THE CHARISMA YEARS 1970-1978

Van Der Graaf Generator

•

Eclectic Prog

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Van Der Graaf Generator The Charisma Years 1970-1978 album cover

4.79 | 15 ratings | 1 reviews | 80% 5 stars

Write a review

Buy VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR Music
from Progarchives.com partners

Boxset/Compilation, released in 2021

Songs / Tracks Listing

CD 1 - THE LEAST WE CAN DO IS WAVE TO EACH OTHER (70:59)
1. Darkness (11/11) (7:27)
2. Refugees (6:22)
3. White Hammer (8:15)
4. Whatever Would Robert Have Said? (6:17)
5. Out of My Book (4:07)
6. After the Flood (11:28)
- Bonus tracks:
7. Refugees (single version) (A-side of single) (5:20)
8. Boat of Millions of Years (B-side of single) (3:53)
9. Darkness (11/11) (BBC Radio One "Top Gear" session) (6:52)
10. After the Flood (BBC Radio One "Top Gear" session) (10:58)

CD 2 - H TO HE, WHO AM THE ONLY ONE (82:15)
1. Killer (8:07)
2. House with No Door (6:03)
3. The Emperor in His War-Room (9:04)
4. Lost (11:13)
5. Pioneers over C. (12:05)
- Bonus tracks:
6. Killer (first version) (8:20)
7. The Emperor in His War Room (first version) (8:17)
8. Killer (BBC Radio One "Top Gear" session) (7:34)
9. Lost (BBC Radio One "Top Gear" session) (11:32)

CD 3 - PAWN HEARTS (69:48)
1. Lemmings (including Cog) (11:39)
2. Man-Erg (10:21)
3. A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers (23:04)
- Bonus tracks:
4. Man Erg (BBC Radio One "Sounds of the 70s" session) (11:12)
5. Theme One (BBC Radio One "Sounds of the 70s" session) (2:59)
6. Vision (BBC Radio One "Sounds of the 70s" session) (3:15)
7. Darkness (11/11) (BBC Radio One "Sounds of the 70s" session) (7:18)

CD 4 - THE PAWN HEARTS SESSIONS + Bonus Tracks (74:38)
- Bonus tracks:
1. Theme One (A-side of single) (2:57)
2. W (B-side of single) (4:27)
The Pawn Hearts Sessions:
3. Squid / Octopus (new stereo mix by Stephen W Tayler) (15:25)
4. W (first version) (5:02)
5. Angle of Incidents (4:47)
6. Ponker's Theme (1:27)
7. Diminutions (6:00)
8. Theme One (original mix) (3:14)
- Bonus tracks:
9. Man Erg (BBC Radio One John Peel Concert) (11:15)
10. W (BBC Radio One John Peel Concert) (5:50)
11. Killer (BBC Radio One John Peel Concert) (7:56)
12. Refugees (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (6:18)

CD 5 - GODBLUFF (56:11)
1. The Undercover Man (7:00)
2. Scorched Earth (10:10)
3. Arrow (8:15)
4. The Sleepwalkers (10:26)
- Bonus tracks:
5. Scorched Earth (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (9:43)
6. The Sleepwalkers (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (10:37)

CD 6 - LIVE AT RIMINI 9th August 1975 (70:42)
1. A Louse Is Not a Home (12:49)
2. (In the) Black Room / The Tower (11:47)
3. Forsaken Gardens (7:58)
4. Lemmings (including Cog) (16:42)
5. Scorched Earth (10:14)
6. Man-Erg (11:12)

CD 7 - STILL LIFE (72:35)
1. Pilgrims (7:07)
2. Still Life (7:20)
3. La Rossa (9:47)
4. My Room (Waiting for Wonderland) (8:09)
5. Childlike Faith in Childhood's End (12:20)
- Bonus tracks:
6. Gog (live) (10:32)
7. Still Life (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (7:21)
8. La Rossa (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (9:59)

CD 8 - WORLD RECORD (72:17)
1. When She Comes (7:58)
2. A Place to Survive (10:00)
3. Masks (6:55)
4. Meurglys III, The Songwriter's Guild (20:47)
5. Wondering (6:33)
- Bonus tracks:
6. When She Comes (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (8:11)
7. Masks (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (7:26)
8. Part One (approx. 35% of) Meurglys III (The Songwriter's Guild) (single B-side) (4:27)

CD 9 - LIVE AT MAISON DE LA MUTUALITE Paris 6th December 1976 (Part 1) (68:51)
1. Arrow (11:32)
2. When She Comes (8:59)
3. Masks (7:49)
4. Still Life (10:06)
5. Lemmings (including Cog) (16:27)
6. Childlike Faith in Childhood's End (13:58)

CD 10 - LIVE AT MAISON DE LA MUTUALITE Paris 6th December 1976 (Part 2) (68:35)
1. Meurglys III (The Songwriter's Guild) (23:15)
2. Gog (10:28)
3. The Sleepwalkers (13:56)
4. Killer (9:05)
5. Man-Erg (11:51)

