Van der Graaf Generator Live

All comments are entirely subjective.

For some recordings a ManErg seal of approval, is awarded, for more or less arbitrary reasons!

Not Known

Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever
The Sphinx in the Face
Lizard Play
Pioneers Over C
Ship of Fools
Sci-Finance
Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
Door
Last Frame
Urban
Still Life
Nadir's Big Chance

There were apparently 200 LP copies made of this one. Now available as a Japanese CD transfer. As you can see, it's a collection of clips from various eras. Sports a nicely conceived four colour cover. PH's reading of a commercial for the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" in one of the KROQ clips is hilarious. The version of "Still Life" is not, shall we say, particularly inspired. The version of Epidemic appears to be the one which resurfaced on Time Vaults!

The Best VdGG Gig I Ever saw! The encore of Louse/Urban is increadible.

A nicely packaged European CD with colour photos and excellent sound quality, probably taken from BBC rebroadcasts. Downside is its under 40 minutes, and now made completely redundant by Maida Vale .

Disc 1 - Bless the Baby Born Today includes:

• People you were going to ( BBC Top Gear 18-Nov-1968)
• Afterwards ( BBC Top Gear 18-Nov-1968)
• Necromancer ( BBC Top Gear 18-Nov-1968)
• Refugees (John Peel 14-Dec-1971)
• Darkness ( BBC Top Gear 27-Jan-1970)
• After the Flood ( BBC Top Gear 27-Jan-1970)

Disc 2 - The Tower Reels includes:

• Theme 1 (BBC 10-June-1971)
• Black Room (live Rimini - 9-Aug-1975)
• Lemmings (live Rimini - 9-Aug-1975)
• Man-Erg (live Rimini - 9-Aug-1975)

Disc 3 - One More Heaven Gained includes

• Scorched Earth (live in Rimini - 9-Aug-1975)

Disc 4 - Like Something Out of Edgar Allan Poe includes

• Cat's Eye (John Peel 24-Oct-1977)
• Door (Previously un-released)
• Sphinx in the Face (John Peel 24-Oct-1977

What can you say. A leviathan. Actually you could carp and ask for all the things that were left out, but I'm not going to. The tracklist is a mix of rare and live stuff and greatest hits from the core albums. See separate page on "The Box", for a complete tracklist. The sound, remixed by Hammill himself in conference with Jackson, Banton and Evans, is superb. A great book of memoirs and pics is included. Most of the "rare" tracks were already widely available, the majority being BBC Sessions. But the sound is far far better. To celebrate the occasion, I've attempted to produce a definative list of radio and tv sessions (but I bet its still full of mistakes). All in all, therefore, wonderful. When are they producing the next one?

Four live tracks are from the Rimini Concert the whole of which is on the Worldly Men and Strangers boot . The Rimini concert appears to be a soundboard recording , but with quite a lot of PA hum. Hammill has done a reasonable job on the sound, but the hum remains. Perhaps they will release a cleaned up version of the entire concert in the future (after we've all paid for the box)

Nice collection of excellent BBC performances but shaky sound quality in places, and now largely replaced by VDGG Is On The Air. The pitch of PH's voice, for instance, sounds decidedly wrong on parts of "Man-Erg", which is the only track not available eleswhere. The source information is not quite complete.Identical to Vision-Erg. which has a nicer cover.

Excellent compilation from the Pawn Hearts people. This includes most of Satan God and Nemo, plus some extra stuff from the same era, including the awesome final number ever played (Darkness of course!). The sound quality is as good as you have any right to expect, and the setlist is representative, although lacks Place to Survive and Lemmings, which was a regular fixture during the endgame. Strongly recommended.

Health Warning. My copy stopped working after a year.

5 Eyewitness
6 Have a Look for Yourself I
7 A Short Ride in a Fast Machine
8 Well I Do
9 Have a Look for Yourself II
10 Nothing Here
11 A Fast Ride on a Short Machine
12 God Will Punish You

Excellent compilation

There are two versions of this: one with a printed black and white cover, the other with an attached cover sheet with orange print on pale yellow paper (same info in both cases). Both versions, on all copies I've seen, have skips in "Man-Erg" which seem to have been on the transcription disc used for a master. All the live in the studio performances are quite good, although the sound could have been much better.

Transferred directly from a copy of the bootleg LP. Nice full cover cover which doesn't have anything to do with the band, however. Since the 10/5/71 session appears without the skips in "Man-Erg" on VDGG Is On The Air this is only strictly essential for tracks 4-8 (which mean that its essential anyway!). However, the sheer adrenalin of the sound quality on the 10/5/71 session remains supreme (and staggering) . The 90 second instrumental break in Killer represents the all time high point of live VDGG recordings, and in fact the greatest achievement of Western civilisation to date!

