The Lists
Posted: May 5, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized 23 CommentsI’ve now completed the UK leg of my current touring. Over the seven shows I played eight-two different songs. (I think so, anyway – I note down what I’ve played from my set-lists after the event and of course I might go astray in the listings from time to time….)
This isn’t some kind of competition with myself though. As I’ve said before, the songs remain alive only as long as I’m still touring and presenting them. The recorded versions will always be there of course but, butterfly-like, they’re pinned down and certain, not flexible and mutating as are live renditions. I’ve been expanding the list of songs which in principle it’s possible for me to play over the years and the list now stands at over a hundred so I’m interested in doing as many of those as I can.
The assembly of sets is not an exact science – well, it’s not scientific in any way in fact. (With the exception of the one for QEH which, as I’ve written, had a very specific time-stamped element to the choice of material.) I’ll be influenced, of course, by what I’ve played or haven’t played on previous nights but I’m also looking to strike a balance between old and new, aggressive and calm, up-tempo and down, reflective and anticipatory. The piano/gtr splits also have to be taken into account and within the guitar sets unusual tunings have to be taken into consideration as well. (Thankfully I’ve got significantly faster at going from one tuning to the next than used to be the case, but still it’s best not to have too many radical shifts one after another.)
Within all this there also has to be the consideration that most people in an audience are only going to see one show – so I’ve got a responsibility to have some like-for-like equivalence in quality, tone and balance one to the other.
And finally, of course, both out of interest, out of self-promotion and, indeed, in order to bed them in for future tours, it’s important to play some of the newest material rather than just The Hits (sic).
I don’t intend to make a habit of this but just this once I’ve decided to put up the list of what’s been played on this stretch of the tour. Songs in bold make their first appearance on the relevant night; in italics denotes a second showing and normal typeface a third. (There are only three of the latter, all songs from the new disc.) I hope the lists are correct but, well, you already know me for an unreliable narrator!
Only a few days now until the shows in Germany, where I’ll be playing two entirely different sets over the two nights in each city. I shan’t be consulting what I’ve played in the UK, so it’s unlikely that any sets will be repeats of these. And of course there are tunes which I haven’t yet played so I might sneak some of those in as well. In any event, I hope the concerts will be full of That Liveness, That Right Here and Now.
Yes, onward!
QEH, London, 20/4/18
Don’t Tell Me
Just Good Friends
Friday Afternoon
Faculty X
Time to Burn
I will Find You
Stumbled
Torpor
Like Veronica
Driven
La Rossa
The Lie
Bubble
Your Tall Ship
That Wasn’t What I Said
The Descent
Refugees
Modern
Oran Mor, Glasgow, 24/4/18
Siren Song
Losing Faith in Words
Anagnorisis
After the Show
Time Heals
Amnesiac
Shingle Song
Charm Alone
Sitting Targets
If I Could
Time for a Change
Last Frame
Unrehearsed
Reputation
His Best Girl
The Mercy
Stranger Still
Vision
Stoller Hall, Manchester, 25/4/18
My Room
Too Many of my Yesterdays
This Side of the Looking-Glass
Milked
The Mousetrap
The Habit of the Broken Heart
Slender Threads
My Unintended
Yoga
Happy Hour
Primo on the Parapet
Nothing Comes
Undone
Shell
A Way Out
Traintime
A Better Time
St. Luke’s Church, Brighton 1, 27/4/18
Easy to Slip Away
The Unconscious Life
Autumn
Bravest Face
Anagnorisis
The Comet, the Course, the Tail
The Birds
The Second Hand
Ophelia
Something about Ysabel’s dance
Driven
Modern
Four Pails
Milked
Gone Ahead
Mirror Images
In the End
House with no Door
St. Luke’s Church, Brighton 2, 28/4/18
Don’t Tell me
Just Good Friends
Curtains
Confidence
Tenderness
Comfortable
Shingle Song
Torpor
The Sphinx in the Face
Central Hotel
Patient
Sleep Now
Bubble
Time to Burn
The Descent
Still Life
Stranger Still
The Lantern, Bristol 29/4/18
Siren Song
Time Heals
Shell
Anagnorisis
Losing Faith in Words
The Habit of the Broken Heart
What’s it Worth?
