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The Latest Breaking News from Peter Hammill

“I lie to them and change the goalposts… you build up techniques of throwing the curveball of discomfort. If it gets comfortable I change it”: David Thomas calls Pere Ubu “avant-garage” – but how prog are they?

They’re unmistakably American, but their lead visionary names Henry Cow, Soft Machine, Gentle Giant and Van der Graaf Generator among his motivators, and explains why his band is definitely not punk

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"One of the great man's most powerful creations": The expanded version of Peter Hammill's Incoherence offers a unique glimpse into the febrile mind of a restless genius

An ambitious peak from a prog maverick revisited

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“Bands that went from beauty to absolute hideousness attracted me – Van der Graaf and King Crimson managed to create fragile music that was then utterly destroyed”: The roots of Tim Bowness’ Powder Dry

Struggling to express conviction, the serial band member and collaborator went it alone for his most experimental album to date… although he didn’t use the pedalboard Peter Hammill lent him

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“We were held together by Sellotape and sealing wax… We knew our days were numbered”: Tired, broke and losing members, Van der Graaf Generator went down fighting with The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome

Peter Hammill remembers trimming down the music and the name to spend 18 months in a ferocious punk-tinged endgame that resulted in stunning live album Vital

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Peter Hammill announces Italian live dates for November

Van der Graaf frontman Peter Hammill will also play two live dates in Athens in Janaury 2025

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"My girlfriend had to leave the room when I played the album": The 10 records that changed Fish's life

Former Marillion frontman Fish takes a trip to the past to explore the records that shaped his path through music

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“A Whiter Shade Of Pale hit people’s ears and rang some sort of bell… it’s always been a great mystery why it did that”: The life and times of Gary Brooker

Procol Harum singer’s first-ever song was one of the biggest hits imaginable, but he enjoyed many more career highs with and without the band that made his name

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“One doesn’t so much listen as feel it deep in the bones… their stark inventiveness and originality remain outstanding”: Van der Graaf Generator’s Still Life and Vital reissues

1976 studio album and 1978 live double album return from era of new momentum for Peter Hammill and co

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"It’s a maths geek’s love song to maths!" The story of Van der Graaf Generator's A Grounding In Numbers

Van der Graaf Generator's third reunion album, 2011's A Grounding In Numbers saw the trio working with shorter form but no less complex material

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“We were making very peculiar music not particularly well played. We got a record contract because the record companies thought, ‘We better get weird’”: Inside the mind of Judge Smith, the man who named Van der Graaf Generator

Inspired by the work of bandmate Peter Hammill and Frank Zappa, Smith aimed never to sound like them – and after working on large ensemble pieces and stage musicals, admitted he’d quite like to “just roll in with a guitar”

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"When he agreed to sing it just blew me away": Sheryl Crow releases cover of Peter Gabriel's Digging In The Dirt and he's on board

Sheryl Crow's version of Peter Gabriel's Digging In The Dirt comes from her upcoming album Evolution

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“Lyrically, it’s something that makes Samuel Beckett sound like Tommy Cooper." Tim Bowness and the story of Flowers At The Scene

Tim Bowness may explore morose subjects like murder and divorce on his new album, but this collection of “cinematic short stories”, featuring an impressive prog line-up, is certainly not all doom and gloom…

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“Our contemporaries had numbers that got people up on their feet cheering. We didn’t… We wondered if A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers was the way to go. I thought, ‘We can’t even play this!’”: Van der Graaf Generator’s struggle through the 70s

Keyboardist Hugh Banton on deciding not to emulate Keith Emerson’s stage persona, how he got the band signed, and why it took him so long to accept the “prog” label

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The 6 prog bands John Lydon says he loves

Hawkwind, Van der Graaf Generator and even Pink Floyd – they’ve all had ex-Sex Pistols singer John Lydon’s stamp of approval

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“We broke up after debating the exact time signature of Solsbury Hill!” Before being able to enjoy lively debate with Peter Hammill, Tim Bowness dated an argumentative prog fan

If he hadn’t discovered the genre via a childhood Subbuteo tournament, he might have wound up working in flavoured crisps

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“A vivid, three-dimensional update… they outstrip the originals’ impact by some distance”: Peter Hammill’s In A Foreign Town / Out Of Water 2023

Van der Graaf Generator frontman has little to prove – but does it anyway with his revamp of solo albums hobbled by late-80s production values

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"Undeniably brilliant but unlistenable": Pawn Hearts by Van der Graaf Generator - Album Of The Week Club review

Van der Graaf Generator's fourth album Pawn Hearts sums up all that is glorious and bewildering about the band: unconventional vocals, confrontational music, and the unruly spectre of jazz

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“Am I Prog’s Taylor Swift? That’s a debate that could run and run”: why Peter Hammill re-recorded his Enigma-era albums

Van der Graaf Generator lynchpin cites pop star’s motivation behind his new versions of In A Foreign Town and Out Of Water

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“Though quintessentially punk records, their first two albums featured tricky time signatures, a four-part musical suite, and songs that clocked in at seven minutes”: The Stranglers were always more prog than you thought

Third album Black And White is Exhibit A in a case that also includes Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, Steve Hillage and Nik Turner

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“I’ve been known to rant and rave… I had no idea that my words would be hostages to fortune”: but Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill doesn’t mind if quotes limited his success

He’s glad he never reached a level of success where someone offered to make him a star

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Aylesbury Friars: the story of a venue

The Buckinghamshire venue was instrumental in furthering the careers of David Bowie, Genesis, VdGG, King Crimson, Marillion and more

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