Van der Graaf Generator book
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Printed Date: February 05 2025 at 17:23
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Topic: Van der Graaf Generator book
Posted By: bucka001
Subject: Van der Graaf Generator book
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 07:56
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Hi everybody, In case anyone's interested, the new VdGG biography (which I co- wrote) is now available. Members of Genesis (Phil Collins, PG, Steve Hackett) have contributed to it (this is *THE* most extensive coverage of the '71 Six Bob tour, where Genesis opened for VdGG, anywhere). Also in the book is prog artist Paul Whitehead, producer John Anthony (who's production work includes VdGG, Genesis, Queen, Roxy, The Tubes), and Armando Gallo (the Genesis biographer) - all have been interviewed extensively. So has Dave Anderson (Amon Duul II & Hawkwind) and a bunch of people from the Charisma Records office (as well as memebers from old Charisma bands including Rare Bird, Audience, and Lindisfarne). Several musicians have been interviewed (including John Frusciante [RHCP], Graham Coxon [Blur], Gary Lucas [Capt Beefheart's Magic Band], Marc Almond, Colin Newman [Wire], Arthur Brown [God of Hellfire], and several others, as well as music producers [Sir George Martin, Shel Talmy], movie directors [Jonathan Demme, Anthony Minghella], and authors [Ian Rankin, Michel Faber]). It's pretty damned comprehensive and the VdGG guys are pretty happy with it. So are we! It's a BIG book; hardcover, and over 300 pages. There are nearly 300 photos, in both color and b&w (most never before seen). If anyone is interested, the link is: http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/book_sell.htm - http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/book_sell.htm Thanks! Jim Christopulos ------------- jc |
Replies:
Posted By: NutterAlert
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 08:06
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Jim,
Excellent book. Picked it up at gateshead gig. Totally recommend this book to VdGG fans and all prog fans in general. As Jim says a good write up on six bob tour, plus loads of real interesting nuggets (like Peter Hammill once worked for IBM!!!) Well done to both you and Phil Smart. ------------- Proud to be an un-banned member since 2005 |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 08:38
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I'll search for it and try to get it through Brussels's Waterstone bookshop. Hope they can find it!! ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 11:22
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For the time being, it's not in the stores (and it may not be at all). It's only available through the VdGG website (and Hammill also has it flagged up on his Sofa Sound site). We've been so swamped that we haven't even had time to think of distribution through those channels. Possibly in the future. ------------- jc |
Sean Trane wrote:Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 11:27
It wouls suicidal not to do it. Ignoring standard channels of distribution is bound to diminish sales How about dealing with this guy in Belgium? http://vox.telenet.be - http://vox.telenet.be He deals mostly music books from all over the world. recently bought him the Stump book GG's Acquiring The Taste ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 11:37
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Hi Sean, [How about dealing with this guy in Belgium? http://vox.telenet.be - http://vox.telenet.be He deals mostly music books from all over the world. recently bought him the Stump book GG's Acquiring The Taste] We'll look into it. Thanks. The problem is that the book is so damned heavy (it's almost coffee table size [we'll, not quite but it's big], it's hardcover, and it's well over 300 pages) so postage is really tough. Just getting multiple copies to a distributor costs an arm and a leg. But we'll check it out. ------------- jc |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 12:54
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Great news Jim, I shall most definitely obtain a copy of this. I am glad to see you got back from England fine..., I was sat next to you at the Shepherd's Bush Empire gig and we had a great chat, so thanks for that. What are you doing in Uruguay? I thought you were in Cali? Congratulations on the hard work yourself and Phil Smart have made in producing this book, I could only dream of writing something similar on Duster Bennett, maybe one day... James. -------------   
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Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 13:32
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Hi James,
No, I live in Chicago, actually! That's where I am. I do remember you, good to hear from you. Sean, we may very well be able to do something with a Belgium distributor as, if worse comes to worse, my writing partner could just drive some books there (he lives in England and travels quite a bit). So, thanks for the tip. Jim ------------- jc |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: November 16 2005 at 15:00
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Ah yes, Chicago, my mistake... but yes, good to see you got back fine, you hadn't had much sleep. Any ideas if there is a bootleg of the Shepherds Bush gig Jim? I am trying to get hold of recordings of gigs I attend. I have the RFH gig, but I wasn't actually there. Any ideas? Oh and I know you speak to the VdGG members yourself, any news on a possible new album for the future? I know the RFH gig is being released around December time, so I look forward to hearing the official recording. -------------
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 17 2005 at 03:23
How many copies was your first pressing? ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: November 18 2005 at 16:51
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James - Try the Yahoo Hammill group. Some members on there help with 'seeding' concerts (although I personally don't have any). Sean - A few thousand. ------------- jc |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 21 2005 at 10:54
bump ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: December 03 2005 at 19:20
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From Phil Smart, VdGG web master: There's still time to order The Book in time for Christmas (UK and ------------- jc |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: December 04 2005 at 02:18
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Ah, thanks for that Jim, I guess I'll have to sort my Paypal out
then. I'm not fussed at not getting it for Christmas. I
just will be happy to get a copy all together. I shall sort it
out as soon as possible. Thanks for the update, much appreciated. Phil and yourself, keep up the great work. -------------
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Posted By: MoodsWings
Date Posted: December 04 2005 at 11:18
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I ordered mine yesterday. I figure I'm deserving of a $74.00 book. I've been a good girl. 
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Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: December 10 2005 at 09:31
------------- jc |
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Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: December 10 2005 at 10:33
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Mine arrived this morning, I'm just about to go and open it and give it
an initial flick through. Christmas has come early! Albeit
only by a few weeks. Cheers once again Jim and Phil for writing this book. -------------
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Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: December 16 2005 at 07:56
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Van der Graaf Generator - The Book is now available at http://www.amazon.co.uk - www.amazon.co.uk as well as http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk - www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk ------------- jc |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: December 30 2005 at 08:23
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Peter Hammill's (edited) comments in his latest newsletter: [it's also at amazon.co.uk] ------------- jc |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: February 03 2006 at 07:50
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From Record Collector, Feb '06:
------------- jc |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 03 2006 at 09:07
Halfway through the book by now!!! Good reading and relistening to the records at the same time. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: February 26 2006 at 20:19
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The latest review, this one from The Wire: VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: THE BOOK JIM CHRISTOPULOS & PHIL SMART PHIL AND JIM HBK £25 BY KEITH MOLINÉ Peter Hammill’s effectiveness as a vocalist was dealt a killer blow in the 1980s when a certain Fish from Marillion — a group so musically moribund they probably turned more people off Prog rock than punk ever managed — co-opted his every last vocal mannerism and claimed them as his own. The Hammill style, which puts each image under the glare of the least forgiving of spotlights, works fine for Hammill songs, with their complex narratives and multiple perspectives. When heard after the inept doggerel produced by a lyricist like Fish or any of the other Hammill copyists that sprang up in his wake, however, it sounded horribly mannered and pretentious. The result is that Van Der Graaf Generator can seem impossibly overwrought and melodramatic to the casual listener, as guilty of empty, self-regarding bombast as the very worst of Prog rock. But the fact is that the crashing enormity of he group’s performance style is the only way that justice could ever have been done to the vision of Hammill’s songs, and he should be applauded for developing an original form of epic songwriting that places him in a tradition closer to that of Nick Cave than Jon Anderson of Yes. Van Der Graaf’s music has a hideous beauty, or rather a beautiful ugliness, a bludgeoning lack of subtlety that places their songs on a different plane from the selfconsciously well-made pocket symphonies of Prog. Their agenda was far more interesting than that of the vast majority of their loon-panted British contemporaries. Big, unwieldy and exhausting — that’s a description of Van Der Graaf Generator: The Book, though it could equally apply to the group themselves. Longtime fans Christopulos and Smart, the latter of whom runs the VDGG Website, have self-published an entertaining account of Hammill and co’s byzantine history. The Book affords equal weight to all four members of the classic VDGG quartet (the others being organist Hugh Banton, drummer Guy Evans and twin sax maestro Dave Jackson), relying heavily on their anecdotes for its substance. That’s not a bad thing for a fanboy book like this, though it means that the later New Wave-influenced line-up, along with contemporaneous Hammill solo albums like The Future Now, are somewhat glossed over.For my money, this period saw VDGG and Hammill producing career-best work. Stories about Banton’s habit of deciding to rebuild his giant organ on the eve of every major tour, or the time Evans was presented with a new set of cymbals at a German festival, may be endlessly fascinating to hardcore followers, but their appeal starts to pall over the distance. The book is chock full of photos, but while many of these are previously unpublished, a fair number of them are pictures of rare US promo acetates and the like. Nor is it an easy book to dip into, lacking an index. What The Book really needs is a critical voice, one that might begin to explain VDGG’s enduring popularity by examining more closely their artistic failures as well as successes. Dissent is limited to a handful of quotes from lukewarm reviews, to which the group were never exactly strangers, and the odd celebrity putdown such as Joe Strummer’s memorable definition of the group being “like Shakespeare crossed with Uriah Heep”. How exactly Hammill and his cohorts were able to find a fair degree of public favour with some of the most unremittingly dark and solipsistic songs ever written (see VDGG’s “The Emperor In His War Room”, from H To He Who Am The Only One, or Hammill’s “Gog”, from In Camera) doesn’t come close to being elucidated here, but as a group travelogue and potted history of the era, it’s a rollicking good read. ------------- jc |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 27 2006 at 04:08
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I have the book on hold for now Too many more urgent readings to be done ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: BaldJean
Date Posted: February 27 2006 at 04:23
what on earth could be more urgent reading for a progger than a book on VdGG? -------------  A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 27 2006 at 05:31
Fans have been waiting almost 30 years foa that book, so it can still wait for a few weeks! my book is in Holland, so you'll be able to leaf through it when you come over. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