(On Tuesdays she used to do) Yoga
Amnesiac
Been Alone so Long
Primo on the parapet
Labour of Love
Unrehearsed
His Best Girl
Milked
The Mercy
Traintime
Afterwards
The Junction, Cambridge, 30/4/18
My Room
Easy to Slip Away
Too Many of my Yesterdays
Reputation
The Unconscious Life
The Comet, the Course, the Tail
Our Eyes Give It Shape
Once You Called Me
Skin
The Birds
Patient
Faculty X
Friday Afternoon
That Wasn’t What I said
The Descent
A Way Out
A Better Time
Refugees
Sofasound 
After meeting some alumni in Bedford over the festivities I learnt that the Exeter Vdgg/Peter Hammill Soc hasn’t existed since 2011. What a disappointment. I was there during Out Of Water, Usher, Noise, Fireships and Roaring Forties! A quincunx of great albums (side two of Fireships being my fav). But he never came to the Union. The Ent Sec, now an adviser to a Labour Shadow Minister, told me the students preferred atonal shoegazing and laddish britpop bands. I think at one stage she even rolled her eyes. Where are those bands now? And who marches on from peak to majestic peak?
I’ve been an admirer of Peter since listening to VDGG albums since the very early 70s and his later individual works. Seen them and him several times in case Manchester and Bristol. Have a good record collection. Peter is probably the few real consistent singer songwriters with a brilliant talent that’s been ignored by many in UK who prefer pop to poetry and musical complexity. May you live on Peter Hammill bravo!
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What a great show in Breitenbach church!
What a greatful experience of music and art!
What an intensive performance! – The audience was so much here and now with the music!
Thak you, Peter! I hope, it was also a good show for you.
Best wishes
Rainer P.
Many thanks for your music and inspiration, Peter.
Rodrigo Hernandez, Fan #1 of Mendoza, Argentina.
Dear Peter, thank you very much for 2 fantastic evenings in Dortmund.
Ending the first one with “Refugees” as an encore and starting the second with “Easy to Slip Away” was only one thing that sent shivers up and down my spine. I liked the concept of the double concert very much – great that you are still able to pull it off in such a convincing manner.
If these shows resulted in something like the “pno gtr vox (box)” I would happily order my copy 😉
Hope to see you again!
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This is very very impressive!
To those of you suffering from ‘other gig envy’ (so to speak) putting Peter Hammill 2018 tour into a certain well known video site beginning with Y, will achieve a degree of fulfillment!
It’s 30 years since my first PH show (QEH in Feb 1988) when I was still a PH novice ( I had about five albums at that time). The middle aged me is a seasoned Hammill fan, with numerous solo & VDGG shows, as well as all the albums. The Stoller Hall show in Manchester was as immersive and emotionally charged as ever – a fantastic set and a joy to watch Peter on stage. Thank you.
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Great to see La Rossa on the list!
a terrific performance. ta!
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Great to see you at Cambridge (how about Norwich Art Centre next time?) Peter. Loved the choice of songs, Faculty X much under-rated and Birds??? How long since I heard you sing that? Commonwealth Institute too many years ago perhaps…. enjoy Germany, a friend will be going to one of the gigs…. hope he enjoys it as much as Sue and I. Come back soon please!!!
While your voice has been part of my musical appreciation for a long time ( Fripp’s exposure, I still consider absolutely extraordinary), I only embarked upon VDGG as a serious proposition when The Box was released and have seen the band several times since the most recent reformation. Excluding the K Band supporting Marillion in 1983 ( I think) at Ipswich Gaumont ( which I don’t remember too well ! ) Oran Mor was my first PH solo show. And it was astounding. The only downside of you playing so many songs on different nights which again is astounding , is that you look at other nights and think ‘I wish’ ! For me a bit more VDGG would have been the icing on the cake as but it’s a very minor thing, what we heard was amazing. Also blown away by the devotion and of the fans that follow you across the country and across the world ( hello, Tony from Cambridge, hope you’ve enjoyed the other gigs and we made it to Kiev ! ). Hope to see you again soon before too long.
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Wish I could have seen them all but Oran Mor was fantastic, thank you. Enjoy Germany.
Thanks. Very interesting, Inders. La Rossa an usual Choice. Pity I was Not there.
Hugo
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Loved the Oran Mor gig and the selection of songs. But now I’m studying the other set lists wondering if I might have preferred one the other gigs!
Answer? No, the show’s the show and it’s pointless second guessing, especially when I couldn’t have got to any of them. Could hardly have asked for a better encore than Vision, although I think hearing House With No Door (Brighton’s encore) again might almost have trumped it!
Thanks
Loved the set at The Junction
Didn’t I hear Friday Afternoon as well?
All the best
Take care on your travels
Indeed, that was an unusual pH post. 🙂 Thanks!
All the best for the German leg of the Tour!