New Peter Hammill live 8cd box set

[tonewalk]

I was lucky enough to see most of these shows and if the set includes 'La Rossa' from Rome then anything else will be a bonus:

http://sofasound.com/latest.htm

[polmico]

Man, that's something. Maybe? I guess probably definitely yes.

[Buddhabreath]

Very tempting. Nice to know that he's not quite yet retired...

[JKL2000]

Well, dang, I went and preordered it!

One thing though, if you're using a VISA card you might have the problem I had. It hasn't happened in quite a while, but the international purchase required extra verification, which was a pain in the butt. I had to call VISA. Not sure if this is because of VISA, Chase, or the service SofaSound uses, but the attempt triggered something.

This happened with a couple of my earlier online Marillion purchases. I think some of the lower-budget online billing services are just a bit less sophisticated.

[strawberrybrick]

Yeah, I went for it.

[thedunno]

I need this. If only to keep my Hammill collection complete.

[Buddhabreath]

Just broke down and ordered it - we gotta support PH in his old age. I paid via Visa and had no issues BTW. Maybe further verifcation is required for highly evolved orangutans?

[Thomas]

Bought this as soon as I heard about this box set. Looking forward to hearing this!

[Bill_in_Cle]

Back in 2011 Hammill released the "PNO GTR VOX" 2 CD set, with no hint that it would be followed shortly by the "PNO GTR VOX BOX" 7 CD set, which contained all the tracks from the 2 CD set. Fortunately, the price of the 7 disc box was low enough to not piss-off the buyers of the previous 2 disc set. That first box contained 85 solo performances of 69 songs (with 16 alternate performances).

Since then he released 4 more records (one with Gary Lucas).

When the recent "X" live solo CD was released we had no hint that an 8 CD box would follow. "X" is such a short CD, Hammill should have included the tracks from the "V" EP as a bonus, though maybe those were tied-up by an exclusivity contract.

The new box has 98 perfomances (no alt. takes) and contains ALL the songs from "X" (though we can't tell yet if they are from different concerts than those on "X") and only 3 songs from one of the other albums released since "PNO GTR VOX BOX". The new box includes recent performances of 22 older songs that were not included in the first live box.

Has any other musician released 15 CDs of live solo performances over a 7 year span??

[Bill_in_Cle]

FYI,
"Not Yet, Not Now" arrived in Ohio today.
And it does include the same performances as on "X".

[JKL2000]

This arrived here in New York today. A nice looking set; the booklet is a bit disappointing because aside from a few pages of notes and credits it repeats the track listings from the CD sleeves. But halfway through the first disk and it’s excellent.

Has Hammill ever discussed his influences? He’s certainly unique but I can’t avoid thinking of Roy Harper and possibly Lou Reed and Kurt Weil. But I don’t know. I guess Lou Reed must be wrong. Maybe more John Cale. Amazing how powerful he still is.

[thedunno]

I listened to the first 3 cds and I have to say Hammill is in great form. Overall I think the level of performances is higher then pno gtr vox. This had some blistering performances but also some sloppy ones.

Hammill is certainly not finished. An 8 cd live document with 100 different songs recorded in basically one tour (with some intervalls). Pretty amazing.

[flytomars]

Listened to some of the CDs, mainly Italy and Germany-
Wow! Berlin and Dortmund / Nuremberg sound fantastic, PH in a loose but controlled performance with lots of variance from the originals*

* Well, all live renditions by PH stray away from the original studio version but here it is even more apparent...

[jcarr73729]

Overall I think the level of performances is higher then pno gtr vox.

My first impressions were the same.
Of all the PH live albums (I prefer his duets with a violinist) I rarely return to 'pno gtr vox'.
'Not Now Not Yet' is turning out to be rather good.

[Buddhabreath]

I agree with the above. Got mine yesterday and checked out disk 1. So far I’m loving it - great and unexpected set list: Rubicon and La Rossa on guitar, and lots great vocal gymnastics! Anyone who doesn’t like his singing is completely understandable, anyone who thinks he can’t sing is ignorant. It’s amazing what he did here as a virtual septegenerian IMO.

[thedunno]

In all honestly I was not too enthousiastic upfront on the release of another 8CD solo live set by mr Hammill. Didn't we just get PNO GTR VOX a couple of years ago? I did not see the added value. I bought it anyway because I wanted to keep my Hammill CD collection complete.

But man...am I happy to be completely wrong. This is outstanding! Well, most of it is. I now got to CD6 and I keep being amazed. However, I am a bit annoyed for the amount of noise on the piano tracks at the end of CD 5. It is such a shame because the performances there are incredible. I was never a fan of the song 'sleep now' because I felt it was a bit oversentimental. This version is simply stunning.

[Progatron]

A bit late to the party on this one, but I grabbed it finally and I will be spending all of today digging in! I only just recently added X/Ten and In Amazonia to my collection, but I needed this to keep it complete (or as near to complete as possible at the moment). I still don't have the recent K Group box, but I don't really need it as it doesn't offer much that I don't already have. Maybe I'll get that eventually anyway!

As far as I know, all I am missing is the second version of Usher, the Peel Sessions disc, the German EP Offensitchtlich Goldfisch, and the full Pno Gtr Vox box (foolishly, I waited too long on that and wound up with just the 2-disc set).

But it's good to have items on the Want/Watch For list! Now if only he'd officially release The Polaroid single on CD....

[Progatron]

Finished up this box today, what a great few days of live Hammill that was!

Pretty amazing the way he jumped around his entire career like that. And I'm always a sucker for Over tracks, of which there are five on this box (when you count Crying Wolf, one of the three 'hidden' tracks). Really nice set overall.