They've all remained tight-lipped about it, and although it doesn't truly matter I have always been curious, as have a lot of fans no doubt. What could have suddenly gone so wrong?
They've all remained tight-lipped about it, and although it doesn't truly matter I have always been curious, as have a lot of fans no doubt. What could have suddenly gone so wrong?
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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They kept replacing his reeds with cedar shims .
Of course the real mystery is why Jermaine Jackson is legally changing his name to Jermaine Jacksun.
( http://www.tmz.com/2012/11/07/jermai...hange-jacksun/ )
That family is so weird.
Jermaine's, that is.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
I actually read about this somewhere maybe on the wikipedia site. Apparently Peter Hammill was very tight lipped about the particulars but it seemed to be a case of David Jackson not pulling his weight or not willing to. Maybe he wasn't able or willing to put the time or energy required into playing and touring with the band. That seems to be the implication anyway.
Do not suffer through the game of chance that plays....always doors to lock away your dreams (To Be Over)
The only think I heard around the split, was that Jackson wanted to continue only for the money, and that he wanted to play the old songs in live performance exactly the way they are on the studio albums. Hammill and the band refused to break or alter the creative, experimental spirit of the band, which has always been wide-open minded in ALL aspects. The spontaneous nature and quirkiness of VDGG is exactly what makes them a TRUE progressive rock band. Every time they play one of their old or new songs, it's not exactly as performed before. This is especially evident with solos within songs. A huge element of the VDGG ethos is improvisation (their most recent album ALT is a prime example). And as much as I miss the flute and sax from Jax, God Bless Hammill, Banton and Evans for sticking to their guns. I'm happy that the power-trio is doing well.
Last edited by AncientChord; 11-11-2012 at 11:09 PM.
Day dawns dark...it now numbers infinity.
"I got an idea, an idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about."
- Peter Griffin ("Family Guy")
This is also what Ive heard, with some more detail (quite alot of details actually).
One thing that was acertained- this is not a Hammill decision but a democratic one (it appears that contrary to what it appears, PH has the same weight as any other band member in all major band decisions).
A critical factor seems to have been Jaxon's decision to participate in one of these "Critical Review" type DVDs which Hammill in particular was very pissed off about. He (and probably Banton and Evans) thought it was pretty cheap on Jaxon's part to get involved in such a subpar product. And I guess this tied in with the above-mentioned notion that he was into the band reformation idea for financial reasons mostly.
That whole story doesn't really ring true with the impression I get of Jaxon, though.
And above all, I think it's such a sad outcome that Jaxon and Hammill remained friends and regular collaborators through most of their adult lives, only to fall out irredeemably just as VdGG was finally reuniting after nearly 30 years.
That's also what I'd heard back then...
But reading their book, one gets the impression that Jaxon was always the weaker economically fragile element in the band... needing for family reasons (or whatever else reasons) more cash than VdGG couid generate him. Hammill had his solo career, Banton his church organ manufacture, Evans was doing sessions....Jaxon apparently was either a delivery man or lorry driver for a few years after the demise of the band, because he was
But of late (last 15 years), he got into teaching strongly/heavily disabled kids some music with his tonewall musical invention (which appears to be a theremin in reverse) and therefore is also more tied-down because of the teaching lifestyle. A teaching-method which is more than likely heaviny subsidised by the authorities... which kind of prohibits going on tour on whatever whim their leader has
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
From what ive heard, this was just another straw on the camels back, not a critical factor but just one of many examples given for Jaxons lack of seriousness regarding the band and the band commitments (especially reharesals).
The main issue was the fact that Jaxon was not willing to give up his work with the disabled children, something he found more important for him than VDGG.
The band just would not take 75% commitment while all the rest were 100% commited.
I've heard something along those lines, and if so I totally respect Jaxon's decision. But if that was the entire case I'm sure the others would have understood and remained friends; Guy in particular has long worked with disabled people with Echo City and so would well have understood Jaxon's predicament.
I can't help but feeling that Jaxon needed a regular income with a monthly paycheck, instead of an irregular one with the group
Happens a time in life where financial secirity (however low it may be >> can't imagine him making loads of money with tghis type of work and the huge Tonewall installation) takes less toll on the general piece of mind
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I'm not a huge VDGG fan but I have 3-4 of their albums and I listen to them every now and then. I'm just curious, why don't they get another guy to play sax and flute? That's a big part of the VDGG sound.
They're just not that type of band. Hammill has worked with a very small number of musicians over the years and I think for him its important for them to be friends first and musicans second. I don't think he's ever hired a jobbing musician just to fill a role, its a more a case of him bumping into someone who he likes and then he thinks he could maybe use them in some role in the future. Unlike many other bands VDGG have never stuck to some pre-defined 'classic lineup' that they have to maintain at all costs. When the bass player left they took the opportunity to fit bass pedals to the organ; when the sax player and organist left, he invited the former bass player back then added a violinist he'd been working with on his solo albums to join, then when he thought the sound could do with filling out a bit he added a cello player.. When Jaxon left more recently he thought he'd see what they could do with the trio format. Not the way Yes would have done it, but its the way VDGG do it, and I can't imagine them ever saying 'sax player's gone, we'll have to hire a session man to fill those parts'. its just not the way they think.
