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View Full Version : FEATURED CD- Peter Hammill- Nadir's Big Chance



Duncan Glenday
11-04-2012, 11:16 AM
http://www.progressiveears.com/clubpics/NadirPH.jpg

Nadir's Big Chance was the fifth solo album by Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in 1975.

Today, a really cool suggestion from Sunhillow-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadir%27s_Big_Chance

It was recorded shortly after a decision to re-form the band Van der Graaf Generator (of which Hammill was the singer and principal songwriter), and Nadir's Big Chance is actually performed by the reformed Van der Graaf Generator line-up.

The album's songs vary greatly in style, as acknowledged by Hammill in the sleeve notes, which refer to "the beefy punk songs, the weepy ballads, the soul struts". It is indeed notable for its prototype punk rock style on several tracks. The first British citation of the word "punk" in relation to music in the Oxford English Dictionary is dated January 1976 (citations from the USA date from 1971), yet Nadir's Big Chance was released in February 1975. Hammill can therefore lay claim to being the first British musician to use the term in his album's sleeve notes.

In a 1977 Capital Radio broadcast, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols played two tracks from the album, "The Institute Of Mental Health, Burning" and "Nobody's Business", and expressed his admiration for Hammill.[4]

The album includes two of Hammill's most frequently performed ballads, "Been Alone So Long" (written by Judge Smith) and "Shingle Song", and a reworking of Van der Graaf Generator's first single from 1968, "People You Were Going To".

The album saw Hammill's first use of the Hohner clavinet D6 keyboard, which would go on to feature prominently on the next few Van der Graaf Generator albums (particularly Godbluff).

In the song "Pushing Thirty" (from The Future Now, 1978), Hammill claims that he "still can be Nadir".

Sunhillow
11-04-2012, 02:44 PM
Yay! I'm here! :D

Now, what? :huh

Or, more in line with this featured CD: What, now? ;) (get it, get it??)

inhortte
11-04-2012, 05:37 PM
This is just behind Patient and In Camera for me as his best stuff. I don't listen to it as much as I used to, but go on binges occasionally. Raw and beautiful.

-Bobbus

NorthNY Mark
11-04-2012, 09:16 PM
I enjoy the album quite a bit, probably more in spite of the "punkish" songs than because of them. A lot of it actually reminds me a bit of Roxy Music.

PlaneGroovy
11-05-2012, 02:45 AM
Yep, I've always got the Roxy connection, mainly due to Jaxon's sax style on this one. I bought this on the day it was released, a wonderful album.

TheNefariousHED
11-05-2012, 06:35 AM
Such a great, timeless album. I wish the new edition of VdGG would cover Two or Three Spectres.

JKL2000
11-05-2012, 08:24 AM
Love the song "The Institute of Mental Health, Burning" or whatever the exact title is.

JAMOOL
11-05-2012, 04:49 PM
"Pompeii" is where it's at for me. Hard to really mourn the death of "progressive" Hammill when he was cranking out albums like this!

The Silent Man
11-05-2012, 06:38 PM
Love the song "The Institute of Mental Health, Burning" or whatever the exact title is.

Yes, that is good, and I also like Birthday Special and Shingle Song, and the title track is OK, but otherwise the least essential of his 70s albums for me.

Galactic Bulldozer
11-07-2012, 07:49 AM
I can still remember the NME (probably)/ MM review and the 'punk rocker, yeah, right' sneer of the reviewer. Johnny R. couldn't have read that review. I just took it as another 'Pin-Ups' retro-type album with a few new songs that didn't gel. Still when the CD came out, I replaced my album quick enough.

mogrooves
11-10-2012, 02:16 PM
The last Hammill album I bought at the time of release. I recall feeling a sense of betrayal when this LP came out, such was Hammill's brazen temerity to not produce what I would deem a worthy successor to the majestic trilogy of Chameleon/Silent Corner/In Camera. So be it. But I still don't dig it, the imprimatur of a punk deity notwithstanding....

Sean
11-10-2012, 05:18 PM
I am starting to get the title. Was this the big chance for what some would surely call the nadir of his career?

polmico
11-10-2012, 05:44 PM
Definitely not the nadir of his career for me, but the title is a nice joke all the same.

scags
11-11-2012, 10:35 AM
I love it.

Bucka001
11-13-2012, 01:47 PM
I can still remember the NME (probably)/ MM review and the 'punk rocker, yeah, right' sneer of the reviewer. Johnny R. couldn't have read that review.

