Van Der Graaf Generator - Forsaken Gardens (1974)

After the release of their 'H To He, Who Am The Only One' album in 1970, Van Der Graaf Generator spent the early part of 1971 on what was known as the 'Six Bob Tour', alongside fellow Charisma labelmates Genesis and Lindisfarne. Despite the complexity of their music, the band were well received on the tour, with Hammill noting that at nearly all the gigs, most of the audience recognised most of the their songs. While on tour, the band started working out compositions between gigs for their next album, which would become 'Pawn Hearts'. The intention was to release a double album, and although the band recorded enough material, for economic reasons the released recording was a single album containing just three tracks. The album was released in October 1971 and was not a success in the U.K, but proved highly successful in Italy, topping the chart there for 12 weeks. Following that commercial success in Italy, the band did a six-week tour there at the start of 1972, and expecting to be playing to half empty venues, they were all shocked by the sheer volume of the crowds that came to see them. By June, they had completed their third Italian tour, and wanted to start recording new material, but the combination of working for too long without a break, combined with a lack of support from Tony Stratton Smith and Charisma, plus continued financial difficulties, caused the band to implode, and Hammill left to pursue a solo career in mid-1972. Songs that were intended for Van der Graaf Generator now ended up on his solo albums, notably 'Black Room' (on 'Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night') and 'A Louse Is Not A Home' (on 'The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage'), and for the majority of both his solo songs and the band's recordings he is now credited as the sole songwriter. Some of his solo albums featured all the members of Van der Graaf Generator backing him on certain tracks, and so if Hammill hadn't left the band in 1972 and had brought his songs to the sessions for their next album, then Van Der Graaf Generator's fifth record could have sounded very much like this. All these tracks feature all four band members of the group, and so it probably wouldn't have sounded much different to this version anyway. 

Track listing

01 Red Shift
02 Rock And Role
03 Forsaken Gardens
04 (In The) Black Room / The Tower
05 A Louse Is Not A Home

Thanks to progarchives.com contributors BaldFriede and BaldJean for having the idea and putting this album together.