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March 8th 2005
The remastered edition of The Noise is now
available through the Sofa Sound
website. 'The cover has been slightly tweaked; more
importantly, the audio has had a good seeing to and one of the previous
deficiencies of this release...a certain reserve, politeness...ermm,
quietness...has been dealt with. This version is definitely loud'
- PH. For those wishing to know how to differentiate the two
editions, the remastered has the 'bar code' on the top right of the back
cover as opposed to the lower middle. Also the new release has a
pink/reddish CD while the original was silver. Maybe it is suitable
to re-read the March 1993 press release for The Noise kindly submitted by
Alan Whitaker; page
1,
2.
March 2nd 2005
The
World Event Village website have made
available 3 songs (streaming video) for your viewing pleasure. The clips
date from Peter's
November 5th 2004 birthday concert at the
Astro Hall in Japan. You must subscribe to the WEV but this is only a
formality and requires no money. Thank you to Masahiko Miyazaki and the
Official Japanese Peter Hammill website "In Verse"
for the information.
February 21st 2005
Paolo Carnelli has posted the tracklist
for the new VdGG double CD intitled 'Present'
on his
news site. 'Present' should be
released April 25th through Virgin Records.
VDGG are set to play in Italy in Milano &
Rome on June 11th & 12th 2005, tickets yet to be on sale. Look for more VdGG
concerts in July & August.
VAN
DER GRAAF GENERATOR
Present
CD One: SONGS
1. Every Bloody Emperor
2. Boleas Panic
3. Nutter Alert
4. Abandon Ship!
5. In Babelsberg
6. On The Beach
CD Two:
IMPROVISATIONS
1. Vulcan Meld
2. Double Bass
3. Slo Moves
4. Architectural Hair
5. Spanner
6. Crux
7. Manuelle
8. 'Eavy Mate
9. Homage To Teo
10. The Price Of Admission
December 29th 2004
As everyone knows,
Peter Hammill has reformed
Van der Graaf Generator. If this is news to
you, then where have you been? VdGG will feature the classic line-up of Hugh
Banton, David Jackson, Guy Evans and of course Peter Hammill. Tickets went
on sale for a reunion gig at the Royal London Festival Hall on May 6th 2005
but are currently SOLD OUT!
Seems the VDGG concert at the RFH isn't just a one-off and possibly
more concert are on the horizon in July and/or August.
Look for a new VdGG CD release in the next few months, and
I invite you to visit Phil Smart's excellent
VdGG for all the breaking VdGG news.
September 8th 2004
Marcelo Gobello has kindly submitted his short interview
with Peter Hammill before his concert in Spain last month.
Read it!
September 7th 2004
New dates have been
announced in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. I have posted links to the
venue website, but many do not have any mention as of yet. Also if those in
respective countries could forward a good online link for buying tickets,
that would be much appreciated, thanks.
August 19th 2004
The Office Ohsawa has announced that David
Jackson will be performing in Tokyo, Japan on November 7th at 3pm. This solo
concert will be held at the
Astro Hall
and will be before Peter's 6:30 concert.
August 15th 2004
Comback
concert for
Peter Hammill
August 12th
at the Festival Luna Lunera in Sos del Rey Catolico in
Spain. From all reports, Peter has lost none of
his talent and intensity on stage. Around 200 people made it to the concert. Marcelo Gobello very kindly sent in some
pictures, so check out these and others
here. There is
also a small video clip courtesy
of
http://www.ejeadigital.com
August
1st 2004
Peter has announced a 4th gig in Japan. There will be a fan party
after the Saturday (Nov. 6th) concert which will have an earlier start (5pm
local time). Look to the
2004 concerts page for full
listings.
July 22nd 2004
Chris Judge Smith is the next
ex-VdGG member to be invited down to Italy by the Study Group. Look for him
to play alongside Francis, Max, Pam & co. in March 2005, as always, in
Guastalla!
Rumour has Peter Hammill working out dates in Italy for his next tour.
Nothing official announced as of yet. Oddly enough, still no information on
the August 12th gig in Spain. Less than a month to go and no online ticket
outlet has any news of Peter Hammill nor of this Festival. The official
website has yet to be update from last year.... wait and see.