MM. I think it was Allan Jones, who wrote that this album is a question mark against Hammill as an artist because he really hasn't done anything substantial since Pawn Hearts. He was wrong, of course, and didn't see at the time just how influential this album would become in the ensuing years. What's funny is, Peter is asked about this album probably more than any of his other solo albums (understandably) and he always says that, although it's become acknowledged as an important record, it was panned at the time of its release. But, except for the MM review by Allan Jones, all the other reviews I've seen from that time are rather positive. Nadir's even got a (very rare) rave review in an American magazine when it came out (Circus Raves). I think that for a British cult artist, Melody Maker was the most 'important' periodical so that bad review stuck with Peter more than the positive reviews would have.

I think it's a brilliant, age-less album delivered with fire and passion. Definitely one of my faves of the whole PH/VdGG catalog. If you like Godbluff, Still Life, World Record, and Vital, then a large part of that can be laid at the feet of this album, which was an influence on VdGG when they began recording afterwards (Hammill has said so himself). Those mid-late 70s VdGG albums have a brutal rawness / agressiveness that the earlier John Anthony-produced albums didn't have. It's Rikki Nadir fronting a prog outfit on Godbluff & Vital (that's how I've always seen it ;-) ).

Sunhillow
11-13-2012, 04:02 PM
Definitely not the nadir of his career for me, but the title is a nice joke all the same.

I'm only now getting this joke. Must be the language-barrier. Or language-border. What's the common English word for that?

scags
11-13-2012, 04:17 PM
The nadir is the absolute low point- the opposite of apogee.

per anporth
11-13-2012, 04:34 PM
It's Rikki Nadir fronting a prog outfit on Godbluff & Vital (that's how I've always seen it ;-) ).

Chuckling here!

Love how, in the rendition of Urban at the Liverpool stadium in 1975, they morph into the title track of Nadir - an intriguing counterpoint to the Killer morph on Vital.

Bucka001
11-13-2012, 04:54 PM
Chuckling here!

Love how, in the rendition of Urban at the Liverpool stadium in 1975, they morph into the title track of Nadir - an intriguing counterpoint to the Killer morph on Vital.

Many people would be surprised to learn that they did Urban with the Hammill/Evans/Banton/Jaxon lineup of '75 for the Godbluff tour. It made a few appearances as an encore and it would morph into Nadir's Big Chance. What a fun way to end a concert after an evening of (glorious) gloom and doom. They're playing Urban / Nadir's Big Chance on the cover of the Maida Vale CD. It was the only tune where Hammill and Banton both played guitars (PH six string, HB bass; they actually emailed me last year asking me what tune they were playing on that cover because they couldn't think of anything they did with that configuration of two guitars, bass, and sax. I told them it was Urban and Banton didn't remember the tune!)

Prog_nosticator
11-30-2012, 10:22 AM
I told them it was Urban and Banton didn't remember the tune!) Same here... I cannot place this song at all ! HELP ! ;) I see that it's on VITAL bookending KILLER. So, is that its only appearance on legit releases? I see that there are lyrics for it. Typing this as I listen to VITAL on youtube starting at 1:14:00. Ah, now I hear Hammill singing it. And now into Killer.... and then I guess back into Urban...and it ends. Nothing great IMHO

Honestly, I never got into VITAL when it was released. I was really shocked at Hammill's vocals and thought they ruined a few tunes. So I didn't listen to it much at all. But I was really into Quiet Zone and everything else that came before it whether it be the band or solo Hammill (not The Long Hello stuff). A bass player friend of mine liked some tunes on Vital a lot. Particularly Door and Ship Of Fools and because of him always playing them, I did enjoy those after a while.

Many years later, in the early PE years, there was this guy named LINO that pretty much raved about this Vital album so i pulled the vinyl out and was really able to enjoy it !

Prog_nosticator
11-30-2012, 10:31 AM
. I told them it was Urban and Banton didn't remember the tune!) oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in 2009 when VDGG toured the USA, I was able to catch them 3 times, one of which was on July1st. Prior to that date I was chatting with Hammill and Banton at NEARfest and I told them I planned to be at the July 1st gig and that they should play or at least hint at Institute Of Mental Health (you know, "It was the 1st day of July"...). Anyway, Banton didn't know what tune i was talking about and hammill had to tell him it was on Nadirs.. ;)
And they did not play it or even hint at it on July 1st ! But I played it as i do every year :)

polmico
11-30-2012, 10:56 AM
they actually emailed me last year asking me what tune they were playing on that cover because they couldn't think of anything they did with that configuration of two guitars, bass, and sax. I told them it was Urban and Banton didn't remember the tune!)
I started a thread about it a couple of years ago, too. It had always bugged the hell out of me because I couldn't figure out what tune it might be that they were playing.

zombywoof
12-01-2012, 05:33 PM
I never bought this one. I love Hammill, of course, but I can't stand punk rock. Do I need it?

scags
12-01-2012, 06:15 PM
Need what? A sense of humor?

