more confusion to
the chaos. Yes, sometimes there was organised chaos, but more often the
chaos was just there because everyone was playing something for
themselves. Notably LEMMINGS, which to me was the biggest letdown of
the evening. Hammill badly playing the intro riff, his guitar parts
adding nothing but noise, and a chaotic part somewhere were there
SHOULD be silence. And SILENCE is the thing vdGG excel in! As they
showed on highlights like Still Life and When She Comes! 
As an aside, I found that Hammill did not correctly sing some of the
accents like on the albums. It is a letdown because accents is what
makes vdGG.
Still, some songs were perfect and had an athmosphere I've never seen; Man-Erg, Sleepwalkers, Still Life
All in all, it was worth the 50 euro's I spent, but I don't think I'll be going a second time. 
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Epic.
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NutterAlert
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 07 2005
Location: In transition
Status: Offline
Points: 2808
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Posted: July 25 2005 at 08:45 |
All the shows this tour have been really good, but it seems they have done 3 classic shows:
Rome: I was there and they were quite brilliant
Paris: heard rave reviews and have been blown away by the torrent version I have downloaded
Amsterdam: They were always going to finish on a high and sounds like they have
Interestingly enough all outside the UK. UK shows were good, but Hammill seems more relaxed in Europe (Yes, I know UK is in Europe as well, kind of anyway), much more banter with the audience, less duff notes, etc.
Roll on the November shows..
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Proud to be an un-banned member since 2005
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pedro2000
Forum Newbie
Joined: August 02 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 4
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Posted: August 02 2005 at 10:46 |
I saw VdGG at Liverpool in July, and they were brilliant.
I never expected to ever have the chance to see them after all these years apart (bar the odd live track here and there at PH gigs). But to not only have them get together, they make a new album which sounds great and they play at the nearest big city to me, across the Mersey, in Liverpool.
I had my tickets for nearly five months, and not a day went by without me thinking of what the gig would be like. When the night finally arrived, they were on top form, a great set-list (see below), and definitely the best gig I've ever been to in all my years. If you get the chance, go and see them, these guys are maestros.
Track list for Liverpool (10.07.05)
Main Set: Darkness (11/11), Undercover Man, Scorched Earth, Every Bloody Emperor, Lemmings, When She Comes, Childlike Faith in Childhood's End, Sleepwalkers, (In the) Black Room, Nutter Alert!, Man-Erg. Encores: Killer, Wondering.
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PJ Out
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VanderGraafKommandöh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Malaria
Status: Offline
Points: 89372
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Posted: August 03 2005 at 23:45 |
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I saw them at Shepherd's Bush Empire and they were amazing. The
sound let them down though, which seems to be a recurring theme..., is
this the venue, or the bands mxing on the soundboard?
Highlights for me: Man-Erg, Childlike Faith in Childhood's End, Still
Life and suprisingly for me, Nutter Alert. The two new tunes
blended in beautifully.
Two disappointments: The sound quality and the fact that David Jackson
didn't wear his hat whilst playing! He came on wearing it and
promptly removed it.
I wasn't that annoyed at pH's guitar playing. Everybody knows
(including himself) that he isn't that great, but there needed to be
guitar parts in particular tracks and I'd rather Peter played them than
some session player..., because that's not the bands style.
Consumate performers they are.
They played all the tracks I wanted them to play. I couldn't
really expect them to play _A Louse Is Not A Home_ or _A Plague of
Lighthouse Keepers_, so I was happy. They even played _Refugees_
and _Theme One_
I am now looking forward to seeing "Hatfield and The North" in October
at Swindon Arts Centre! Just down the road from me too, so nice
and convenient.
James.
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