Peter Hammill on Bowie, other superfans & 47 albums of ‘self-sabotage and chaos’.

Peter Hammill, adored by Bowie, Mark E Smith and many others, co-founded Van Der Graaf Generator when he was 19. And he’s made 47 albums since, powered by “hubris, enthusiasm and sheer bloody-mindness” and celebrated in a new 18-CD box set. He talks to us here from Somerset about …   … supporting Hendrix at the Albert Hall and being ‘the Shirley Bassey of the Underground’   … meeting David Bowie - who asked for Hammill’s new music to be sent to him all his life   … Van Der Graaf Generator being bottled off by medical students in the days when you rang from a phone-box to see what gigs you were playing   … the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Champion Jack Dupree and Jimmy James & the Vagabonds at the Locarno in Derby   … Tony Stratton-Smith and the Six Bob Tour – 30p! – with Lindisfarne and Genesis   … Nut Rocker, Theme Of Exodus and other teenage keyboard staples    … the value of “Boswellian superfans” who know more about you than you do   … breaking the £100 barrier for a live performance   … writing blues songs, aged 16, with “a gnat’s experience of life”   … the unsettling lyric to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘You've Got to Be Carefully Taught’   … and his new young audience via the internet and “that right of passage, your parents’ records”   Order The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 - 1986’ here: https://peterhammill.lnk.to/CVRecordingsPR And Peter's memoir 'Kingmaker' is published in November. Pre-order here: https://burningshed.com/store/kingmaker Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.