Whoop, the first review of Rock and Role: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator is here, and it's a cracker from @mikebarnesjourno.bsky.social in MOJO...

Visit last night to the wonderful Castle Cinema, Homerton, to watch the Butthole Surfers doc The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt. It's a brilliant film, made with both passion and expertise - funny, insightful, poignant, and just downright entertaining. See it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItkB...

This is a bit eleventh hour, but if you listen to the Rock Zone show on Greece's Channel 1 radio today at 17.10 UK/19.10 Greek time, you can hear me blathering on about all things Peter Hammill and my upcoming PH/VdGG biog Rock and Role... Tune in (ie. click the button) here! www.kanaliena.gr

Happy birthday, Peter Hammill (pic by Paul Denby)

Hooray, have been looking for an image of this Hawkwind piece for a while, from short-lived monthly inky Album Tracking. Chas de Whalley was your typical 70s hack, but Calvert is more than a match for him. Don't think I've seen this version of the Atomhenge promo pics before...

A couple of amazing pictures from Theo Joosten showing the fall of the wall at the Isle Of Wight festival 1970. More here: www.facebook.com/groups/stone...

A fabulous piece of vintage TV - inc interviews with Christopher Lee, Terry Nation, Ray Harryhausen and Lord Sutch! - though I find Whicker's charms entirely resistible. Some truly terrifying teeth and hair, and what bizarre fever dream is that first film fan having?? www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5wi...

RIP a true visionary. Watkins is (rightly) best known for The War Game, but if you haven't seen them, you should absolutely seek out the pop art nightmare of Privilege and the terrifying Punishment Park, which I'm sure Trump would love to make official US policy www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

This is a fantastic, career-spanning interview with Bob Mould and Greg Norton about Hüsker Dü, who @steviechick.bsky.social rightfully identifies as "one of the most important groups of the 1980s." Another gem from @thequietus.com digest... (great pic too!) thequietus.com/interviews/h... 1/2

Clip from NME's 'What's On' guide, 23 Sept 1972, featuring proto-metal heroes Bodkin and Iron Claw, alluding to both bands' lack of success in securing industry attention. But they finally had their day during the archival recordings boom of the 90s/00s... 1/2

The days of the underground clearly hadn't reached Hitchin according to this piece on Principal Edward's Magic Theatre from Zigzag, Nov 1969. Hawkwind's dancer Stacia was a big fan of PEMT and you can see the influence from the picture...

Hawkwind interview from Music Scene, December 1972, with some terrific pictures by Pennie Smith...

Sad news. Pete drew this terrific pic of Michael Moorcock, as featured in Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground @breakfastruins.bsky.social

Here's a great interview with Peter Hammill by Jason Barnard @strangebrewpod.bsky.social, discussing PH's long career and the recent boxset. Also some kind words from Jason towards the end about my upcoming book! youtu.be/2XMEQ1wLzPQ?...

Latest entry on my slow tour of classic SF is a bit of an oddity, C.M. Kornbluth's The Syndic (1953). It's an alt future vision of America where big government has been ousted by organised crime syndicates as the glue holding the country together. There's clearly an element of satire here... 1/3

The breakdown of society has always been just around the corner...

One of the finest recordings missing from the recent Peter Hammill boxset is this half-hour In Concert performance for BBC Radio 1 from December 1979. PH was accompanied by David Jackson throughout, and each song is outstanding... www.rockandrole.net/post/ph-in-c...

And as reviewed by me in the current Prog magazine ;-) The new mixes really are terrific and Sid's sleeve notes are always top value!

Interesting snippet here from NME, 22 January 1977. I've never heard this suggestion before that Hawkwind were planning to do a live album post-ASAM? And I haven't heard Nik's departure spun like this before... 🙃

Reviewed by me in the current Prog... Gracious! The Recordings 1970-1971. A short-lived, but rather excellent early progressive group on Vertigo. Fair to say they'd been sipping from the cup of King Crimson, but with a distinctive sound of their own. Fab track... youtu.be/8sRTgI6WbmU?...

Re-watched The Thing last night @princecharlescinema.com. What a strange and extraordinary film it is, a nihilistic gauntlet throw in the age of ET, which utterly refuses to conform to traditional Hollywood storytelling. And those effects are still something else...

Just popped up on the Sounds FB group, Alan Moore's priceless interview with Hawkwind from Nov 1982, inc Dave Brock being kicked out of RCA's offices... (and yes, it's *that* Alan Moore)

My slow tour of classic SF advances with a re-read, Christopher Priest's The Glamour (1984), a novel about memory and the phenomenon of non-corporeal invisibility... I read it as a teen, and it's one of those books where the central idea has stayed with me my entire life. 1/4

Random picture found online... (from US mag Rock Scene, May 1979)

Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news... (from the new issue of Prog - oh, and that should be 'Kingmaker Publishing'🙃)

I've been revisiting and greatly enjoying Legend Of A Mind, the Decca underground comp from 2002 which was a serious spur to my, err, progressive renaissance as a music fan. Many terrific tracks, such as this by Bill Fay, possibly prompting his rediscovery? www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIIp... 1/3

Saw canine perspective horror Good Boy last night. It's a film that wants to have its dog biscuit and eat it ie. in the way it combines health allegory with supernatural scares, but it looks and sounds great, and Indy the dog is absolutely terrific. Sure to become a cult hit.

