Live concerts by Peter Hammill are characterised by a degree of unpredictability, in terms of the songs played, the arrangements and the players involved.
This group recorded the albums Enter K and Patience.Live performances The K group consisted of Hammill himself on guitars and piano, with John Ellis on lead guitar, Nic Potter on bass, and Guy Evans on drums and percussion. In later years Hammill would sometimes refer to the band as a "beat group". On those albums, Hammill played the drums himself. With the next albums, pH7 and A Black Box, the sound became more compact, more new wave. Hammill's first solo-album after the 1978 break-up of Van der Graaf was The Future Now. Over (1977) contains very personal songs about the break-up of a long-term relationship. The credit he deserves, just has not been given to him. If you listen to him, his solo albums, I'm damn sure Bowie copied a lot out of that geezer. In a 1977 radio interview, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols played two tracks from the album and expressed his admiration for Hammill in glowing terms: "Peter Hammill's great. Whilst In Camera is characterised by extremely intense and complex songs and even has some musique concrète on it, Nadir's Big Chance contains anticipations of punk rock. Nadir's Big Chance (1975) was a major change from the preceding In Camera. In general, Hammill's solo work is thematically concerned with more personal matters, while the band's songs deal with broader themes. For the majority of both his solo songs and the band's songs he is credited as the sole songwriter, and some of his solo albums feature all the members of Van der Graaf Generator.
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Songs that were intended for Van der Graaf Generator now ended up on his solo albums, notably "Black Room" (on Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night) and "A Louse Is Not a Home" (on The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage). When Van der Graaf Generator broke up again in August 1972, Hammill resumed his solo career. Hammill's first real solo album was Fool's Mate (1971), containing songs from the early (1967/68) Van der Graaf Generator days. Eventually the intended solo album was released under the Van der Graaf Generator banner as their first album (The Aerosol Grey Machine). In the summer of 1969 Hammill had a residency at The Lyceum and played weekly solo concerts there. When Van der Graaf Generator broke up in 1969 he wanted to record his first solo album. The band was offered a contract by Mercury Records in 1968, that only Hammill signed. Hammill's solo career has coexisted with Van der Graaf Generator's activities. He attended Beaumont College, Old Windsor, and Manchester University, where he studied Liberal Studies in Science. Peter Hammill was born in Ealing, west London, and moved with his family to Derby when he was 12. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards. He also acts as a record producer for his own recordings and occasionally for other artists. Best known as a singer, he also plays guitar and piano. He is a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. "Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English singer-songwriter.