Van der Graaf Generating at Weeley

Van der Graaf Generator – Weeley Festival, 28.8.1971

Having written about Peter Hammill and VDGG, here’s a link to what I think is a great bootleg recording [1971!] at one of the greatest unknown festivals ever, much of which I do remember and have written about here and there on this blog.

Setlist for this gig is

Darkness

Lost

Man-Erg

Killer

After the Flood

I Once Wrote Some Poems

Theme One

download

In The Dark

Van Der Graaf Generator - Live at Weeley Festival 28th August, 1971

Came across this bootleg recording recently and it is a great capture of the energy and experimentation that was VDGG at the time and at a festival I have written before about attending, not that I recall as much as I would like, for example whether I saw this performance or not. But any excuse to mention this amazing festival again, and post some images of it that were placed in the cover design for this recording. I did see VDGG a few times, though again when and where is hazy, but once was at Felixstowe. Ultra-brilliant psychedelia and stagecraft.

There are very few recording of the Weeley Festival: there is mine which I really must transfer off its cassette onto some cleaned and preservable format; there is a little of King Crimson that I have from somewhere else, and there is a vinyl of the Pink Fairies' performance that I purchased some time ago which is virtually unlistenable - bastards didn't advertise that in the promotion.

Van Der Graaf Generator - A Grounding in Numbers

Hammill benediction

Blessed be Peter Hammill. I know Van Der Graaf Generator is more than the parts of its Peter but on this new album PH is the litmus for the distinctive sound that is VDGG. Less is more and tautology in one.