Peter Hammill Gets 13 Album Collection
‘The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 – 1986’ documents the legendary British prog rocker’s first 13 solo albums.
A collection of recordings from the English prog musician Peter Hammill is getting released later this year. The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 – 1986 is a super deluxe box set comprising all 13 albums released by Charisma and Virgin, all newly remastered from the original master tapes.
There are new 5.1 and stereo mixes of The Future Now and pH7 by Stephen W Tayler, rare BBC sessions and live recordings and a Blu-ray video disc of rare previously unreleased European television performances. The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 – 1986 will also be available digitally and is out September 26 on Virgin.
The 18 CD collection begins with 1971’s Fool’s Mate, Hammill’s first solo offering after the brief dissolution of Van der Graaf Generator, the legendary progressive rock group for which he was the founding member and vocalist. Next is 1973’s Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night which also features songs recorded at a July 1973 BBC Radio John Peel session; 1974’s The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage come with recordings from a February 1974 Peel session and an April 1974 live performance at Montreal University Sports Centre; 1974’s In Camera features a September 1974 Peel session; 1975’s Nadir’s Big Chance; 1977’s Over alongside an April 1977 Peel session; 1978’s The Future Now; a pair of CDs documenting a February 1978 live recording from The All Souls Unitarian Church, Kansas City, USA; 1979’s pH7 complete with a September 1979 Peel session.
The 1980s begin with that year’s A Black Box and the following year’s Sitting Targets. A 1984 compilation The Love Songs features re-recordings of his back catalog and this version features an instrumental version of “Just Good Friends.” Hammill’s final albums for Charisma and Virgin were 1986’s Skin and 1986’s And Close as This.
