ORGAN PREVIEW: “All life has been in some kind of abeyance. Now at last things seem to be on the way to starting up again”, Peter Hammill looks forward “with joy and excitement (and the usual pinch of trepidation)” to February’s Van Der Graaf Generator UK shows…

Van Der Graaf Generator’s UK tour is now less than a month away, the rescheduled dates really do look like they will be happening this time, and so, without wishing to tempt anything, a message from Peter Hammill regarding the upcoming VdGG tour as it appeared a day or two ago on his website…

“Astonishingly, it’s been years since my last post. For a lot of that time, obviously, all life has been in some kind of abeyance. Now at last things seem to be on the way to starting up again. Exactly fifty-one years ago today VdGG were starting the famous Six Bob tour with a show at the Lyceum in London. Fifty-one years ago tomorrow we were playing at Birmingham Town Hall on that tour. So there’s a measure of synchronicity at work here: in exactly four weeks from today we’ll be back in the Town Hall, kicking off the latest leg in VdGG touring. At times over the last two extraordinary years it’s seemed that these often rescheduled shows would never happen and that effectively that might mean the end for our group. So it’s with joy and excitement (and the usual pinch of trepidation) that we’re now in the private study stage of rehearsals, knowing that the real thing will be upon us before we know it. The UK run is a short one; in a couple of months we’ll have the long stretch through the rest of Europe to do. It’s going to be a blast.”

For the full European tour dates go here

UK dates…

21 Feb 22 England, Birmingham, Town Hall (Info)
22 Feb 22 England, Manchester, Bridgewater Hall (Info)
24 Feb 22 England, London Palladium (Info)
26 Feb 22 Scotland, Edinburgh, Queens Hall (Info)
01 Mar 22 England, Bath, The Forum (Info)

And if you still don’t know wht we’re on about, then put a moment or two aside and play this, it says far far more than we can.