The Silent Corner and The Empty Stage | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 8 February 1974 | |||
Recorded | April, September and October 1973 | |||
Studio | ||||
Genre | Progressive rock, psychedelic rock | |||
Length | 49:50 | |||
Label | Charisma Records | |||
Producer | Peter Hammill | |||
Peter Hammill chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Julian Cope's Unsung | (timeless) [2] |
The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage is the third album by British singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. It was released on Charisma Records in 1974, during a hiatus in the activities of Hammill's progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Other ex-members of Van der Graaf Generator also perform on the recording.
The cover was designed by Bettina Hohls, ex-member of the psychedelic German rock band Ash Ra Tempel. Hohls also contributed to the cover of Hammill's earlier album Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night .
The lengthy "A Louse is not a Home" is a song about the nature of identity. It was originally written for Van der Graaf Generator's album following Pawn Hearts , an album that because of the band's split never came to be. [3] It features Van der Graaf Generator's ex-members and was (just like "In the Black Room" from the previous album) played live by the group already in mid 1972 (just before the split) and again with the reformed band in 1975. "Forsaken Gardens" (also played live in 1975) and "Red Shift" are two more songs which feature ex-VdGG members. "The Lie (Bernini's Saint Theresa)" partly alludes to the Ecstasy of St Theresa by Bernini. "Red Shift" features Spirit guitarist Randy California on lead guitar. Hammill has often performed the song "Modern" in concert. "Wilhelmina" is written for Guy Evans' newborn baby girl, Tamra.
All tracks are written by Peter Hammill.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Modern" | 7:28 |
2. | "Wilhelmina" | 5:18 |
3. | "The Lie (Bernini's Saint Theresa)" | 5:41 |
4. | "Forsaken Gardens" | 6:16 |
Total length: | 24:43 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Red Shift" | 8:11 |
2. | "Rubicon" | 4:41 |
3. | "A Louse is Not a Home" | 12:15 |
Total length: | 25:07 |
No. | Title | Notes | Length |
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1. | "The Lie (Bernini's Saint Theresa)" | Live at the All Souls Unitarian Church, Kansas City, on 16 February 1978 | 6:31 |
2. | "Rubicon" | BBC session, February 1974 | 5:02 |
3. | "Red Shift" | BBC session, February 1974 | 5:51 |
Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer-songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and produces his own recordings and occasionally those of other artists. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards.
Patience is the 13th studio album by Peter Hammill. It was released in August 1983 on Naive Records, a label founded by Gordian Troeller, the former manager of Hammill's band Van der Graaf Generator. It was remastered in 1991 and released on Fie! Records. It was the second album to feature the collective known as the “K Group” — Hammill, drummer Guy Evans and bassist Nic Potter, and guitarist John Ellis.
Godbluff is the fifth album released by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was the first album after the band reformed in 1975 and was recorded after a European tour.
H to He, Who Am the Only One is the third album by the British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was released in 1970 on Charisma Records.
In Camera is the fourth solo album from the English singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. It was released in July 1974.
The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other is the second album by the British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released in February 1970 on Charisma Records. It was the group's first album to be released in the UK and the only one to chart in the top 50 in that country.
Christopher John Judge Smith, is an English songwriter, author, composer and performer, and a founder member of progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Initially working under the name Chris Judge Smith, he has been known simply as Judge Smith since 1994. After Van der Graaf Generator, he has written songs, stage musicals and operas, and from the early 1990s on he has released a number of solo CDs, including three "Songstories".
Vital: Van der Graaf Live is the first live album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was recorded 16 January 1978 at the Marquee Club in London and was released in July, one month after the band's 1978 break-up. The album was credited under the abbreviated name Van der Graaf, like the previous year's The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (1977), and featured the same line-up plus newcomer cellist/keyboardist Charles Dickie, who had officially joined the band in August 1977, and original saxophonist and flautist David Jackson, who re-joined the band for this recording.
Over is the sixth studio album by the English singer and songwriter Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in April 1977. It was issued for the first time on CD on Virgin Records in the early 1990s, and was reissued again in a remastered version in 2006 with bonus tracks.
Present is the ninth studio album by British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released in 2005. It was the band's first studio album since The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome in 1977, and the first with the 'classic' line-up since World Record in 1976. The Charisma Records label was re-activated for its release, as well as a re-issue series of Van der Graaf Generator's catalogue and Peter Hammill's solo releases from 1972-86.
Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night is the second solo album by British singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. It followed in the aftermath of the breakup of Hammill's band Van der Graaf Generator, and other ex-members of Van der Graaf Generator perform on the album.
Fool's Mate is the debut solo album by Peter Hammill of progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. The title is both a chess and tarot reference. It was produced by Trident Studios' in-house producer John Anthony. The album was recorded in 1971, in the midst of one of Van der Graaf Generator's most prolific periods. Hammill used the album to record a backlog of songs which were much shorter and simpler than his Van der Graaf Generator material, and declared on the original album sleeve: "This isn't intended to be any kind of statement of my present musical position, but at the same time, it is an album which involves a great deal of me, the person, basically a return to the roots."
The Future Now is the seventh studio album by Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in 1978. It was the first solo album Hammill released following the 1978 breakup of his band Van der Graaf Generator, although he had released numerous solo albums while VdGG were active. The album contains twelve short songs, several in the new wave style of VdGG's last studio album, The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome.
Nadir's Big Chance is the fifth solo album by Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in 1975.
Enter k is the eleventh studio album by Peter Hammill, originally released on the Naive Records label in October 1982. The label was owned and operated by Gordian Troeller, the former manager of Hammill's band Van der Graaf Generator that had found success managing Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Hammill subsequently reissued the album on his own Fie! label.
Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commercial success in the UK, but became popular in Italy during the 1970s. In 2005 the band reformed, and are still musically active with a line-up of Hammill, organist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans.
Time Vaults is an album by Van der Graaf Generator. It was originally released in 1982 on cassette only, almost four years after the break-up of Van der Graaf Generator in 1978. Later it was released as a vinyl LP, and in 1992 it was released on CD.
Maida Vale: The BBC Radio One Sessions is a compilation album by Van der Graaf Generator, containing eight songs from four different recording sessions at Maida Vale Studios for BBC Radio 1 in 1971, 1975 and 1976, three of which were Peel Sessions. It was released in June 1994 on Band of Joy Records.
A Grounding in Numbers is the eleventh studio album by the British rock group Van der Graaf Generator. It was released on 14 March 2011. This date, if written as 3,14, comprises the first three digits of the number π. The second track, "Mathematics", refers to Euler's identity, sometimes known as the mathematical poem. The album's release signals a continuation in the direction set by the current trio lineup, but it is released on a new label, Esoteric Recordings, a departure from previous releases on Virgin/Charisma. Hugh Padgham is the mixer of the album.
Do Not Disturb is the thirteenth studio album by British progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was released, on Esoteric Recordings, on 30 September 2016.