The rockandrole.net site brings together nearly all of Peter Hammill's TV and radio sessions. This 1983 Saturday Live session is particularly rare - listen to PH deliver an incredible version of Don't Tell Me, then get interrupted during Labour Of Love! www.rockandrole.net/post/ph-satu...

Better late than never, I saw the Ithell Colquhoun exhibition Tate Britain yesterday. A British surrealist and mystic (she seemed to be a member of every occult society going), her use of colour, abstract forms and dreamlike/sexualised landscapes is often stunning 1/2

Just shared by Michael Moorcock on FB - didn't know a new Blu-ray was coming out, but sounds good... @breakfastruins.bsky.social

So this is where we are now... What's really bizarre about all these 'one world government' conspiracy theories is that we've never been further from such a thing existing, given the tilt towards rabid nationalism/isolationism...

Released on this day 50 years ago: Godbluff! My first Van der Graaf Generator LP - picked up in 1984 from the blessed Selectadisc second-hand vaults on Market Street, Notts - and still my favourite. It is amazing. If you've never heard it, now is the time www.youtube.com/watch?v=3prX...

Saw Ghost Stories at The Peacock Theatre the other night. It's always fun seeing something performed live, and there were certainly some jumpy members of the audience, but is it heretical to say that I preferred the film? Hard to top the performances of Paul Whitehouse and Martin Freeman...

And then a year later, 18 Sept 1977 at the Glasgow Apollo, here's a couple of great pics (by Ian Storarr) of Calvert in full flight with Hawkwind...

Robert Calvert with Hawkwind, performing Steppenwolf, 1976? (photo restored by Christopher Scurrah) Does he have the fake severed head in his other hand that I've heard mention of??

My new book - Rock and Role: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator - is off to the printers, and will be published 21 November! Officially launching today, here's the book's site, which I'll be updating regularly. But check out the A/V section now! www.rockandrole.net

My slow tour of classic SF slowly continues with 1958's A Case Of Conscience by James Blish, a book that's become renowned as one of SF's most serious attempts to tackle the role of Christianity in the context of a non-terrestrial, but supremely civilised world. It's a dense, fascinating read... 1/3

Here's a chest-swelling, patriotic Hawkwind headline from Sounds, 13 May 1972 😉 Plus mention of dates with The (Morrison-less) Doors - though the 11th was at the Mayfair in Birmingham rather than The Roundhouse...

From today's Guardian online and based on a new book, an article on the early 70s French rock underground. The treatment is a little wide-eyed, but good to see it there nonetheless. Would argue Les Variations were more than just Stones knock-offs though... www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

I loved these books...

I missed Peter Hammill's Edinburgh gig due to family illness but an advance copy of @joebankswriter.bsky.social new book on Peter's work has cheered me up. It's a big book that goes well with the equally new big CD box set I've also been listening to. More book details here: kingmakerpublishing.com

So, Peter Hammill at the RFH last night was quite an experience... Highlights for me were Don't Tell Me, Comfortable?, Patient, A Way Out (particularly amazing) and Still Life (though gutted to have missed Modern - not allowed back into the hall post-toilet break!) (pic by Howard Rankin)

An article on Hawkwind by Geoff Barton in Sounds 2nd, October 1976. @joebankswriter.bsky.social

This is just one of the highlights of Hawkwind's Edmonton Sundown set from 25 January 1974, as featured on the new Hall Of The Mountain Grill boxset. Robert Calvert in absolutely mesmerising form... www.youtube.com/watch?v=-su6...

Awaiting PH in Manchester...

Reports coming in of an amazing performance by Peter Hammill at Edinburgh's Queens Hall last night. Looking forward to Thursday at the RFH... Set included: My Room, The Comet..., If I Could, Last Frame, Patient, Stranger Still, Four Pails, Traintime, and Vision (pic: Phil Mason)

Watch this great video of Peter Hammill going through the Charisma & Virgin Recordings boxset that came out yesterday - "this is a really well put together *product*" www.facebook.com/share/v/1ajr...

As well as my piece about Hall Of The Mountain Grill in the current issue of Prog, I also review the vinyl reissue of PXR5, which sounds very nice: "Hawkwind at both their most confrontational and most accessible." Evidence of the former here (Cardiff Castle '76, I think)...

Great screening last night at The Cinema Museum of 1972 Brit psycho-thriller Sitting Target, c/o @lostreelsuk.bsky.social - and by 'psycho', I'm referring to the coolly brutal Oliver Reed in the lead role. A cracking combination of stylish cinematography, juddering violence and the concrete 70s 1/2

Great 'Time Out of Mind' episode from 1979 on Michael Moorcock. @joebankswriter.bsky.social and @reversediorama.bsky.social may appreciate. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhSF...