Another metal legend who is a Hammill fanatic is Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, who has namechecked Hammill and VdGG on several occasions.

 

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).

 

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!

 

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).

 

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.

 

It dawned on me that the real tell-tale sign of Pawn Hearts' initial success in France is to look at their itinerary for '71 and '72. They played only a handful of French gigs (you can literally count the number on one hand). It wasn't until the second time around ('75 on) that they did extensive touring there. Charisma and Stratton-Smith would have had them saturate the French market if Pawn Hearts was number one there. They did three major Italian tours in '72 when the album was #1 in that country; in fact, the consensus is that they probably played there too much that year (and it definitely contributed to their breaking up in August of '72).