This 2-CD set was recorded at the Marquee Club in London on January 16th, 1978. Originally released on the Charisma label, followed by its 2005 reissue, and now on Cherry Red’s Esoteric label, Van der Graaf Generator’s last stand on Vital remains a cornerstone for the band as they were in their “Van der Graaf” incarnation at this point when they released their eighth and final studio album, The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome.
By this point, both organist Hugh Banton and saxophonist David Jackson left the band after the release of the band’s seventh studio album World Record in 1976. Bassist Nic Potter who played with the band from The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other to H to He, Who Am the Only One (three tracks from the album), re-joined VDGG, followed by cellist and Keyboardist Charles Dickie, and String Driven Thing violinist Graham Smith joined in.
When The Quiet Zone was released, it marked a departure from what they were known for as they entered into the new wave / post-punk territory. You have to understand at that time, John Lydon, Mark E. Smith, David Bowie, and Julian Cope were all champions of Peter Hammill’s lyrical textures, and it was the punk’s stamp of approval on how much VDGG’s music had a big impact on them.
With Vital, you feel the intensity, the vibes, the heat, and the power that was struck on that recording. Most of the mind-blowing live takes are like shivers down your spine. For those two nights including the one on the 16th that’s in your hands, David Jackson was invited to join the band onstage.
The recordings were done by the 24-track mobile recording unit for the second show. They go through some of the most remarkable takes including the sci-fi epic ‘Pioneers Over C’ which gave Potter and Jackson all of the ammunition they need by giving Hammill to transform into a snarling beast by raising hell at the club.
It also included one of Peter’s newer compositions ‘Mirror Images’ which would later be on his eighth solo album released a year later, pH7, also two tracks from The Quiet Zone; the dooming approach between ‘Still Life’ and ‘Last Frame’ featuring Smith’s hypnotic violin work which speaks of not just his time with String Driven Thing, but Curved Air’s Darryl Way channeling his classical techniques he would use on ‘Vivaldi’.
And a booming roar Potter and Hammill’s riffs take advantage with ‘Door’ which would later be a bonus track from the 2005 reissue of The Quiet Zone. Fire alarms, the no bullshit approach of Smith’s improvisations makes the speed level go into a wah-wah territory before going into some bluesy groove on the ‘Urban’ sidewalk with Jackson doing this sax dance.
Then, Van der Graaf take us into the crazy tidal-waving seas with the B-side of poetic justice on the ‘Ship of Fools’ followed the eerie medley between the two-part excerpt from ‘A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers’ and the climatic end of the living dead taking over our home planet with ‘The Sleepwalkers’. And closing it off is the ultimate punk-rock return of Rikki Nadir, Peter’s alter ego with ‘Nadir’s Big Chance’ featuring an intense wah-wah violin and keyboard midsection that Dickie and Smith would do before Nadir’s chance to take over the Marquee.
With the music still carrying on like a bolt of electricity, Van der Graaf’s music will live on in the years to come to show how much they were ahead of their time. And Vital remains one of those live albums that knocks the KISS Alive album right out of the ball park and giving them, the big giant middle finger in a roundabout way!
