#LEGEND MAKER BAND GENERATOR#

Īmong the bands that regularly played the university, including Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd, they were particularly impressed by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and recruited an organist, Nick Pearne, to match the format of Arthur Brown's band. Smith recalls the reason for this may have been that Van de Graaff died in 1967, which was widely reported in the media. The band name chosen from Smith's list was based on a Van de Graaff generator, a mechanical device that produces static electricity with lightning-like flashes – the misspellings are accidental. Smith was so impressed with the quality of Hammill's original material that the two agreed to form a band together. He was then briefly employed as a computer programmer, during which time he subsequently claimed to have written much of the band's early material, before enrolling at Manchester. Hammill had begun writing songs and poetry at the age of 12 while at prep school, and progressed to playing in bands while a pupil at Beaumont College. After an unsatisfactory audition they had both attended in response to an advert to form a band, he met fellow student Peter Hammill, who was playing some of his original songs. The band formed in 1967 at the University of Manchester, after Chris Judge Smith, who had already played in several British rhythm and blues groups whilst a pupil in Oundle School, returned from a trip to San Francisco and, inspired by the bands he had seen, put together a list of possible band names to form a new group. The band was originally formed by students at the University of Manchester. Though the group have generally been commercially unsuccessful, they have inspired several musicians across various genres. His voice has been a distinctive component of the band throughout its career, described as 'a male Nico'. Dick, along with his confessed warped and obsessive nature. Hammill's lyrics covered themes of mortality, due to his love of science fiction writers such as Robert A. While Hammill is the primary songwriter for the band, and members have contributed to his solo albums, the band arranges all its material collectively. 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.

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. After many years apart, the band finally reunited at a gig at the Royal Festival Hall and a short tour in 2005. 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. After several exhausting tours of Italy, the band split in 1972. The quartet subsequently achieved significant success in Italy with the release of Pawn Hearts in 1971. 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. They went through several incarnations in their early years, including a brief split in 1969.

The band formed at the University of Manchester, but settled in London where they signed with Charisma. In 2005 the band reformed, and are still musically active with a line-up of Hammill, organist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans. They did not experience much commercial success in the UK, but became popular in Italy during the 1970s.

#LEGEND MAKER BAND 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. Mercury, Charisma, Fontana, Vertigo, Probe, Dunhill, Virgin

Legend maker band