Pawn Hearts contribution to the unofficial sweepstakes. The concept was originally something for private listening pleasure, but it grew into a monster which took months to put together. A labour of love, of course. Twelve cassettes, 18 hours, all with black and white printed covers with photos, artwork, advertisements, liner notes, etc., limited edition of 100 copies, a massive compilation of almost every song performed live by the band and PH solo from 1971-1986. Listening to the songs sequentially like this is a revelation! Highlights include Tapeworm, This is me dreaming, etc, etc ,etc.

Carefully packaged with brief liner notes in English and Italian in the CD booklet. "Lighthousekeepers" is missing the first five minutes for some reason. The BBC session is the same one as "Lost Live Tapes" and "Fellow Travellers" , without "Man- Erg." Thus the Verona tracks are the only reason to have this; they are terrible sound, but stupendous performances. In fact I've just been listening to them (Darkness/ Lemmings) again. Through the appalling recording emerges what I think are the finest performances of these songs ever captured. Perhaps in twenty years the technology will exist to make them listenable!

Transworld VDG 279

This is a good representative of the better of the early VdGG live recordings, and is thus utterly essential, although pretty rough in quality compared to present standards. The cover, easily the best from the LP era, is printed black and white, a femme fatale on the front, lyrics to "Killer" on back. The band played their usual set (the second of the day) in reverse order.

White Hammer 
Darkness 
Lemmings 
Man-Erg 
W 
Killer 
Lost 
Octopus Pt.1 
Theme One 
Octopus Pt. 2 
Aquarian 
plus tracks dubbed from a vinyl copy of "Aerosol Grey Machine", Necromancer not Squid. 

This is the best representative of the early VdGG live recordings; enough said. It contains White Hammer and Aquarian, unrecorded live otherwise. The playing is superb, and the recording fine. Shame that it is padded out with a now superfluous transcript of AGM, but worth every penny anyway. Essential.

1. Theme One
2. Killer
3. A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
4. W

Some uncertainty here. This is the same content as Theme One. Some claim it is new material, but Pawn Hearts and Jim both say that Lost is in fact the Lighthousekeepers of track 3 repeated, minus its first few minutes, and that all material is copied from Lost Live Tapes. I've never heard it.

Screaming Plasma

Theme One
After The Flood
Killer
Lemmings
W
Lost
Darkness
Octopus

Superior (and complete) transfer from I Prophesy Disaster LP . Pretty rough in quality compared to present standards, but neverthelss essential. The band played their usual set in reverse order, not the order they appear here. Disappointing version of a great LP

Italy 72

Killer
After the flood
Lemmings
W
Theme One

Rather a strange transfer from I Prophesy Disaster LP with a lot of cuts and rearrangements. Get Live at the Black Bottom of the Sea instead. Pretty rough in quality compared to present standards. The band played their usual set in reverse order, not the order they appear here. Disappointing version of a great LP

AULICA  A.106 (Italy) (CD)

This is now made irrelevant by the excellent VDGG Is On The Air, which contains all these tracks and more. Nicely done cover shows lightning, inside of booklet has colour photos of individual band members. The cover incorrectly identifies "Lighthouse" (which is complete) as "Lost," and "Man-Erg" (which doesn't have any skips!) as "Refugees. The ManErg recommendation for the BBC stuff remains Fellow Travellers which is unbeaten for the sheer adrenalin rush of the sound on Killer.

BBC

Just simply wonderful. These are tremendous performances, almost live in feel (they are official BBC sessions). Sound is excellent, Hammill sleeve notes. Recommended without reservation, this is as good as it gets.

Recently appeared and excellent. Just simply wonderful. These are tremendous performances, and, amazingly for the era, the sound is excellent, Recommended without reservation, this is as good as it gets.

Armco 24357

The cover is a simple graphic design, blue print on white. Side two is identical to side two of "New York 78." The cover lists incorrect date, source and contents for side two. OK quality, but "The Undercover Man" is marred by dropouts and shifting around of the recording microphone.

