Van der Graaf Generator frontman Peter Hammill is to have his Charisma and Virgin Records output remastered and released as a 20-disc box set.
The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 - 1986 features 18 CDs and two Blu-rays that feature every Hammill solo album released on either the Charisma label or Virgin Records from 1971's Fool's Mate solo debut, all the way through to 1986's And Close As This, newly remastered from the original master tapes.
It also features new 5.1 and stereo mixes of The Future Now and pH7 by Stephen W Tayler, rare BBC sessions and live recordings and a Blu-ray video disc of rare previously unreleased European television performances, as well as a 76 page, 12-inch squared, hardbacked book featuring extensive commentary on each album by Peter alongside many rare images. A limited run featuring an exclusive postcard will also be available.
Hammill releasd his first solo album, Fool's Mate, while still a member of Van der Graaf Generator, who featured on the album, along with labelmates Lindisfarne and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. After VdGG split for a second time in 1972, Hammill resumed his solo career with vigour, releasing acclaimed albums such as The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage and In Camera (both 1974).
Although keeping both his solo and VdGG careers running in parallel, his 1975 album, Nadir's Big Chance has been cited as an influence on the punk rock musicians who treated VdGG with disdain as they swept through the music scene in 1976 and 1977. And yet Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon famously played The Institute of Mental Health, Burning and Nobody's Business on a 1977 Capitol Radio show.
Hammill recently announced three solo shows for England and Scotland in September and October. He will play Edinburgh's Queen's Hall on September 29, Manchester's RNCM on October 1 and London's London's Royal Festival Hall on October 2.
"Since the last VdGG tour was abruptly curtailed back in 2022 I’ve done solo shows in Italy, Japan and Greece," says Hammill. "So it’s really about time that I played some UK dates - incredibly the last ones were in 2018."
CD One
“Fool’s Mate”
Imperial Zeppelin
Candle
Happy
Solitude
Vision
Re-Awakening
Sunshine
Child
Summer Song in the Autumn
Viking
The Birds
I Once Wrote Some Poems
Bonus tracks:
Demo session
Recorded in January 1971
Re-Awakening (demo)
Summer Song in the Autumn (demo)
The Birds (demo)
Sunshine (demo)
Happy (demo)
CD Two
“Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night”
German Overalls
Slender Threads
Rock and Role
In the End
What it’s Worth
Easy to Slip Away
Dropping the Torch
(In the) Black Room / The Tower
Bonus tracks:
Rain 3am
Recorded in 1973
Time for a Change
German Overalls
Easy to Slip Away
In the End
BBC Radio John Peel session – 9th July 1973
CD Three
“The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage”
Modern
Wilhemina
The Lie (Bernini’s Saint Theresa)
Forsaken Gardens
Red Shift
Rubicon
A Louse is Not a Home
CD Four
Live Recordings 1974
Rubicon
Red Shift
BBC Radio John Peel session – 18th February 1974
Solitude
Time for a Change
The Birds
Out of My Book
Slender Threads
German Overalls
Live at Montreal University Sports Centre – 21st April 1974
CD Five
“In Camera”
Ferret and Featherbird
(No More) The Sub Mariner
Tapeworm
Again
Faint Heart and the Sermon
The Comet, The Course, The Tail
Gog
Magog (In Bromine Chambers)
Bonus tracks:
The Emperor in His War Room
Faint Heart and the Sermon
(No More) The Sub Mariner
BBC Radio John Peel session – 3rd September 1974
CD Six
“Nadir’s Big Chance”
Nadir’s Big Chance
The Institute of Mental Health, Burning
Open Your Eyes
Nobody’s Business
