Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Van Der Graaf Generator
Label: Charisma Records
Release: 1978
Length: 86:14
Rating: 4/5
The grandees of progressive rock, Van Der Graaf Generator, who spent the late seventies operating under the slightly shortened name ‘Van Der Graaf’, marked their third breakup (thankfully temporary, though a long one) with the double live album »Vital«. It was their first official live record, taped on January 16 during a ‘farewell’ gig at the famous London club Marquee, so they got the chance to bow out in truly magnificent style. Van Der Graaf were playing in a short-lived lineup that, besides the original members, namely the brilliant singer, guitarist and songwriter Peter Hammill and drum grandmaster Guy Evans, also featured bassist Nic Potter, violinist Graham Smith (ex-String Driven Thing), guest cellist/keyboardist Charles Dickie, and the returning David Jackson on saxophones and flute. Jackson came back exclusively for the two Marquee shows, which were also the final dates of the farewell tour.
Jackson’s presence gave both concerts a very special stamp, clearly audible on individual »Vital« performances, since the charismatic woodwind man fit in remarkably well among the strings, an unusual company for him, even though it was precisely their arrival (along with the departure of original keyboardist Hugh Banton) that made him leave VDGG in 1977. The changed lineup played the band’s long-time classics in a completely distinctive way compared to the classic version of this cult act: with the organs gone and strings and synthesizer in their place, most of the old songs took on a totally different ambient dimension, one VDGG devotees had never heard from Hammill and company before.
The sound of the hellish VDGG monster was, in some segments, besides the usual darkness, a lot dirtier and more direct than ever before, though that’s not to say »Vital« lacked the band’s trademark wild improvisations. Thanks to the smeared guitar chords, some of the performances have an almost ‘punkoid’ stamp, so it’s no surprise that Peter said in an interview at the time, half joking and half serious, that ‘right now he enjoys playing electric guitar like some cocky, eager-to-prove-himself 15-year-old who gets immense pleasure from banging out three chords’.
The setlist on this double live recording, released just a month before the band split, is pretty interesting, featuring quite a few rarities, or songs VDGG never played before or after. Besides welcome VDGG classics like the melodramatic »Still Life«, the epic-chaotic »Pioneers Over C« and the punchy »Killer«, they also played Hammill’s solo track »Nadir’s Big Chance« from the album of the same name, plus three completely new creations: »Mirror Images«, »Sci-Finance«, »Door« and »Urban«.
The opening track, »Ship Of Fools«, was already a big surprise as far as the Marquee farewell setlist goes: it originally came out as the B-side of the single »Cat’s Eye«, and even that only in France. Most of the songs were played in a very raw, brutal and direct way that let VDGG overshadow even some of the hardest-hitting bands of the time (the late seventies). That’s especially audible on the tracks from the album »The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome« (1977), which were written with Smith’s violin in mind. One such example is »Last Frame«, which opens with a long violin improvisation, followed by a turn into a brutal section in the middle of which the vocal thunderer Hammill once again loses his nerve. The studio version of the epic delicacy »Mirror Images«, with some very lovely woodwind arrangements, later came out in 1979 on Hammill’s solo album »pH7«.
Somewhat ironically, the most interesting performance on »Vital« is also its biggest letdown, if not its main flaw. The decision to cut the epic magnum opus »A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers« in half and fuse it with the otherwise excellent »Godbluff« (1975) classic »Sleepwalkers« was one of the few wrong moves in the history of these English prog legends. VDGG played the complete version of »A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers« live only once in the seventies (during a performance for Belgian television), as playing it was quite grueling and demanding. Dropping anything from the original, more-than-twenty-minute version was a big mistake, since this is a conceptual super-epic, even though »Sleepwalkers« complements it fairly convincingly right before the section where things should really start getting ‘complicated’.
On the second disc, one of the main attractions is the sci-fi odyssey »Pioneers Over C«, where, despite the superb performance, Banton’s organ is sorely missed. »Sci-Finance«, graced with a slight new wave touch, where both string players shine especially bright with their baroque arrangements, came out ten years later as »Sci-Finance (Revisited)« in a studio version on Hammill’s studio effort »In A Foreign Town« (1988). The improvisational merry-go-round »Door«, which stylistically strongly recalls Hammill’s solo output from that era, was also written in 1977 and only got a studio version on the compilation »Box« (2000). One of the stranger but still interesting experiments is the medley »Urban/Killer/Urban«, where the band slyly merged a significantly trimmed-down »Killer« with the new song »Urban«. It was perhaps even somewhat fitting that Van Der Graaf bid farewell that night with Hammill’s solo classic »Nadir’s Big Chance«, a proto-punk number that properly warmed the hearts of even those audience members who belonged to the so-called punk generation.
The superb live document »Vital« offered a great glimpse of a VDGG lineup bursting at the seams with untamed energy and fighting spirit, which makes it all the harder to believe it was the prog legends’ last show before their (temporary) split. In their sonic visionary streak, VDGG never paid any attention to current musical trends , which is probably the main reason why, except in Italy, they never saw any commercial success worth mentioning. Since their reunion in 2005 they’ve actually become more popular than ever, but still nowhere near it and with no intention whatsoever of chasing big commercial success. Some ideas, like »Nadir’s Big Chance« (the original version was played by the classic VDGG lineup), which, as mentioned, contained traces of proto-punk, were, under Hammill’s intellectual-visionary dictate, conceived entirely by chance before it became popular. That’s perhaps one of the main reasons the media of the day didn’t brand them ‘dinosaurs’, as they did with most of their musical peers, and why they also earned the respect of numerous punks, who liked their aggression and Hammill’s ‘holy simplicity’, yet at the same time his energetic approach to guitar chords.
Lineup
Peter Hammill – vocals, piano and guitar
Guy Evans – drums
David Jackson – saxophone and flute
Nic Potter – bass guitar
Graham Smith – violin
Charles Dickie – cello, electric piano, synthesizer
Production
Guy Evans
Track list
1. Ship of Fools (6:43)
2. Still Life (9:42)
3. Last Frame (9:02)
4. Mirror Images (5:50)
5. Medley: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers/Sleepwalkers (13:41)
6. Pioneers Over C (17:00)
7. Sci-Finance (6:16)
8. Door (6:00)
9. Urban/Killer/Urban (8:20)
10. Nadir’s Big Chance (7:00)
