Vital is the first live album from progressive rock group Van Der Graaf Generator. It was recorded at the Marquee Club in London in January 1978.
For some reason Generator was dropped from the name and the album is billed as Van Der Graaf.
Van Der Graaf Generator Vital
Set List
- Ship of Fools – 6:43 (bonus on The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome)
- Still Life – 9:42 (Still Life)
- Last Frame – 9:02 (The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome)
- Mirror Images – 5:50
- Medley: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers/Sleepwalkers – 13:41 (Pawn Heats & Godbluff)
- Pioneers Over C – 17:00 (H to He, Who Am the Only One
- Sci-Finance – 6:16
- Door – 6:00 (bonus on The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome)
- Urban / Killer / Urban – 8:20 (Killer is on H to He, Who Am the Only One)
- Nadir’s Big Chance – 7:00 (titled track to the Peter Hammill album)
This is a difficult set list with few of the most popular VDGG songs. Real Time is a much better choice if you want a retrospective “best of Van Der Graaf Generator live”.
The songs that you may know have been radically reworked. All VDGG recordings are intense but this is especially difficult. Johnny Rotten (of the Sex Pistols) is said to have liked VDGG and this is punk prog rock.
Unfortunately the recording quality isn’t good. Clever things had to be done with the essential saxophone of David Jackson to even get to this level.
The band at this stage consisted of:
Peter Hammill – Voice, piano, and guitars
Graham Smith – Violin
Charles Dickie – Cello, electric piano, synthesizer
Nic Potter – Bass guitar
Guy Evans – drums
David Jackson – Saxophones and flute – he joined the band for this recording
What Other People Say
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Buying Van Der Graaf Generator Vital
It is available from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk – iTunes – eBay
These links will help you get to the albums quickly and easily but I recommend that you still search for the best deal.
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