Page 3 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 51 to 75 of 79

Thread: Peter Hammill - Sitting Targets

  1. #51
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    I'll bet! Was that the NYC '76 show?
    no. It was June 24, 2009, at the State Theatre in Arlington, VA.

    It was a great show from beginning to end, but seeing Hammill say something like, "here's a oldie but weirdie for you" at the mic and then roaring that one out solo, to be joined by Guy and then Hugh was really unexpected and spectacular.

    and he really roared it. No holding back (as it should have been!)

    p.s. my new avatar

    464951233-492014.jpg
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  2. #52
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    I always felt that the prototype was him deciding he wanted to NOT have guest musicians (mostly) and recording all parts himself even if that meant no drums or PH doing the drums.
    I think that's right, he was never one for the star-studded / hot-session-player guest musician approach of, say, Gabriel or Bowie. Imagine the lineups he'd have had on his albums if he took advantage of the musos who've namechecked him through the years. But it wasn't something he was ever interested in. I had dinner with him one night a few years back (I know, namedropping ;-) ) and this topic actually came up. I told him that at one point, at the beginning of his solo career it seemed like he was more open to that approach as he had tons of people on his first solo disc (all of VdGG, a couple guys from Lindisfarne [who were really famous in the early 70s in GB], and Robert Fripp from Crimson). He rightly told me that it just appeared he was interested in that all-star approach but that those guys were all close friends rather than star-studded players brought in for the latest solo project. True... he'd done several tours and many concerts with Lindisfarne so they were pals, and he knew Fripp as he'd guested on H to He already. Other than that, he's never been one for too many guests on an album other than VdGG musos and the odd guest here and there.

  3. #53
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Utopia
    Posts
    5,389
    Quote Originally Posted by Bucka001 View Post
    Other than that, he's never been one for too many guests on an album other than VdGG musos and the odd guest here and there.
    That's why it was so weird to see the Emerson co-writing credit ("Emerson? That Emerson?") on "Empire of Delight." It didn't seem like him to be rubbing shoulders with prog royalty; he always seemed to operate on a very private DIY basis.
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  4. #54
    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    That's why it was so weird to see the Emerson co-writing credit ("Emerson? That Emerson?") on "Empire of Delight." It didn't seem like him to be rubbing shoulders with prog royalty; he always seemed to operate on a very private DIY basis.
    Well, you have to take into account that with the Brit music scene of the late 60s / early 70s the geography of stars rubbing shoulders was very small (the music biz, and muso industry socializing, took place in only a few pubs in London... that's probably hyperbole a bit but that's how the old guard tells it). VdGG was moderately successful and Hammill probably knew everyone as he was hanging out quite a bit back then. He certainly knew Emerson as they were both managed by Tony Stratton Smith in the late 60s. In fact, it was KE who approached Hammill years later about writing lyrics to three pieces of music he'd written. At the end of the day, KE didn't use any of them but PH particularly liked EoD and recorded / released it (without telling KE, apparently). At one point, I did hear a Keith Emerson version of that tune that was much more prog-tastic (very ELP, with a huge synth arrangement, etc) and a marked contrast to the stripped down piano / voice PH version.

  5. #55
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Utopia
    Posts
    5,389
    Quote Originally Posted by Bucka001 View Post
    VdGG was moderately successful and Hammill probably knew everyone as he was hanging out quite a bit back then.
    Phil Collins ruined VdGG!