July 3rd 2004
Peter Hammill has just
confirmed he will be performing solo August 12th
at
the Festival Luna Lunera in Sos del Rey Catolico in Spain.
Last years website has yet to be update for ticket info:
http://www.territoriomuseo.com/lunalunera/
More european dates to be confirmed later.
Also a 3rd Japanese date has been added but might not be in Tokyo. So far
the Astro-Hall will be the venue for the Nov 4th/5th gigs. Anyone going to
Tokyo or purchasing tickets please contact me privately, thank you.
July 2nd 2004
Well the Couch Noise
website is finally back online. Two problematic hard drives, a few IIS and
Win XP configuration brain-teasers and basically a week of a much needed
vacation put the site offline for almost a month. Apologies to and for all.
Incoherence has been released and left some with mixed feelings. This
release is maybe not as widely appreciated as Clutch but there still many
good reviews. I personally enjoy this album, but feel after x number of
listens, there still is much to discover about this 'album'. Some say the
sound is 'dated' much like In a Foreign Town, but others find it
quite a revelation and consider it his best
yet. One can only truly make his/her own mind up by hearing it.
After Peter Hammill's health problems last fall/winter he is well on the way
to recovery. We all ask... when (and if) will he tour again. Well the answer
is in November. To be more precise he will be doing at least 2 concerts in
Tokyo on November 4th and 5th (yes on his 56th birthday). Advanced ticket
sales commenced June 26th.... hmm how much is a flight to Tokyo??
BBC Radio 2 featured a 5 minutes telephone
interview with Peter Hammill as a part of it's Vox Pop show and can be heard
for the remainder of the week. The interview starts at the 20 minute mark.
The
Independent featured an article on Peter
Hammill last week and can be read online.
Added an MP3 page to the website and due to the previously mentioned hard
drive problems, concert pages from 1992 onward wave been wiped. Work on
restoring those pages is already in progress. Any comments/info please
e-mail.
March 12th 2004
Thanks to Charles Underwood and his Japanese
connection for a scan of the cover of Peter Hammill's upcomming release'Incoherence'.
February 16th 2004
Peter Hammill has now given sign of life to
announce his newest CD entitled 'Incoherence'.
Release date is March 22nd 2004 and will be available through Peter's
Sofa Sound website and if in North Amercia, one can pre-order
through the
Artist Shop website. More on this soon...
David Jackson will be making the trek to
Guastalla this March for a SoundBeam Training Week. For those who wish to
have more information, read the
PDF Pamphlet or visit the
Tonewall website.
January 4th 2004
David Jackson and Rene van Commenee have
released a new CD entitled 'Batteries Included'. This live CD was
recorded during their duo-concerts in 1992 and 1993. The 12 track CD includes
instrumental versions of Peter Hammill's Traintime and VdGG's The Clot
Thickens...
more.
December 15th 2003
Everyone must know by now the health
problems experienced by Peter Hammill, if not the please read his latest
newsletter
here. As a result the Greece & Japan
concerts are cancelled and 'all
thought of future touring are on hold...'
All are invited to participate in a group message to Peter Hammill organized
by
Sue from the Yahoo! Hammill group. Please
include your name, country of origin and a small message you wish to pass on
to Peter. Let us hope that Peter makes a full and speedy recovery, because I
do think there is much more music to be done!
December 10th 2003
Peter Hammill has cancelled the 2 concerts
planned in Greece due to health reasons. No official announcement has been
made yet by the Sofa Sound website but hopefully the reasons for the
cancellation prove not to be too serious.
November 6th 2003
Peter Hammill has announced 2 gigs in Greece
in December:
December 11th 2003 -
Milos Club
(Thessalonika)
CANCELLED
December 12th 2003 -
Rodon Club (Athens)
CANCELLED
Both will be with Stuart Gordon. See below
for other concert dates..
November 5th 2003
Happy 55th Birthday Peter Hammill!!
4 concerts in Japan including a press conference is in the pipeline for
early next year. Peter will be accompanied by Stuart Gordon. Also performing
is Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame. The dates are as follows:
February 7th 2004 -
Astro Hall
Doors open 14:30 / Concert 15:00
CANCELLED
Doors open 19:00 / Concert 19:30
CANCELLED
February 8th 2003 -
Shibuya Eggman
Doors open 14:30 / Concert 15:00 CANCELLED
Doors open 18:30 / Concert 19:00 CANCELLED
See
flyer
October 29th
2003
Still no news from Peter
Hammill regarding the answer part of the Q/A sent in by fans. They will be
posted as soon as recieved. No news to mention from the Sofa Sound website
either... the Calm before the Storm?
