A Van de Graaff generator is a tool able to producing excessive voltages. The cost — generated by contact — is transferred by way of a conveyor belt to a hole metallic sphere, which acts as a terminal. The generator is a star attraction in science school rooms and museums, as a result of academic worth it has when somebody makes an attempt to elucidate electrostatic phenomena. A volunteer is usually requested to the touch it… and so they find yourself with their hair a large number.
Whether by likelihood or not, in 1967, information of the demise of its creator, the American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff, supplied inspiration to a few college college students from Manchester, within the United Kingdom. Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith determined to call their musical challenge after him (with a few letters modified, simply in case somebody objected). Thus started the journey of Van der Graaf Generator, a band that defies simple categorization. For a long time, the bandmates have compiled songs which can be able to sending shivers down your backbone via sound waves.
“I used to be fortunate sufficient to interview Nic Potter, Van der Graaf’s nice bassist, who handed away [in 2013]. And I requested him why he left after the third album,” Argentine journalist Marcelo Gobello tells EL PAÍS. “He replied, ‘Because the music we have been taking part in scared me. It was so intense… and I used to be younger and it frightened me. But don’t embody [this in your article].’”
“You can embody it now,” Gobello shrugs, “as a result of the poor man received’t find out about it now. Apparently, unusual issues have been occurring [to them]: there was a live performance in Ibiza, if I’m not mistaken, the place they are saying a UFO appeared!”
Gobello not too long ago printed Necromancers, Lighthouse Keepers and Forsaken Gardens: An Introduction to Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator (2025), a guide that he describes as his “life’s work.” For a long time, he adopted Hammill and the band’s profession, whereas additionally conducting quite a few interviews with the lead singer, after forging and sustaining a friendship with the musician because the Nineteen Nineties. Hammill even wrote the foreword to the guide, which is the third model of a piece that Gobello has expanded on and up to date because the discographies of the artist and the band have grown.
The title references three songs: Necromancer, from the 1969 debut album; A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers (1971), one in all Hammill’s nice masterpieces, a 23-minute-long work; and Forsaken Gardens (1974), from Hammill’s solo album. Gobello’s encyclopedic quantity explores every of the works put out by the prolific British singer, who has amassed 54 studio albums in his profession, 13 of them with Van der Graaf Generator.
“I as soon as learn a really attention-grabbing comparability: if progressive rock have been a cathedral, Pink Floyd could be within the towers, Genesis within the gardens, King Crimson within the chambers and Van der Graaf Generator within the catacombs,” Gobello chuckles. “They have been all the time darkish, brutal, with some stunning moments and, out of the blue, [some filled with] insanity. They have been like a Hammer horror movie, with a distorted organ, a punk perspective and a considerably jazzy construction. A definite and unpredictable group.”
Peter Hammill, 77, was born in London. The journalist refers to him as “the Vampire of Bath,” referencing the English metropolis the place he lives, whereas alluding to his typically sinister presence and esthetic selections, such because the cape he wore on the duvet of In Camera (1974). Hammill disagrees with the “progressive rock” label, as a substitute preferring the time period “underground.”
The musician turned the frontman for Van der Graaf after the departure of Chris Judge Smith (who meant to be each drummer and singer, though the arrival of percussionist Guy Evans and Hammill’s superior vocals left him with little work). He’s a secret idol for generations of extra mainstream artists, one thing he has — a minimum of, in recent times — embraced with the philosophy of somebody who prioritizes artistic pleasure over get-rich-quick schemes.
“Being [part of] Van der Graaf Generator isn’t profession choice,” he joked on the presentation of the band’s newest album, Do Not Disturb (2016). He had been requested if there was a industrial motivation behind the musicians’ 2005 reunion after nearly 30 years aside.
“It’s true that we’re troublesome; you should take heed to our albums a number of instances,” he admitted. “But I nonetheless assume we deserve a a lot bigger viewers than what we have now. Even although we’re over 70, we’re a contemporary band that performs trendy music.”
In some circles, the appearance of punk rock within the late Nineteen Seventies was typically understood as a revolt towards progressive or symphonic rock, in addition to a problem to virtuosity. And Van der Graaf Generator rode that wave.
Johnny Rotten, the vocalist of the Sex Pistols — who famously wore a T-shirt at a live performance with the slogan “I Hate Pink Floyd” — proclaimed his admiration for the band across the similar time. The solo album Nadir’s Big Chance (1975) — the place Hammill adopts the alter ego of Rikki Nadir, a teen who, armed together with his guitar, units out to crush the system with noise and fury — is, the truth is, thought-about to be a precursor to the punk style. It’s sung in a screaming fashion… not not like how Rotten himself would sound with the Sex Pistols two years later. Other avowed followers of Van der Graaf Generator embody David Bowie, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Ian Curtis (Joy Division), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and Mark E. Smith (The Fall).
“They have been by no means seen as dinosaurs, as a result of their music is timeless,” Gobello affirms. “They’ve influenced post-punk, gothic rock… even heavy metallic. Except for [organist] Hugh Banton — who had musical coaching — they’re a band with the DIY spirit of punk, with whole freedom and audacity. They don’t take into consideration pleasing folks; typically, they alienate their very own followers. They may attain dramatic heights, be operatic or Wagnerian; Hammill has a voice that may sing you a ballad, or encourage worry.”
“I as soon as requested him how he would describe the spirit of Van der Graaf Generator,” Gobello remembers. “And he stated, ‘critical enjoyable.’ Delving into their music is extremely rewarding… however it’s a must to work at it, like every part worthwhile in life.”
A louse isn’t a house
After a troubled debut album, The Aerosol Grey Machine (1969) — a Peter Hammill album that ended up being credited to the band after all of the members collaborated — Van der Graaf Generator made a splash with The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other (1970). The album achieved some minor success (it was their best-selling album within the UK till the dwell album Vital, launched in 1978) and attracted crucial consideration via its bewildering nature. The assortment was caught between David Jackson’s John Coltrane-esque saxophone and the singer’s darkish lyrics about apocalypse, science fiction and witchcraft. One music — White Hammer — was based mostly on the medieval treatise Malleus Maleficarum (1486), typically translated as Hammer of Witches.
The bandmates upped the ante on their subsequent and even stranger launch: H To He, Who Am The Only One (1971). The title refers back to the nuclear fusion of hydrogen (H) to kind helium (He), the method that takes place within the core of stars.
In a documentary, music journalist Gerry Ewing noticed: “Not solely can Van der Graaf Generator’s music be troublesome… their albums even have troublesome titles!”
Such materials lends itself to review. This is why — even though Van der Graaf is comparatively unknown, even amongst progressive rock followers — the band appears to encourage such an enormous physique of literature.
This December has seen the UK publication of ROCK and ROLE: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator (2025). The guide’s creator, Joe Banks, explains to EL PAÍS that he wrote it, partially, as a result of the band “must be extra widely known,” whereas noting that “Hammill is among the finest lyricists rock has ever produced.”
“He actually started by drawing inspiration from the occult, legendary and science fiction themes from the psychedelic interval… however then he ventured into extra transcendent and philosophical areas, with questions akin to the character of free will, alienation and individuality, or faith versus science. He has additionally written a number of profound love songs. This is what makes him and Van der Graaf Generator so interesting to followers of extra mental music,” Banks factors out. “He’s by no means been afraid of his personal curiosity and intelligence.”
According to Banks, one doable cause as to why the band’s industrial success was far lower than that of, say, Genesis or King Crimson, lies of their full disregard for compromise. For instance, Killer (1970) — a form of epic music a few shark — was the closest they ever got here to a success… and so they subsequently dropped it from their setlists after they noticed that individuals saved requesting it.
“They’re much less accessible as a result of they’re very idiosyncratic and sometimes intentionally chaotic. There’s a real aspect of hazard of their music. But I believe a part of their attraction is that they’re not for everybody.”
However, Van der Graaf Generator did obtain extraordinary recognition in Italy, the place they unexpectedly reached primary on the charts with their fourth album, Pawn Hearts (1971). This is regardless of it being probably the most demanding of their discography. The critic for the British journal Record Mirror wrote: “I have to confess my full ignorance of precisely what Van der Graaf Generator is attempting to realize.” The Mediterranean nation boasted a thriving progressive rock scene, with bands like Premiata Forneria Marconi, Le Orme, Area and, in fact, Goblin, the band that supplied the soundtracks for Dario Argento’s horror movies. The members of Van der Graaf skilled intense and traumatic excursions there, surrounded by police as a result of giant crowds of followers within the streets. On their newest album, they devoted a music to their Italian adventures: Alfa Berlina (2016).
After their preliminary breakup, Van der Graaf Generator launched 4 extra studio albums between 1975 and 1977. And, in 2005, shortly after Hammill suffered a coronary heart assault, the 4 unique members reunited and recorded an album. Just a yr later, they settled right into a trio, following the departure of saxophonist David Jackson. The cause for his departure stays a thriller, with the frontman cryptically asserting in a letter that Jackson “appeared to have problem in understanding” the band’s new course.
Van der Graaf Generator has since accomplished 4 extra albums with out him and stays lively, although they haven’t carried out dwell since 2022. Hammill has confirmed he’s engaged on a solo album… however this doesn’t imply that Van der Graaf has damaged up. His relentless output has all the time meant balancing the band with particular person initiatives.
Despite the tempo of albums and excursions, Hammill has additionally discovered time for private dramas. In the mid-Nineteen Seventies, his girlfriend left him for a pal. He subsequently devoted a complete album to what occurred, titled Over (1977), which has earned its place among the many best breakup albums in historical past.
It’s no coincidence that his theatrical stage presence — the type that unsettling songs akin to Still Life, Darkness (11/11), The Sleepwalkers and A Louse Is Not A Home demand — completely encapsulates the worldview of a type of geniuses who don’t see life and artwork as separate entities.
In 2004, Gobello had the consideration of giving an introductory discuss at Hammill’s first live performance after his coronary heart assault. It was held in Sos del Rey Católico, a city within the province of Zaragoza, Spain. Gobello remembers the expertise with a way of rigidity: “Hammill is so excessive that he didn’t know if he was going to make it out alive. He was coming again for actual and needed to sing together with his attribute depth.”
Fortunately, no tragedy occurred. “It was very emotional. But he didn’t know some other strategy to do it. It was trial and error… solely that, [in this case], a mistake may have been fairly horrible.” Dangerous music doesn’t negotiate.
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