Van der Graaf Generator-Vital

A live album recorded on January 16th 1978. After this tour the band broke up again. Hugh Banton and David Jackson had left in 1976, although Jackson returned for a few gigs on this ’78 tour this show being one of them. Guy Evans was still on drums and Banton was replaced by Charles Dickie on piano and synthesizer. Nick Potter who played on their second record joined on bass. Graham Smith from the band String Driven Thing was added on violin. Of the ten tracks on this double album four are from their second period from ’75 to ’77 and three are from Hammill solo albums. Only two are from their first period a 13 minute medley of “A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers” and “Sleepwalking”, and a 17 minute “Pioneers Over c”. These two older pieces are quite different than the studio versions since it was hard to re-create the sound live. They are also hampered by the loss of Banton’s organ ,so important in these early songs. The violin adds some different textures but Jackson’s sax seems to be deep in the mix and not very loud. One new song, “Urban” has part of “Killers” in the middle. I probably bought this in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Not a bad record but my least favorite of the five I own. The band re-united again in 2005 with Hammill, Jackson, Banton and Evans and put out one record after which Jackson left again and they continued as a trio putting out four more records, the last in 2016. I haven’t heard anything from this third period although I do have a digital copy of their 2011 release. One day I will give that a listen.

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