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
Tracks 1-3 : BBC TOP GEAR 11.18.1968(?)
Tracks 4-6 : BBC TOP GEAR 1.27.1970
Track 7 : Belgium TV 1971
Track 8 : BEAT CLUB 1971
Tracks 9-11 : Singles

1. People You Were Going To
2. Afterwards
3. The Necromancer
4. Darkness
5. Refugees
6. After The Flood
7. A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers
8. Whatever Would Robert Have Said
9. Boat Of Millions Of Years
10. Theme One
11. W

Reno 5578

"Well, at last!"! PH's triumphant cry, when the band steps onstage for their first American concert. Also of this ManErg when he finally procurred a copy of this excellent album. 56 minutes is not bad for an LP, the sound is pretty good, and the performances are excellent. The band are clearly on a high. The dreadful brown on white printed cover also lists incorrect contents and date. Side two is identical to side two of "Montreal 77", but the sound is better. Possibly the best late period boot.

AGM 001

Arrow (9:04) 
Faint Heart and the Sermon (7:52) 
Lemmings  (13:41) 
La Rossa (10:22) 
A Louse Is Not A Home (12:13) 
Scorched Earth (10:00) 
Man-Erg  (10:26) 

Unknown

Fred still hasn't given me the tape of this concert he owes me, so I've no idea.

Disc one
Faint Heart and the Sermon
Arrow
A Louse is Not A Home
La Rossa

Disc two
Lemmings
Gog
The Sleepwalkers
Man-Erg
Scorched Earth

Side one: Undercover Men/Scorched /Arrows

Side two: The Black Room/Pilgrims (begin)

Side three: Pilgrims (end)/Still Life/La Rossa

Side four: Childlike Face, Grog (cut)/The Sleepwalker (cut)

Tacky packaging award: The two LPs come in a grey envelope with a single pale-pink photocopied insert which misspells or completely missnames most of the song titles. It's a numbered edition of 500 copies. Many (all?) copies are poorly pressed, and the editing is crap; the sound quality is erratic. Once this was the only live version of Childhood's End available, but now you can find one on Darkness '76. There is some good stuff on here though.

An update of the original Pawn Hearts contribution to the unofficial sweepstakes. Material which has subsequently come out as commercial releases has been removed, and new stuff added. A massive compilation of almost every song performed live by the band and PH solo from 1971-1986. Listening to the songs sequentially like this is a revelation! Highlights include Tapeworm, This Is Me dreaming, etc, etc ,etc.

1. The Undercover Man
2. Scorched Earth
3. Man-Erg
4. Forsaken Gardens
5. Black Room incl. The Tower
6. Lemmings
7. La Rossa
8. Arrow
9. A Louse is Not a Home
10. Faint-Heart and the Sermon
11. Gog
12. The Sleepwalkers

This has now been largely superceded by Darkness '76, which puts right most of the complaints below!

Pretty good quality recording, performance maybe slightly jaded. The band near the end of its life. Annoying fade for last minute of Sleepwalkers. I suppose the Meurglys/Gog/Sleepwalkers epic was just too long for one side of a C-90! Cover unexciting, with standard PR photos of band. Also very expensive. Although actually its much better than my preceding remarks suggest! The La Rossa is a highlight, a different feel to usual.

Some uncertainty here. This is the same content as Lighthousekeepers. Some claim it is new material, but Pawn Hearts says that track 4 (Lost) is in reality a repeat of track 3 (Plague) minus the first few minutes, and all material is copied from Lost Live Tapes. I've never heard it.

Disc One
Introduction, Fireworks , A Forest of Pronouns ,Anatol's Proposal, After the Show , Roger and Out [3:18]
Accidents , Four Kinds of Rice/Hello/Resolution , Woman of Ireland , Ship of Fools

Disc Two
Hamburg Station , Seven Wonders , Adagio for Strings, Red Shift, Lemmings , Outroduction , Traintime

Kiss The Tit  A.106 (Italy) (CD)

Two disks, first is radio sessions, second TV. Nothing actually new here, but its nice to have everything in one place. Many of these are outstanding, both in performance and sound (although Fellow Travellers still has the edge for sheer adrenalin on Killer, and remains essential). Darkness is especially fine.

Nice collection of excellent BBC performances but shaky sound quality in places, and now largely replaced by VDGG Is On The Air. The pitch of PH's voice, for instance, sounds decidedly wrong on parts of "Man-Erg", which is the only track not available eleswhere. The source information is not quite complete. Identical to Confused Beyond Redemptionbut has a better cover.

Ship of Fools 
Still Life 
Last Frame 
Mirror Images 
Medley (Parts of "APlague of Lighthouse Keepers" and "The Sleepwalkers") 
Pioneers Over C 
Sci-Finance 
Door 
Urban 
Nadir's Big Chance 

Mixing desk tape of Godbluff era, slightly marred by PA hum. Fine performances by the band at its peak. The cover with band photos is nicer inside out!