Chuck AzEee!
12-01-2012, 07:48 PM
What the??? I posted a reply to thread and I didn't notice until tonight that it wasn't here. A flawed but excellent album. The albums that preceded this one were far more superior.

Progatron
12-01-2012, 08:06 PM
I never bought this one. I love Hammill, of course, but I can't stand punk rock. Do I need it?

This isn't punk rock, and yes, you need it if you love Hammill.

Lino
12-03-2012, 03:59 PM
Man, what a pet-peeve of mine: Nadir is some sort of punk album. :lol To me, it's the best PH solo album, and pretty much on par with vdgg, for me anyway. There's a song or two that are a bit in your face, but there are more beautifull melodies per album groove than most albums.

Secondly Zomby-dude ... you can't stand punk rock? My my. You don't know what you are missing! :)

thedunno
12-03-2012, 04:28 PM
Nadir punk Rock? Maybe three songs, the rest is maybe a bit less proggy then the albums that came before but just as good and intense. It also contains some absolute Hammill Classics: been alone so long, Pompei and shingle song.
The line up is the VDGG line up. After this records VDGG reformed and recorded Godbluff. To me those two records have the same sort of spirit.

Absolutely essential stuff.

Homburg
12-14-2012, 10:15 AM
It's a classic. Hammill's greatest, including VDGG. In fact I play it more often than I do all the VDGG albums put together. Two tracks are like punk, and very good they are too. The other's aren't, but they are crisper than VDGG or prog in general.

I do get pissed off with the 'Hammill was good because he anticipated punk' line. Like most proggers he was and is much better than punk. A couple of punky tracks on an album can work well, though, when handled by a master such as Hammill.

mogrooves
12-14-2012, 03:54 PM
I do get pissed off with the 'Hammill was good because he anticipated punk' line. Like most proggers he was and is much better than punk.

"Better" is a matter of personal preference, but what interests me is how "punk" is invoked to legitimate a guy who is firmly associated with the despised "Prog".

Homburg
12-14-2012, 03:56 PM
"Better" is a matter of personal preference, but what interests me is how "punk" is invoked to legitimate a guy who is firmly associated with the despised "Prog".

Yes, that's what interests and annoys me. Of course all of our opinions on music are matters of personal preference ultimately.

polmico
12-14-2012, 05:31 PM
"Better" is a matter of personal preference, but what interests me is how "punk" is invoked to legitimate a guy who is firmly associated with the despised "Prog".

Or more interesting, how prog fans will "legitimize" punk by claiming PH invented it--not, mind you, that I'm claiming you are doing that, but I have seen that said on these boards at least once before.

Bmore Prog
12-14-2012, 09:09 PM
Just listened to this at work on headphones Wednesday. I always liked this a lot but now I think it's Hammill's best solo album, even though it's really a VDGG album. The range in style is incredible. Proto-punk ravers, heart-felt ballads, flat-out rockers, love songs. Christ, what more can you ask for ? It's not very proggy but it's all over the place. I think that many "Progressive Rock" fans don't really like rock that much. And this rocks.

Brian Griffin
12-14-2012, 09:46 PM
It's a classic. Hammill's greatest, including VDGG

Quite a balsy claim, but not too far from the truth IMO


BG

bRETT
12-15-2012, 01:01 PM
This isn't punk rock, and yes, you need it if you love Hammill.

You really want to hear Hammill do punk rock, get the "Stranglers and Friends" CD. Recorded at a show when Hugh Cornwell was briefly improsoned (for wearing a T shirt with a naughty word on it), and other singers including Hammill (and Ian Dury and Toyah Willcox) stand in for him. Fripp and Steve Hillage on guitar too-- talk about prog connections. This may even have been where Fripp met Toyah.

polmico
12-15-2012, 06:56 PM
I thought Cornwell went to jail on a drug posession.

R. Totale III
12-16-2012, 04:35 PM
You really want to hear Hammill do punk rock, get the "Stranglers and Friends" CD.

Maybe, if you ever considered The Stranglers to have anything to do with punk, which I didn't at the time they started. I thought they were a second-rate Doors cover band bandwagon hopping.

zombywoof
11-24-2014, 12:38 PM
Okay, heard this for the first time today. Amazing stuff!!