32/December 2007
Greetings.
The end of the year rushes up on us and 2008 promises to
hold very much more of Not the Same. Now seems an apposite
moment to give some account of the work of 2007. For me
nearly all of this has been VdGG related and very exciting
and energising it's been too. Self-evidently this is still a
pretty extraordinary ongoing project.
The bulk of this newsletter is inevitably historical and
retrospective...but the shape of the incoming year is
already forming, both in terms of releases and of touring,
so there's some news of that as well.
In the meantime and until later, as ever, thanks for
listening.
PETER HAMMILL
The Trio in 2007
At the time of the last newsletter in March we were just
about to set off on our first stint of touring as a trio. We
were confident enough in our own abilities and the rightness
of the course on which we'd embarked but it'll be obvious
that we were somewhat unsure of the reception which awaited
us from the audiences. Breath was bated - as much on the
public's part as our own.
Our final two days of rehearsal took place in London: just
long enough to remember (-ish) the stuff which we'd worked
out in February at Pyworthy. Also long enough to realise
that we were definitely going to be loud and direct and that
the wheels could very easily fall off the wagon in the
unfolding of the arrangements. From the rehearsal room we
were bundled directly onto the coach for the overnight drive
to Nuremberg.
We awoke outside the Hirsch. For those innocent of the
venue, this is a real Rock Club, right down to the dressing
room occupying the interior of a truck container. At 7.30
am, naturally, it was deserted, so we began what became a
familiar routine: arrive at gig (hopefully not too much the
worse for wear), find taxi, find hotel, rest up briefly in
day rooms. Then, swiftly back to the gig and Business.
Can I remember what (or how proficiently) we played on the
first night? Of course not - and anyone who wishes to know
can doubtless find out on the Web. More important was the
manner in which we immediately set about things - with a
measure of authority but also with freedom and, of course,
the way in which we were received...with great warmth. It
really did feel like beginning again and the Rock atmosphere
was absolutely right for three (slightly shop-soiled) Noise
Merchants.
I'm not about to go through the tour show by show. Each one
was different, of course, and not one was "perfect". But as
we grew in confidence we also took more risks and, I
believe, carried the audiences along with us. There was
emphatically more musical danger involved here than in the
2005 shows. When stripped down to a trio every error, every
misalignment is immediately obvious. Equally, every
jigsaw-piece of match and contrast is also more evident. In
particular the energy zipping between HB's feet and Brain's
drum patterns has never been exposed so clearly.
The material which we played had been decided from a long,
long way back. When we first met up in Cornwall in the
summer of 2006 our initial mission had been to see what (if
any) of the previous repertoire we could make a decent fist
of. We'd initially reckoned something like 50-60%, but were
sure that in some pieces the absence of saxophone would be
all too clearly evident for us to attempt them in anything
other than a pastiche manner. At an early stage we'd taken
the decision that both "Darkness" and "Killer" had now had
their day. As for the rest, we had to see....
We quickly found ourselves rattling through the tunes at an
incredible rate and had soon dealt with all the "probables"
and most of the "possibles", all the while making something
both Now and Then.
So we came to the "difficult" pieces - those most closely
associated with horn parts. With a degree of ingenuity we
found that we could come up with arrangements which nodded
to the originals yet made no attempt to replicate them.
Sometimes this meant that structurally important horn parts
were simply passed over to HB or myself. ("Lemmings", for
instance.) In other cases ("Man-Erg", say, or
"Sleepwalkers") we made a feature of the very absence of
sax. So, finally, we realised that we could play play *all*
of the material which had been in the setlists of 2005.
Of course we also wanted to come up with new material and
worked heavily on "All That Before" (then known as "Spex")
before leaving Gaia last year.
Our final, "we're really doing this" rehearsals were in
Pyworthy in February and by then we'd begun to think about
what other stuff we might attempt. New material was coming
in and we decided to do "Lifetime". We'd also been thinking
of older songs to throw into the mix too: "Meurglys III" and
"Gog" were undoubtedly the most daunting...and therefore got
our vote.
As is now known, we ended up with an extremely broad range
of material, much of it very difficult indeed. (Especially
for yer guitarist!)
Evidently, as I've said, we weren't sure of how we would be
received as a trio. We knew that in order to be true to, to
give meaning back to, the VdGG spirit we had no option but
to proceed along this course; but knew, also, that many
would approach a sax-less band with some suspicion to say
the least. As it turned out the support, enthusiasm and
understanding of the audiences was outstanding and in turn
this gave us the encouragement and opportunity to fully
stretch ourselves.
As I wrote when we'd finished the first period of touring,
this really feels like VdGG for the 21st Century,
acknowledging the past but concentrating on the future;
above all, going forward in common purpose.