    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  6. #56
    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Past
    Posts
    1,900
    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    Was that the NYC '76 show?
    I came within an inch of attending, but as they say about horseshoes and hand grenades......
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

  7. #57
    Member jake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Xxxxxxx
    Posts
    1,064
    Quote Originally Posted by Bucka001 View Post
    I think that's right, he was never one for the star-studded / hot-session-player guest musician approach of, say, Gabriel or Bowie. Imagine the lineups he'd have had on his albums if he took advantage of the musos who've namechecked him through the years. But it wasn't something he was ever interested in. I had dinner with him one night a few years back (I know, namedropping ;-) ) and this topic actually came up. I told him that at one point, at the beginning of his solo career it seemed like he was more open to that approach as he had tons of people on his first solo disc (all of VdGG, a couple guys from Lindisfarne [who were really famous in the early 70s in GB], and Robert Fripp from Crimson). He rightly told me that it just appeared he was interested in that all-star approach but that those guys were all close friends rather than star-studded players brought in for the latest solo project. True... he'd done several tours and many concerts with Lindisfarne so they were pals, and he knew Fripp as he'd guested on H to He already. Other than that, he's never been one for too many guests on an album other than VdGG musos and the odd guest here and there.
    I'm sure someone on the this board would know how in hell Randy California ended up playing with Peter on Red Shift from The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage.

  8. #58
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Utopia
    Posts
    5,389
    Quote Originally Posted by jake View Post
    I'm sure someone on the this board would know how in hell Randy California ended up playing with Peter on Red Shift from The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage.
    I dunno, but I love Jaxon's story about the session:

    On 'Silent Corner and the Empty Stage', Randy California played on one track - 'Red Shift'. At the recording session in Notting Hill he was extremely quiet and withdrawn; he knew no-one. Apart from his guitar playing, one thing was striking in rehearsal: I remember he had a large brown paper bag full of about two dozen lemons. Frequently he would take a knife, cut one in two and devour the insides as one might an orange. It made our teeth go on edge every time he did this (unsurprisingly!) and at the end of the session the bag was empty and the bin was full of lemon hemispheres. He told us that he needed vitamin C and that he lived on lemons - he certainly was extremely delicate looking!!
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  9. #59
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    Quote Originally Posted by mogrooves View Post
    I came within an inch of attending, but as they say about horseshoes and hand grenades......
    What do they say avout horseshoes and hand grenades?
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  10. #60
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Utopia
    Posts
    5,389
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    What do they say avout horseshoes and hand grenades?
    "Close" only counts in...
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  11. #61
    I remember at the time Sitting Targets was released in the UK, the feeling was that it was a slight step down from the Future Now/pH7/Black Box trio - mostly because, whilst judged on its own terms, it was a fine album (& one very much attuned to the post-punk/new wave sensibilities of the contemporary music scene), it lacked some of the more breathtaking studio experimentation of its predecessors. In hindsight, of course, as has been said, it can be seen to have been marking something of a transition on the way to the K Band - which was put together precisely so that Hammill could tour Sitting Targets.

    I'm intrigued to learn more about why Steve doesn't care for the K Band lp's - personally, I have a real soft spot for Enter K, but, trying to take a more objective stance, I think Patience is amongst Hammill's very finest achievements - the songs are tight, yet have enough space for musical exploration; the songwriting is consistently brilliant; & the lp has a wonderful sense of musical unity & coherence.

    As for why The Future Now might strike some as adding up to less than the sum of its extraordinary parts - I think there may be two reasons for this. First, it is *so* ambitiously experimental, there are so many things going on - from the Nadir like stomp of the opening track to the layered studio effects of Motorbike - that it resists being gathered up into a unitary musical whole. Second, the second half of the second side is so off-the-wall in its experimental nature, & without an album closer that returns the listener to "safe shores", that the listening experience feels quite "unresolved".

  12. #62
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    re: K band
    Dunno. They never resonated with me on the two studio albums. And when they came out I was a huge fan of PH. Actually, those two albums are pretty much where I checked out in terms of feeling that I needed to buy all of his releases.

    I enjoy the live album (and the recent Rockpalast thingy) much more. But I still sort of feel like they [the K band] were less than the sum of their parts. IMO.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  13. #63
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Niagara, Canada
    Posts
    429
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    No - just Graham Smith on viola and PH on guitar and piano.
    The reason I ask is because I had to miss that "Future Now" show in Toronto and was extremely upset (still am ), when my friends came back from show and told me about it. They got Graham Smith AND Nic Potter. I still can only imagine how brilliant that musta been.

