PETER HAMMILL VAN DER GRAAF vision LP TEST PRESS rare
$
203
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Description
ARTIST: PETER HAMMILL
TITLE: VISION
LABEL: CHARISMA 1016 white label TEST PRESSING!
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
YEAR: 1978
COVER CONDITION: VG+ with sticker
VINYL CONDITION: VG+ some light scratches
DETAILS: Possible one of a kind Hammill rarity here. This was a superb compilation of tracks from his LPs "fools mate", "silent corner", "in camera", "nadir", etc. featuring those guys from VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR. Featured unique liner notes and lyrics from the man, on the rear cover and on the inner sleeve. This is a tremendous piece, which is unlikely to surface again. Very rare, so good luck!
Released to coincide with Peter Hammill's 1978 American tour (itself captured on the Skeletons of Songs bootleg album), Vision is a neat summary of the singer's solo career, as executed in between the two incarnations of Van Der Graaf Generator, 1971-1975. It is a curiously sequenced set and one that would certainly have benefited from some kind of chronological reordering, for it is in that form that Hammill's development is most readily traced. That, however, is the only valid criticism that can be thrown in its direction. Opening with three tracks from Hammill's debut album ("Vision," "Sunshine," and the jokey "Imperial Zeppelin"), it moves on through the increasingly foreboding and ambitious Chameleon in the Shadow of Night ("Dropping the Torch," "In the End"), The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage (the abruptly edgy "Modern"), In Camera ("The Comet..."), and, finally, the brutal body-swerve of Nadir's Big Chance — "The Institute of Mental Health" had, the previous year, been singled out by no less an icon than Johnny Rotten as one of recent rock's most gripping achievements and, while that recommendation probably meant little to the average Hammill fan, the song's presence here was certainly well-timed. Where Vision falls down, at least from the perspective of anybody intending to attend the shows that it was ostensibly promoting, is in its studied avoidance of material from Hammill's then-most recent albums, Over and The Future Now. The passing of time, however, has rendered that particular complaint all but immaterial — today, Vision stands simply as an aptly titled tribute to one of the most startling talents and, indeed, visionaries, British rock has ever produced.