CD 11 - THE QUIET ZONE / THE PLEASURE DOME (73:37)
1. Lizard Play (4:29)
2. The Habit of the Broken Heart (4:40)
3. The Siren Song (6:04)
4. Last Frame (6:13)
5. The Wave (3:14)
6. Cat's Eye / Yellow Fever (Running) (5:20)
7. The Sphinx in the Face (5:58)
8. Chemical World (6:10)
9. The Sphinx Returns (1:12)
- Bonus tracks:
10. Door (3:25)
11. Ship of Fools (B-side of single) (3:47)
12. The Wave (demo version) (3:14)
13. Cat's Eye / Yellow Fever (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (4:48)
14. The Sphinx in the Face (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (5:35)
15. (Fragments of) A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers / Sleepwalkers' End (BBC Radio One John Peel session) (9:28)

CD 12 - VITAL (Part 1) (44:58)
1. Ship of Fools (6:43)
2. Still Life (9:42)
3. Last Frame (9:02)
4. Mirror Images (5:50)
5. Medley (13:41) :
- a) Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
- b) Sleepwalkers

CD 13 - VITAL (Part 2) (44:36)
1. Pioneers over C (17:00)
2. Sci-Finance (6:16)
3. Door (6:00)
4. Urban / Killer / Urban (8:20)
5. Nadir's Big Chance (7:00)

CD 14 - H TO ME, WHO AM THE ONLY ONE (New Stereo Mix) (51:27)
1. Killer (8:22)
2. House with No Door (6:36)
3. The Emperor in His War Room (8:16)
4. Lost (11:24)
5. Pioneers over C (12:48)
- Bonus track:
6. Boat of Boat of Millions of Years (new stereo mix) (4:01)

CD 15 - PAWN HEARTS (New Stereo Mix) (53:18)
1. Lemmings (including Cog) (11:41)
2. Man Erg (10:24)
3. A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers (23:24)
- Bonus tracks:
4. Theme One (new stereo mix) (3:13)
5. W (new stereo mix) (4:36)

CD 16 - GODBLUFF (New Stereo Mix) (37:50)
1. The Undercover Man (7:35)
2. Scorched Earth (9:43)
3. Arrow (9:58)
4. The Sleepwalkers (10:34)

CD 17 - STILL LIFE (New Stereo Mix) (45:09)
1. Pilgrims (7:10)
2. Still Life (7:28)
3. La Rossa (9:51)
4. My Room (Waiting for Wonderland) (8:14)
5. Childlike Faith in Childhood's End (12:26)

Total Time 1057:46 (17 CD's)

BD 1 - H TO HE, WHO AM THE ONLY ONE / PAWN HEARTS (Audio)
Both albums in high resolution 5.1 Surround sound mix / new stereo mix / original stereo mix in 24bit / 96 kHz
- Bonus tracks:
1. Boat of Millions of Years (4:01)
2. The Boat of Millions of Years (single B-side) (4:03)
3. Theme One (single A-side) (3:16)
4. W (single B-side) (4:37)

BD 2 - GODBLUFF / STILL LIFE (Audio)
Both albums in high resolution 5.1 Surround sound mix / new stereo mix / original stereo mix in 24bit / 96 kHz

BD 3 - The Video Vaults (Video)
"Beat Club" - German TV 23rd June 1970
BD3-1-1 Darkness (11/11) 7:33
BD3-1-2 Whatever Would Robert Have Said? 6:03
"Pop Deux" Filmed At The Bataclan Theatre, Paris 18th March 1972
BD3-2-1 Lost 4:27
BD3-2-2 Killer 5:44
BD3-2-3 Octopus 4:33
"Pop Shop" Recorded 23rd March 1972
BD3-3-1 Theme One 4:10
BD3-3-2 A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers 24:02
"Live In Charleroi Palais Des Expos - 27th September 1975"
BD3-4-1 The Undercover Man 7:55
BD3-4-2 Arrow 9:00
BD3-4-3 Scorched Earth 10:13
BD3-4-4 The Sleepwalkers 10:54
Charisma Promotional Films
BD3-5-1 Wondering 6:35
BD3-6-1 Cat's Eye / Yellow Fever (Running) 3:31
Live At The Kohfidisch Open Air Festival, Austria 17th June 1978
Van Der Graaf - Austrian TV Feature (16:16)
BD3-7-1 Intro/Interview Segment 1:28
BD3-7-2 Lizard Play 3:23
BD3-7-3 Interview Segment 1:54
BD3-7-4 The Sleepwalkers 1:46
BD3-7-5 Interview Segment 1:14
BD3-7-6 The Sleepwalkers 0:53
BD3-7-7 Interview Segment 1:17
BD3-7-8 Mirror Images 2:42
BD3-7-9 Interview Segment 1:12
BD3-7-10 Outro 0:22

Line-up / Musicians

- Peter Hammill / vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, electric piano
- Hugh Banton / backing vocals, electric organ, piano, electric piano, synthesizer, electric bass
- Nic Potter / bass, guitar
- Guy Evans / drums & percussion
- David Jackson / saxophone, flute, backing vocals

With:
- Charles Dickie / cello, electric piano, synthesizer
- Graham Smith / violin, viola
- Robert Fripp / guitar

Releases information

"The Charisma Years" features all of Van der Graaf Generator's albums from 1970 to 1978, as well as two full-length concerts from 1975 and 1976, all extant BBC recordings, studio sessions, and videos. In addition to each album being newly remastered, "H To He, Who Am The Only One", "Pawn Hearts", "Godbluff", and "Still Life" also received new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes.

