Sofa Sound
It’s about time that I shone a light on a number of PH/VdGG related items of interest.
Earlier in the year Jim Christopulos did an incredible job of matching up previously unknown footage of VdGG’s 1976 appearance inMassey Hall, Toronto, to existing audio. The response to this going online was positive in the extreme.
I began thinking about a couple of spools of Super 8 film which I’d been given many years ago. These were of VdGG at the Beacon Theater, NYC, in the same year, the only US show which that era of the band played and therefore something of a legendary performance. I’d never known quite what to do with it . If it had gone up online as film only it would have been a curio, but something of a sketchy thing. Equally, it didn’t seem right to put it up for collection by anyone else. So it had lain forgotten in my desk all this time. In fact I didn’t even know what the footage consisted of.
So I had the content digitised and sent it off to Jim to see whether he might weave some more audio-visual magic and bring the thing to life. In fact he went much further than this, locating two other people who had footage of the concert and then tracking down numerous eyewitnesses as well. Rather than the brief snippets which had represented the Toronto show, he’s now put together a full documentary chronicling the New York event. It’s now up here: https://youtu.be/1gPTM2AwK3w
I thoroughly recommend that anyone who’s interested in VdGG history should check this out!
Finally out this week is the comprehensive Box Set put together by Universal music: Peter Hammill: The Charisma and Virgin Recordings 1971-1986. (Charisma, of course, was bought by Virgin, which was bought by EMI, which was bought by Universal and so my back catalogue has ended up in their care.) This set gathers together all the studio albums of the period, all of them remastered and with new (stereo and surround) mixes of The Future Now and pH7. There are also three CDs of live material and rare video footage too. A massive book completes the set with many previously unseen photos and pieces of memorabilia and in addition I’ve written notes for each album which, I hope, shed light on their making, content and context.
Of course
in the way
of things this is a pretty expensive item. But it’s been
really
well put together with great respect for the material
and is the
definitive collection of all that work, so long ago. It
gets a full
thumbs up from me.
You can order it from Burning Shed.
Something else will be coming along in November: Joe Banks’ book “Rock and Role: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator”. Joe’s been working on this magnum opus for absolutely ages. It’s in that odd space between being authorised and unauthorised, in that I haven’t actually been interviewed for it directly myself, but I’ve given full encouragement to Joe to speak to anyone he sees fit for insight into What happened and What it all Meant. I haven’t actually had sight of the contents and can’t vouch for its accuracy (!) - the extent of my involvement has been to respond to a few fact-checking/clarification enquiries from Joe along the way.
Here’s the announcement and info about it: https://kingmakerpublishing.com/
And
finally…. A
week from today, on 30th September, I’ll be
one show
into my solo mini tour of the UK, having played in
Edinburgh the previous
night.
It’s been an age since my last shows over here and my performances are, of course, becoming rarer and rarer. I’ve never been one who wanted to carry on being a trouper until I drop down on stage. So who knows when – or if – I’ll be playing here again. If you have any interest in seeing me do my strange stuff on stage I strongly recommend getting along to one or other of these shows. Details, as ever, can be found at touring.
Following the ending of the Sofa Sound mail order shop we've now also closing down our mailbox. This means, of course, that there will no longer be a terrestrial address for us.
Esoteric Records have kindly agreed to receive any mail that you wish to send. They are at:
Esoteric Recordings
Cherry Red Records
Power Road Studios
114 Power Road
London
W4 5PY
Though to be honest email (to contact@sofasound.com) remains the best channel of communication.
As explained below, the Sofa Sound mail order shop has now closed and the official PH store has moved to Burningshed.com.
It's quite an emotional moment to say goodbye to this business, which has gone through so many mutations over the years. Perhaps in the coming days, when my equilibrium's somewhat restored, I'll write something about this, either here or over at the Journal pages - sadly neglected as they've been for a long while.
As and when there's any news to announce it will, of course, continue to be posted here.
Mille grazie, merci beaucoup, danke schön, duomo arigato and all the rest...this book is ended.
We've been running Sofa Sound as a mail order business for over forty years, from way back in pre-internet days. The time has now come for us to stop doing so. Inevitably, Brexit has a part to play in this but there are other factors in play as well.
The official online mail order shop for my stuff will be moving over to www.burningshed.com from the 1st July. Many of you will already know that they're a super-efficient and straightforward company and they're much better placed than we are to weather the continuing bumpy ride we're currently on.
It goes without saying how much we appreciate the loyalty and enthusiasm which so many of you have shown to and for our little operation over so many years. Thank you. It's true to say that at many times in the past I wouldn't have been able to carry on making music without the support which you've given via Sofa Sound.
Time for a change, though: onward we go.
Regarding the site...
The intention here is to have a fundamentally "white
paper" place from which information rather than
entertainment (or information as entertainment) can be
gleaned. To this end the site should be under fairly
constant revision. Once again, my apologies for being
negligent in this regard over the last few months.