Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Joseph Andrew Hammillis an English singer-songwriter. He is a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano. He also acts as a record producer for his own recordings and occasionally for other artists. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth5 November 1948
thinking examination enthusiasm
The crucial question one comes back to is the examination; without that experience is meaningless. And I think it's true that society is becoming more and more passive, less and less fired up with enthusiasm, in many spheres.
thinking forever stuff
The passage of time is a continuing thing. At 18, youre going to live forever, and you are definitely not at 52, so that is a recurring topic. I still think its the main stuff.
art lying thinking
Actually I think Art lies in both directions - the broad strokes, big picture but on the other hand the minute examination of the apparently mundane. Seeing the whole world in a grain of sand, that kind of thing.
allowed both certainly demanded meant musicians past
Certainly more experimentation was allowed or demanded in the past by both musicians and audiences. But music meant something different then, I think.
lingering material people seem solo van vinyl work
More people seem to know the Van der Graaf Generator material than my solo work - thanks, I suppose, to their parents' lingering vinyl collections.
audience fair hear totally van wants
There's always a Van der Graaf audience that wants to hear the band's sound. And totally fair enough. Why not? It's a band. You like the band, you like the band.
continuing definitely main passage recurring time
The passage of time is a continuing thing. At 18, you're going to live forever, and you are definitely not at 52, so that is a recurring topic. I still think it's the main stuff.
aunt family saw stopped trace trying turned west
My mother was from West Bromwich; my grandfather was Pakistani. I had an aunt who started trying to trace the family tree and stopped when she saw what turned up.
dictum happening people until
My dictum has always been: 'This show is happening just here, just tonight, with these people who are in this hall, and nobody knows what's going to happen until it's done.'
To be honest, I don't know really what I do on stage.
almost audience costs days develop given people preferred promote reference simply successful themselves time
It costs so much to promote something these days that almost always safety is the preferred option, reference back to things which have been successful in the past. Also, people are simply not given the time to develop and find themselves and their audience as we were.
analysis days depth external shut speak tend terms trying
Seriously, these days I tend to shut up in terms of external analysis and DO try to let things speak for themselves, while still trying to get some depth into them.
faithful jesuits produce sure
I'm not sure that Jesuits ever produce faithful Catholics. Because they're too fierce. It is Sturm und Drang, and it is guilt - it is all that battlefield stuff.
So I, for one, didn't feel alienated by what happened in 77.