17 CDs + 3 Blu-rays

Remastered By - Ben Wiseman
Remix - Stephen W. Tayler

Thanks to sensedatum for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR The Charisma Years 1970-1978 Music

DOUG LARSON IMPORTS — Buy prog rock music and rarities (Free shipping on orders over 10 CD's)
AMAZON.COM — Best-selling prog vinyls

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR The Charisma Years 1970-1978 ratings distribution

4.79
(15 ratings)

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(80%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(13%)
Good, but non-essential (0%)
Collectors/fans only (0%)
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR The Charisma Years 1970-1978 reviews

Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER

This expansive new boxed set collects more or less everything Van Der Graaf Generator did during their stint at Charisma. First up you get copies of their albums from The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other through to Vital - an absolutely incredible run by any standards. These are present in new remasters which, to my ears, are somewhat superior to the mid-2000s remasters from Virgin, which leaned a little hard into the "loudness war". The improvements are particularly notable on the earliest albums; for example, on the previous remaster of The Least We Can Do I can hear some notable audio wobbling on Hammill's vocals at around 3 minutes into Darkness 11/11, which has been cleared up here.

The cream of the crop of the Charisma era - H to He Who Am the Only One, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff and Still Life - are present both in their original mixes and brand-new stereo mixes, as well as being provided on Blu-Rays offering both old and new stereo mixes and the by now obligatory surround sound mix. A more interesting Blu-Ray is The Video Vaults, compiling a true treasury of VdGG footage from the era. The Belgian TV appearance playing Theme One and A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers is well-known, and the rather shaky audio and video of them playing Godbluff in full in 1975 has also made the rounds a lot, but there's a brace of TV appearances here which have simply never seen the light of day previously.

The various bonus tracks scattered through the box include most of the After the Flood collection of BBC tracks. It's missing the Aerosol Grey Machine era Peel session from 1968, but if you're eyeballing this box and salivating then you're probably also the sort of big VdGG fan who'd be interested in the recent Esoteric rerelease of The Aerosol Grey Machine, which includes a more complete version of that Peel session on its bonus disc. There's also a hitherto-unreleased Top Gear session from 1970 giving nice versions of Killer and Lost.

(Some confusion may arise from the Peel Concert performance of Man-Erg/W/Killer from 23rd September 1971 being tagged as "previously unreleased", when that Peel Concert is actually on After the Flood; the book in the box clarifies that it's "previously unreleased" in the sense that the version presented here is taken from newly discovered stereo masters, so that's not 100% new material, but it is a nice upgrade.)

The first of the live shows is well-known to collectors - it's from August 1975 in Rimini, sourced from an audience bootleg of varying quality (the early sections of A Louse Is Not a Home are quite shaky, In the Black Room/The Tower is captured surprisingly well for an audience tape).

Tracks from this have filtered out on compilations or as album bonus tracks in the past, but it's still nice to get the set brought together as a whole and given about as good a tidy-up as it can feasibly get given the source; it's sounding about as good hear as I can ever remember this material sounding. There's an extent to which the dark, murky sound quality is actually kind of appropriate to the dark and claustrophobic tone of much of the material, which certainly helps. Still, don't go into this one expecting miracles: this will never sound as good as an official soundboard tape, and while a hero's job has been done to try and tune it up, heroes can only do so much.

The real jewel in the crown of this box is the live show from the Maison de la Mutualit� in Paris on the 6th December - a mere 3 days before the last gig that the Banton-Jackson-Evans-Hammill lineup would play in the 1970s (remember, The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome and Vital were played by a somewhat reconfigured group). Highlights of the show had been played on French radio, but the rest was believed lost - but wonderfully, a full set of the tapes from the concert were recently unearthed, allowing the box to present a two-disc presentation of the whole concert.

Here, at last, is the full-fledged high-quality VdGG live album from the glory years of the 1970s and the classic lineup which we fans have pined for so long, and were so convinced we'd never see, and they absolutely kill it, playing like a band possessed. The sound quality isn't perfect - Hammill's microphone disappears into the mix in part of Masks, for instance - but it's as good as we're ever going to get. The version of Meurglys III (The Songwriter's Guild) is a particular highlight, since the long instrumental break in the song is spiced up by a more lively rendition.

Between the audio improvements on the previously-released material and some cracking live rarities, this box is an absolutely incredible offering for fans of the band, a case study in how to do this stuff right. We might hope that the Maison de la Mutualit� will see a separate release in some form for those who find the whole box a bit too dear, but for those able to spring for the box it's an absolute treat - and of course getting the most important works of one of the greatest prog bands of all time in the mix is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Latest members reviews

No review or rating for the moment | Submit a review

Post a review of VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "The Charisma Years 1970-1978"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).