  14. #64
    Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    202
    Quote Originally Posted by Lino View Post
    The reason I ask is because I had to miss that "Future Now" show in Toronto and was extremely upset (still am ), when my friends came back from show and told me about it. They got Graham Smith AND Nic Potter. I still can only imagine how brilliant that musta been.
    Are you sure they were correct? My recollection in that the tour was only ever as a duo, with some solo appearances...? Maybe I should consult Bucka's excellent The Book? But I guess I could be easily wrong.

  15. #65
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Utopia
    Posts
    5,389
    FWIW:



    The Hammill/Smith duo tour was apparently later.
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  16. #66
    Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    202
    Thanks for the correction! Cool poster!

  17. #67
    Quote Originally Posted by mx20 View Post
    Are you sure they were correct? My recollection in that the tour was only ever as a duo, with some solo appearances...? Maybe I should consult Bucka's excellent The Book? But I guess I could be easily wrong.
    PH did a brief tour of the U.S. in February '78, completely solo (just L.A., San Fran, KC, and NYC).

    Later in the year, he toured Canada with Graham Smith and Nic Potter (December '78, as that excellent poster above attests, although it leaves off the Toronto gigs).

    The shows that everyone saw of PH and GS in D.C. came the following year, '79, in February. Those two went all over the States in Feb and March of '79. Many will remember it as '78 because Future Now was the current album (pH7 wasn't out yet) and that album is from '78, but the U.S. gigs took place in early '79.

  18. #68
    Member Proghound's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Susquehanna Valley, PA
    Posts
    185
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    No - just Graham Smith on viola and PH on guitar and piano.
    I don't remember viola, but do remember violin? Did Graham Smith play both that tour? or is my memory total toast....

  19. #69
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    Quote Originally Posted by Proghound View Post
    I don't remember viola, but do remember violin? Did Graham Smith play both that tour? or is my memory total toast....
    iirc, GS is a violist, not a violinist.

    I might be mistaken.....
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  20. #70
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Utopia
    Posts
    5,389
    Quote Originally Posted by Bucka001 View Post
    December '78, as that excellent poster above attests
    Why thank you, that's very k--oh, you meant the advertising poster.
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  21. #71
    Who else would write a song about having a domestic argument during a car ride, and how dangerous that is? Only Peter Hammill. Great album -not as epic as A Black Box, but still a very strong record. Love it -listened to it a great deal!

  22. #72
    Member at least 100 dead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Treetops High
    Posts
    274
    Quote Originally Posted by arthurfrayn View Post
    Who else would write a song about having a domestic argument during a car ride, and how dangerous that is?
    The one who has black coffee (brandy-laced) and half a pack of Gitanes Maïs for breakfast is who! Some of those Sitting Targets lyrics are pretty unsettling: confessions of a guy running through shock corridors of modern life, disoriented. Can’t possibly be a functioning member of our society, him.

    “Overdue debt to the taxman, I tried to have and eat my cake.”

    “Who'll be looking for you when it all falls apart?”

    “I'm running scared”

    “How normal to sit out the dance, eating the good meal by myself, toasting the empty glass…”

    “I want to update my memory, I want to rewrite my past...no chance.”

    “You came here looking for something, but this wasn't it”

    "Dem Glücklichen legt auch der Hahn ein Ei."

  23. #73
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    iirc, GS is a violist, not a violinist.

    I might be mistaken.....
    No, he plays violin. The famous violist is Geoff RIchardson of Caravan.

  24. #74
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    Quote Originally Posted by bRETT View Post
    No, he plays violin. The famous violist is Geoff RIchardson of Caravan.
    I am mistaken!
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  25. #75
    Member Proghound's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Susquehanna Valley, PA
    Posts
    185
    NBD- I remember Cat's Eye which had a great violin part.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrC1JZogEoI

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •