Van Der Graaf Generator - Lighthouse keepers - Oil Well RSC 141 CD

Van Der Graaf Generator - Lighthouse Keepers 
Oil Well RSC 141 CD

1 Theme One 4:06
2 Killer 7:50
3 A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers 18:45
4 Lost 23:12
5 W 5:03
Total length: 58:56

Note:
All songs by Hammil/ Banton/ Evans/ Jackson unless noted.
Live in London 7 Jan 1971 

Track 1,3,4: recorded live at RTBF Studio, Brussels, for"Pop Shop", RTBF television on 1 March 1972
Track 2,5: recorded live in London for  BBC in concert, John Peel Concert on 23 September 1971

Lineup:
Peter Hammill – guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals
Hugh Banton – organ, bass pedals, bass
Guy Evans – drums
David Jackson – saxophone, flute

This album is a digital clone of: "Theme One" - Fabbri Editori – MRL 044
This Oil Well version has a fine cover, fine quality.  Limited to 200 copies only.
Due to its rarity and good quality, this disc is recommended.
Please note that Lost is in fact the Lighthouse keepers of track 3 repeted, minus its first few minutes, and all material is copied from Lost Live Tapes.
Theme One and A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers were recorded live at RTBF Studio, Brussels, 1 March 1972 for"Pop Shop", RTBF television - broadcast 21 September 1972.
Killer and W recorded live in London, BBC in concert, John Peel Concert on  23 September 1971

With the ease of getting a lot of archive live material it should be stated that nothing really beats the originals - and that's certainly the case here. Of course if you already have all that material, if nothing else this works as an excellent reminder to how great VDGG really was. This '71 live set is infamous for being one of four or five times the band played the massive "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" in concert, and despite some pretty shrill sax parts this set really sounds pretty good. Drummer Guy Evans is always a highlight, and this set is no exception.
Recommended songs: Theme One and Killer

Audio quality: 
Quality content: 

 © Official released material:
Tracks 1,3,4 have been released officially in  Godbluff Live 1975 
Tracks 2,5 have been officially released in "After The Flood: At The BBC 1968-1977"
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RTBF Studio, Brussels, Belgium 21 March 1972
Pop Shop was a short lived broadcast by Belgian sender RTBF, groups such as Van der Graaf Generator & Genesis (who were unknown at the time) would perform in the studio live, much of the footage was shown as part of Belgium's Tienerklanken.

This Van Der Graaf 1972 performance from Belgium television—which is nothing short of astonishing and quite intensely intense—was shot piecemeal and edited together because it was impossible to play the song all in one go. Apparently, this is the only time “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” was ever performed live like this by the original classic line-up of Hugh Banton, Guy Evans, Peter Hammill and David Jackson.

Peter Hammill told this to the Sounds music newspaper about the theme of the enigmatic suite:
“It’s just the story of the lighthouse keeper, that’s it on its basic level. And there’s the narrative about his guilt and his complexes about seeing people die and letting people die, and not being able to help. In the end—well, it doesn’t really have an end, it’s really up to you to decide. He either kills himself or he rationalises it all and can live in peace… Then on the psychic/religious level it’s about him coming to terms with himself, and at the end there is either him losing it all completely to insanity, or transcendence; it’s either way at the end… And then it’s also about the individual coming to terms with society—that’s the third level…”

After The Flood: At The BBC 1968-1977
After The Flood collates all the recordings made by Van der Graaf Generator for Auntie Beeb during their eventful but hugely productive first decade, from the nascent brilliance of Peter Hammill’s earliest songs through to the jaw-shattering clangour of the mid 70s Van der Graaf line-up, via studio sessions – most notably for the legendary John Peel – and live performances, all of which combine to celebrate the remarkable bravery and maturity of the true unsung heroes of British prog.

Those early psychedelic wanderings, as captured for the (sort of) first VdGG album The Aerosol Grey Machine, showcase Hammill’s burgeoning talents without ever quite crossing over into the flat-out genius of the later years; the beautiful Afterwards and the almost comically gothic Necromancer sounding wonderfully primitive and full of melodramatic oomph. But from a glistening and turbulent Darkness (recorded for Radio 1’s Top Gear in 1970) onwards, this is a sustained examination of what happens when inordinately gifted young musicians put pedal to metal and roar off into the creative unknown with no safety net. An early reading of Man-Erg, less precise and methodical than the eventual Pawn Hearts version, crackles with electrified intent, involuntarily tethered to the progressive rock bandwagon but by no means in thrall to its blueprint. (That this was conjured by men in the early 20s still boggles the mind.)

Predictably, the Peel sessions are the real gems here; exquisite versions of Refugees, The Sleepwalkers and a particularly fiery Scorched Earth more than matching their album-dwelling counterparts and sounding somehow more momentous and untamed. It all ends with a potted Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers, captured for Peel in ’77, that is as intense and grotesque as anything the punk rock scene was spawning, not to mention vastly more complex and fearless. For anyone who worships at the VdGG altar, this is an unmissable exercise in plundered archives and revived magic.
https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/van-der-graaf-generator-after-the-flood-at-the-bbc-1968-1977

Who are Van der Graaf Generator
Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commercial success in the UK, but became popular in Italy during the 1970s. In 2005 the band reformed, and are still musically active with a line-up of Hammill, organist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans. The band formed at the University of Manchester, but settled in London where they signed with Charisma. They went through several incarnations in their early years, including a brief split in 1969.

When they reformed, they found minor commercial success with The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other (released in early 1970 and their only album to chart in the UK), and after the follow-up album, H to He, Who Am the Only One (December 1970), stabilised around a line-up of Hammill, Banton, Evans and saxophonist David Jackson. The quartet subsequently achieved significant success in Italy with the release of Pawn Hearts in 1971. After several exhausting tours of Italy, the band split in 1972. They reformed in 1975, releasing Godbluff and frequently touring Italy again, before a major line-up change and a slight rename to Van der Graaf. The band split in 1978. After many years apart, the band finally united at a gig at the Royal Festival Hall and a short tour in 2005. Since then, the band has continued as a trio of Hammill, Banton, and Evans, who record and tour regularly in between Hammill's concurrent solo career.

The group's albums have tended to be both lyrically and musically darker in atmosphere than many of their progressive rock peers (a trait they shared with King Crimson, whose guitarist Robert Fripp guested on two of their albums), and guitar solos were the exception rather than the rule, preferring to use Banton's classically influenced organ, and, until his departure, Jackson's multiple saxophones. While Hammill is the primary songwriter for the band, and members have contributed to his solo albums, the band arranges all its material collectively. Hammill's lyrics covered themes of mortality, due to his love of science fiction writers such as Robert A. Heinlein and Philip K. Dick, along with his confessed warped and obsessive nature. His voice has been a distinctive component of the band throughout its career, described as "a male Nico". Though the group have generally been commercially unsuccessful, they have inspired several musicians across various genres.

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