CD - Fie! Records, FIE 9115 (UK, 97)
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Guy Evans & Peter Hammill:
The Union Chapel Concert featuring a one song, one-off reformation of Van der Graaf Generator
Disc One
Disc Two |
| Musicians: |
Guy Evans - drums, percussion, MIDI pads & samples, blue drums (disc one: tracks 2-7, 10; disc two: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7) Peter Hammill - vocals, guitars, keyboards (disc one: tracks 2-7, 10; disc two: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7) Hugh Banton - organs (disc two: tracks 3-5, 7) Manny Elias - drums (disc one: tracks 7, 10; disc two: 7) Stuart Gordon - violin (disc one: tracks 5, 6, 9, 10; disc two: 7) David Jackson - saxes, flutes, soundbeam (disc one: track 8; disc two: 2, 4, 5, 7) Giles Perrin - guitar, blue drums (disc two: tracks 2, 4, 7) Mat Fraser - drums (disc two: track 7) Mat Fraser - drums (disc two: tracks 2, 7) |
| Other credits: |
Produced by Evans & Hammill Recorded live at the Union Chapel, London, on November the 3rd 1996 Live mixed by Paul Ridout Mastering by Peter Hammill at Terra Incognita Cover by Ridart © 1977 Evans & Hammill |
R e l e a s e N o t e s
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When the Union Chapel offered me an evening to do whatever I wanted, I immediately suggested a duo gig with Peter. I'd been very intrigued by our earlier forays into non-direction and it had been a while since we'd caught up with each other. This time I thought I'd take things a stager further and hi-jack bits of his existing recordings into my own instrumental arsenal via a sampler. Peter would then play and sing to improvise re-arrangements made from authentic components.
Peter (naturally) rose to this barely veiled gauntlet and came up with his list of starting concepts - radicalism, minimal personal, responsibility, high-risk and fun, to which I added, seldom performed material, psychedelic guitar and plenty of sonics.
At an early stage, I suggested that Hugh Banton should play the Father Willis pipe organ. Once Hugh was on board it was unthinkable not to have David. They would each play a solo section and guest, on a couple of other pieces. There could be no ducking the issue. We now had to deal with that V*** moment but avoid all its potential horrors (grisly time-warp event, those trousers etc.) Various panic inducing suggestions for material eventually boiled down to 'Lemmings' as the piece containing all the classic elements and great to play. Hugh immediately declared this the most technologically difficult song to reproduce - his MIDI bass pedals would have to be modified to play an authentic bass pulse. He would have to build a fuzz-box. He would start straightaway. David meanwhile decide to go ahead with a long planned total re-build of his system, banking on being able to finish it in time for the gig. So as the day drew closer, Hugh and David were feverishly building gear, Peter was tucked away in Bath brushing up on riffs and I was in London sorting out stuff like PA and parking. This was definitely my moment of maximum deja-vu. There then followed a surreal period as Peter rehearsed with Manny and Stuart in Bath and I rehearsed with Giles, Mat and Patou in London. Our one chance to check the planned ensembles was a day-long run through on the Friday before the concert - no doubt a bizarre experience for guests musicians as they struggled to guess where sections sections they had worked on would actually turn up. A great deal of faith was demanded and given. From the stage the gig itself was over in a flash. We are left with this record - a real official bootleg courtesy of a couple of PZM mics and a DAT machine which I rigged minutes before going on. To many ears it captures all the warm energy of the evening along with some of those rare moments when an invisible hand takes over to propel music to a wild an beautiful edge.
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