September 23rd
2003
Rumour Mill... The David Jackson
concert & workshop in Prato has unfortunately been postponed and probably
will only happen in 2004. I have heard from 2 sources (one in Italy and one
in the USA) that Virgin have recently discovered the 'lost' tapes from Pawn
Hearts recording session whilst making The Box. A remastered version of Pawn
Hearts is on the table and would be a double CD release.
September 15th
2003
Couch Noise website will broadcast the
complete album A Black Box this Friday. Go to the radio page for local
times. All listeners are invited to join the chat room while listening.
September 12th
2003
Peter Hammill has agreed to answer a few
questions from his fans via the Couch Noise website. If you would like to
ask him any questions, just e-mail them to
couchnoise@nadirs-big-list.net and there's a good chance yours will
be selected. The date limit for submissions is Thursday September 18th. The
questions & answers will be posted afterwards here on the website. Must say
this is very kind of the Thin Man...
September 4th
2003
The Couch Noise website has been experiencing
e-mail problems. Please click on the e-mail link for more information.
September 1st
2003
Sofa Sound are now back from vacation
and normal service resumed. No news on Peter's latest release but he was
hard at work on it prior to the Sofa Sound vacation.
August 12th
2003
The people at Sofa Sound are now on
vacation until September 1st. All orders placed after today will
unfortunately be delayed. Fear not the Couch Noise site will not be taking
any vacations in the near future ;-). A small update on the Italian Study
Group, looks like the David Jackson concert & workshop will be held in Prato
from September 29th to October 4th 2003 although no official confirmation
has been made yet.
August 6th 2003
For those who have been wondering what
Sofa Sound thinks of the 'intro' page to the Couch Noise site, here's a
direct quote "i've had a brief look at
the site and i also find the take-off amusing ;-)".
In other news, Couch Noise will be broadcasting a 1hr internet radio show
featuring songs and interview clips from the thin man himself. Hopefully
this will be the first in a series of broadcasts but the frequency still yet
undetermined. Listen in on Sunday, August 10th at 4pm (GMT -5:00). Look for
directions on the Radio link on the main page.
August 4th 2003
The Sofa Sound have now announced that
the situation with Classic Rock Production has now been resolved. The
original VdGG DVD release of 1972 Belgium TV has been deleted and is no
longer available. However, the latest release 'Godbluff Live' will have the
1975 Charleroi performance and include the 1972 footage of the original DVD.
The total length of the next DVD will then be of 'reasonable' length instead
of having 2 short DVDs. This new DVD is available through the
Sofa Sound website.
July 31st 2003
Seems that the Italian Peter Hammill &
VdGG Study Group is set to organize a concert with none other than sax man
David Jackson. After the success of last year's concert with Jackson in
Guastalla, the organizers seem keen on producing a similar event this year.
Although no date has been set nor any official confirmation from the Study
Group been released, it should be expected to happen this Fall. The idea of
a webcast of the concert has also been tossed around by the organizers, to
satisfy the unfortunate few who wont be able to make the trek to Italy. Last
year's David Jackson concert is available on DVD (PAL only)
here.
July 30th 2003
According to the Sofa Sound website, there seems to have been a fall-out
between Classic Rock Productions and the good people at Sofa Sound regarding
the release of the Van der Graaf DVD. Originally CRP had an agreement to
release a VdGG DVD entitled 'VdGG - From the Vaults' containing A Plague of
Lighthouse-Keepers / Theme One, filmed in Belgium in 1972. Even though this
DVD has been available through the CRP website and other DVD retailers, Sofa
Sound have failed to receive copies. After much delay, CRP have informed the
people at Sofa Sound that all their orders for this DVD have been cancelled
and the product will be deleted. The emergence of a second VdGG DVD which
contains the original 30 minute clip plus a partial concert from the
Godbluff tour has come to some surprise to the people at Sofa Sound as there
has been no agreement made about it. The title of the DVD is 'VdGG -
Godbluff Live 1975' (in Charleroi).
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