Been Alone So Long
Pompeii
Shingle Song
Airport
People You Were Going To
Birthday Special
Two or Three Spectres
CD Seven
“Over”
Crying Wolf
Autumn
Time Heals
Alice (Letting Go)
This Side of the Looking Glass
Betrayed
(On Tuesday’s She Used to Do) Yoga
Lost and Found
Bonus tracks:
Afterwards
Autumn
Betrayed
BBC Radio One John Peel session – 21st April 1977
CD Eight
“The Future Now”
Pushing Thirty
The Second Hand
Trappings
The Mousetrap
Energy Vampires
If I Could
The Future Now
Still in the Dark
Mediaeval
A Motor-Bike in Africa
The Cut
Palinurus (Castaway)
CD Nine
The All Souls Unitarian Church, Kansas City, USA
16th February 1978
House With No Door
Time Heals
This Side of the Looking Glass
My Room (Waiting for Wonderland)
Easy to Slip Away
Still Life
Lizard Play
Time for a Change
Been Alone So Long
Modern
If I Could
Last Frame
CD Ten
The All Souls Unitarian Church, Kansas City, USA
16th February 1978
The Comet, The Course, The Tail
The Lie (Bernini’s Saint Theresa)
The Mousetrap (Caught In)
In the End
Medley: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers / The Sleepwalkers
Man-Erg
CD Eleven
“pH7”
My Favourite
Careering
Porton Down
Mirror Images
Handicap and Equality
Not for Keith
The Old School Tie
Time for a Change
Imperial Walls
Mr X (Gets Tense)
Faculty X
Bonus tracks:
Mediaeval / Time for a Change
Mr X (Gets Tense)
Faculty X
BBC Radio John Peel session – 24th September 1979
The Polaroid
A-side of single – Released as Charisma CB 399 in August 1979
Credited to Rikki Nadir
CD Twelve
“A Black Box”
Golden Promises
Losing Faith in Words
Jargon King
Fogwalking
The Spirit
In Slow Time
The Wipe
Flight
Flying Bird
The White Cave Fandango
Control
Cockpit
Silk Worm Wings
Nothing is Nothing
A Black Box
CD Thirteen
“Sitting Targets”
Breakthrough
My Experience
Ophelia
Empress’s Clothes
Glue
Hesitation
Sitting Targets
Stranger Still
Sign
What I Did
Central Hotel
CD Fourteen
“The Love Songs”
Just Good Friends
My favourite
Been Alone So Long
Ophelia
Again
If I Could
Vision
Don’t Tell Me
The Birds
(This Side of) The Looking Glass
Bonus track:
Just Good Friends (instrumental)
B-side of single – Released as Charisma CB 414 in May 1985
CD Fifteen
“Skin”
Skin
After the Show
Painting By Numbers
Shell
All Said and Done
A Perfect Date
Four Pails
Now Lover
Bonus track:
You Hit Me Where I Live
CD Sixteen
“And Close as This”
Too Many of My Yesterdays
Faith
Empire of Delight
Silver
Beside the One You Love
Other Old Cliches
Confidence
Sleep Now
CD Seventeen
“The Future Now”
Stephen W Tayler stereo remix
Pushing Thirty
The Second Hand
Trappings
The Mousetrap (Caught In)
Energy Vampires
If I Could
The Future Now
Still in the Dark
Mediaeval
A Motor-Bike in Africa
The Cut
Palinurus (Castaway)
CD Eighteen
“pH7”
Stephen W Tayler stereo remix
My Favourite
Careering
Porton Down
Mirror Images
Handicap and Equality
Not for Keith
The Old School Tie
Time for a Change
Imperial Walls
Mr X (Gets Tense)
Faculty X
Blu ray1
“The Future Now”
Stephen W Tayler High resolution 5.1 Surround Sound mix / new stereo remix
Pushing Thirty
The Second Hand
Trappings
The Mousetrap
Energy Vampires
If I Could
The Future Now
Still in the Dark
Mediaeval
A Motor-Bike in Afrika
The Cut
Palinurus (Castaway)
“pH7”
Stephen W Tayler High resolution 5.1 Surround Sound mix / new stereo remix
My Favourite
Careering
Porton Down
Mirror Images
Handicap and Equality
Not for Keith
The Old School Tie
Time for a Change
Imperial Walls
Mr X (Gets Tense)
Faculty X
Blu-ray2
The video vaults
In the End
German Overalls
French TV – Rock en Stock 1973
The Lie
Forsaken Gardens
A Louse is Not a Home
Swiss Television 1974
Energy Vampires
My Room
French TV – Chorus 1979
Tintagel By the Sea
BBC TV – “Playaway” 15th December 1979
