Music Arcades: Van der Graaf: The Pleasure Dome/The Quiet Zone

Part of the reason I set out to listen to every record, CD and pre-recorded cassette or mini-disc was that I had a sense that I've not given proper attention to the music I've bought over the last decade. So it's perversely kind of reassuring to find an album that I must have bought 25 years ago, and which was also starved of attention.

I think I was hoping for an album that I might enjoy as much as Still Life, and this one was only £2.99 from Our Price. I've been rude about VdG singer Peter Hammill's lyrics in the past, but the lack of a lyric sheet with this record makes it difficult to find an entry point for the songs. (Back in the vinyl days, as you known, you couldn't tell knew whether an album would come with an illustrated and annotated inner sleeve or a plain white paper one: I'm sure this one should have had a proper inner sleeve as there are no writing credits or even a list of the members of the band on the cover, but my copy never had one.)

So here I am rediscovering an old Van der Graaf album for the first time in a quarter of a century, and it sounds OK. Well it sounds like more of the usual, to be honest, with the modest difference that the organ and saxophone have gone and a violin has taken their place.

I'm off to see Van der Graaf Generator again in April. They're more or less back to the organ and sax line-up I believe, though I think one of the original members has left again, or died. I could look it up on Wikipedia, but I want it to be a surprise. This time I'm going to avoid the sleep-deprivation/Red-Bull/Thai-curry cocktail that rather compromised my last VdGG concert.