C'mon, they can find another saxaphone player. VDGG without sax is not VDGG. No sax in VDGG, no metman
No sax player could replace Jaxon in VDGG.
If you understand just how utterly unique his tone and approach were, then you realize that "replacing" him would be akin to replacing ... I don't know ... Mike Ratledge in Soft Machine.
from Sofa Sound Newsletter
31/March 2007
http://www.sofasound.com/nlmar07.htm
"Once we had made "Present" and the RFH show was booked in we agreed time slots
which we would keep free for Van der Graaf activity. We also agreed that after touring
for 2005 finished we would take stock of how things had gone and decide what to do next.
(If anything at all: none of us were committed to an open-ended group existence.)
Inevitably, all four of us encountered - different - problems and complications in accommodating
the work of the group; on balance, though, no one of us to any greater or lesser extent than another.
To balance this, the experience of playing together again as a band - and the response
from public and critics alike - was, of course, fantastic.
Over time, though, it became clear that David seemed to have difficulty in understanding
what we had mutually agreed and that he was struggling to make the leap of faith which
being in this group has always involved. This put him into conflict with us as a unit and as individuals.
After an increasingly fractious series of events (which I do *not* propose to detail)
it became clear to Guy, Hugh and I that whatever happened in the future we were
not going to be able to continue being in a group with David.
At the end of November 2005 we did not know whether we would be continuing or not.
In January 2006 we met and expressed the desire to do so; indeed, acknowledged the
need to at least try to carry on, if we were to be true to VdGG spirit. This was not the
"taking stock" moment we had planned for. In summer 2006 we met to play, to see if
there was indeed something worth doing in trio format. (We were clear from the outset
that we would *only* continue as a three-piece.) We found that there was.
Only then did we formally announce David's departure. Since then we have tried to maintain
a silence on these matters which we hope has been taken as dignified rather than secretive,
which emphasised the positive nature of our move forward rather than retrospective bitterness."
Definitely not this. Hammill has said in interviews that there were no problems musically.
Definitely one of the reasons. In a VdGG cover story in Progression, Banton talks of this. Jaxon had trouble making the commitment.
Not the case; unlike in the '70s, VdGG isn't the main gig for any of the members. Guy's main gig is teaching, Hugh's is his organ building business. They'll do short tours around Guy's teaching schedule and then be inactive for several months. It's not the prime source of income for any of them. It's the coolest part-time, secondary job one could have (who else gets to supplement their income by touring the world to adoring fans in sold out clubs and auditoriums? Sign me up!)
But it's not a part of the VdGG ethos. It was always important for VdGG to 'be' rather than 'be representations of'. Hammill never went for the 'assembly line' mentality of "Oh, the keyboard player left; let's get another one." At the time Jaxon and Banton left at the end of '76, Hammill was quoted as saying, "We could have gone out and got another sax and organ player, but that would have been insidious." I get it, good for 'em.
Jaxon's a brilliant player. He has his unique style that may not be typical, but it's pretty ingenious (I've played with him and I was amazed). Early VdGG had no electric guitar, so Jaxon developed a style where he played two saxes at once and basically power-chorded his way through songs. Very powerful stuff and certainly atypical of the way most sax players approach the instrument. I've played with him where he improvised these amazing sax lines off the top of his head (they couldn't have been written out or pre-arranged any better) with his double-sax approach. It sounded like a freakin' horn section blasting these badass riffs over what the rest of the band was playing. As far as VdGG hiring another sax player because anyone could play his stuff, I know that's not the case (many sax players don't play two saxes at once -- which is integral to the Jaxon sax approach -- and VdGG isn't Yes or Genesis... they're not about slotting in another player to play exactly what the previous guy did. It's just not where they're coming from).
I thought he was being sarcastic with the "not even good" thing. Otherwise, he either doesn't listen, or if he thinks anyone could play that, he's an idiot.
And thank God for that; like em or not. VDGG has managed to retain its creative spark into the new millennium, and remain as vital as it ever was.
While I obviously liked Jaxon in the band, at this point, two studio and two live records later, I'm just fine without him, too.
Thanks Jim for clearing up the "issued" of Jaxon's departure, I meant to ask you about that when I met you a couple of months ago, but it slipped my mind at the time. The NYC gig was awesome!
Be a loyal plastic robot for a world that doesn't care... Frank Zappa
They are different without Jax, but it's still real cool, especially the live shows I saw.
I thought they might get Stuart Gordon on violin to join- Hammill had been playing with him for years.
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