A VdGG tour, of course, wouldn't be worthy of the name
without certain bumps and hiccups. For example the inverter
on the bus caught fire in Amsterdam; happily it remained
driveable and got us back to London, where we woke on the
Embankment on the morning of the Barbican show to find a
posse of armed police surrounding us. Shades of Italy in the
70s....
Our last touring of 2007 was a little summer festival jaunt:
from the Burg Herzberg Hippy event via a stop in a
delightful square in Umbertide to the San Sebastian Jazz
festival. Three highly contrasting experiences and a
suitable close to the active year.
In the meantime during July we had headed off to the Gaia
Centre in Cornwall once more in order to record the next
album. I don't propose to recount much about this process
now, as the actual release will be early in 2008 and I'll
flesh out the details then. I have to say, though, that it
was a highly exciting, rewarding and energising experience
all round.
We've spent much of the remainder of 2007 in post-production
work on the recordings: overdubbing, editing, fine-tuning,
mixing. This has mostly been done at a distance, but we have
also met up from time to time when real precision was
needed. This, then, has been our year.
A general note about all this band stuff: although we are
not pursuing this phase of VdGG as a full-on career, we
*are* serious about it. Well aware that we're not going to
make a fortune, we intend to carry on as long as the work
leads us, as- and whenever the work needs us. We don't want
to know when the last show will be and we want to remain
excited about playing. Different people as we are, we have
never been so unified of mind as at the present . Above all,
we hope to continue treating the music, each other and the
audience with honesty.
Solo
My only solo excursion of the year was to Japan in November.
Perhaps as a direct result of all the group activity, both
communal and electric, I decided that I would like to take a
big swing in the opposite direction and play solo in jazz
clubs on grand pianos. I was also keen to revisit some tunes
which I hadn't played for a while. As soon as I began to
work through these I realised that I had more than enough
material to do a succession of piano-only sets. In the end
over forty songs were played during four shows, some of them
*extremely* frightening to attempt.
I was particularly taken by some of the songs from "And
Close As This" while I remastered that album, many of which
I'd played infrequently in the past. It was very interesting
to come back to these, as to several other songs which have
been missing from setlists for a while.
Anyway, I do my best to stay awake and avoid repetition,
while satisfying both those who have seen me many times and
those for whom a live PH performance is a new thing.
Miscellany
Quietly (or not!), I've been involved in a couple of
recording collaborations in the past year and I hope that
the results of these will surface early next year. Quite
oddball stuff, surprise, surprise.
I must direct you to an interesting and scholarly piece of
work by Ricardo Odriozola - an analysis of and exposition on
"Pawn Hearts". It is available for purchase as a download at
www.pawnhearts.ukf.net.
A propos of downloads the Fie! catalogue is gradually
getting out there and is available on a number of platforms
and in a number of formats. A search of your usual sites
will probably reveal what's available. Early in 2008 the
bulk of the remaining titles will go up in cyberspace. In
this, as in so much else, I've been somewhat tardy of
late... but other things have been diverting me! As you will
know, I trust, all of the Virgin catalogue, both PH and VdGG
is now available in remastered form both for download and as
CDs.
I do have to say that there have been some problems with the
remastered "And Close As This". The stereo picture is wobbly
to say the least. For some people this does not make a
material difference to listening enjoyment (so, enjoy!); for
others it is wildly disturbing. The Japanese version of the
CD is, I believe, a corrected one and UK/European versions
should also be righted in the very near future. (News
updates should advise as and when....)
The problem was a historical/technological one. This album
was mastered onto the old Sony F1 system and the decoding of
this master when it was brought up from the Vaults was
faulty. How much simpler it was in the days of wax
cylinders! Ah well, we live and learn. Many apologies for
the aural inadequacy which, incidentally, I missed in the
remastering.
The future...
The next VdGG record is titled "Trisector" and will be
released by Virgin/EMI at the tail end of March. Only the
three of us are on it. It contains nine tracks; shock,
horror, five of these come in at under five minutes
long.
We will be doing some shows in March and April to coincide
with the release of the disc, including a QEH, Moscow and
the Gouveia festival in Portugal. Full news will follow, of
course, in the touring section of the Sofasound.com. We also
plan to play further afield than Europe but as yet nothing
is finalised. Meanwhile, as a solo player I'll be doing the
Nearfest festival in Bethlehem, PA, USA in June - if my work
permit comes through!!
There's no further news at present of the Rockpalast 2005
DVD, but footage does exist of the trio and we are hopeful
that we will be putting something out within the next few
months. Further back from the archive, release is imminently
expected of the "k group" Rockpalast performance in Hamburg
Markthalle.
Happy New Year!