Nadir's Big Chance
1975 studio album by Peter Hammill
| Nadir's Big Chance | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Peter Hammill | ||||
| Released | 1 February 1975 | |||
| Recorded | 1–7 December 1974 | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | Progressive rock, garage rock, proto-punk, art rock | |||
| Length | 48:24 | |||
| Label | Charisma | |||
| Producer | Peter Hammill | |||
| Peter Hammill chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Sounds | (favourable)[2] |
| Tentative Reviews | [3] |
Nadir's Big Chance is the fifth solo album by Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in 1975.
It was recorded shortly after a decision to re-form the band Van der Graaf Generator (of which Hammill was the singer and principal songwriter) and Nadir's Big Chance is actually performed by the reformed Van der Graaf Generator line-up.
The album's songs vary greatly in style, as acknowledged by Hammill in the sleeve notes, which refer to "the beefy punk songs, the weepy ballads, the soul struts".
In a 1977 Capital Radio broadcast, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols played two tracks from the album, "The Institute of Mental Health, Burning" and "Nobody's Business", and expressed his admiration for Hammill.[4]
The album includes two of Hammill's most frequently performed ballads at concerts and radio interviews, "Been Alone So Long" (written by Judge Smith) and "Shingle Song", and a reworking of Van der Graaf Generator's first single from 1968, "People You Were Going To".
The album presented Hammill's first use of the Hohner clavinet D6 keyboard, which featured prominently on the next few Van der Graaf Generator albums (particularly Godbluff).
In the song "Pushing Thirty" (from The Future Now, 1978), Hammill claims that he "still can be Nadir". The Rikki Nadir persona returned in October 1979, when Hammill released a single titled "The Polaroid" under the name, with "The Old School Tie" from pH7 as the B-side. It was included on some American pressings of pH7.
"Been Alone So Long" was re-worked for Hammill's 1984 album The Love Songs.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Peter Hammill, except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Nadir's Big Chance" | 3:27 | |
| 2. | "The Institute of Mental Health, Burning" | Hammill, Chris Judge Smith | 3:50 |
| 3. | "Open Your Eyes" | 5:10 | |
| 4. | "Nobody's Business" | 4:15 | |
| 5. | "Been Alone So Long" | Chris Judge Smith | 4:20 |
| 6. | "Pompeii" | 4:50 | |
| Total length: | 26:02 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Shingle Song" | 4:10 |
| 2. | "Airport" | 3:02 |
| 3. | "People You Were Going To" | 5:10 |
| 4. | "Birthday Special" | 3:40 |
| 5. | "Two or Three Spectres" | 6:20 |
| Total length: | 22:22 | |
Personnel
- Peter Hammill – voice, acoustic and electric guitars, Hohner clavinet, piano (7, 9), bass (11)
- David Jackson – saxophone (all tracks)
- Hugh Banton – bass guitar (1-10), piano (2, 6, 11), Hammond organ (3, 9)
- Guy Evans – drums, percussion (all tracks)
Technical
- Pat Moran – recording engineer (Rockfield Studios, Monmouth)
- Mike Stone – mixing (Trident Studios, London)
- Dinu M'Brela (alias of Peter Hammill) – cover design
References
External links
- Album information on the unofficial VdGG site
- v
- t
- e
- Fool's Mate (1971)
- Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night (1973)
- The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage (1974)
- In Camera (1974)
- Nadir's Big Chance (1975)
- Over (1977)
- The Future Now (1978)
- pH7 (1979)
- A Black Box (1980)
- Sitting Targets (1981)
- Enter K (1982)
- Loops and Reels (1983)
- Patience (1983)
- Skin (1986)
- And Close As This (1986)
- Spur of the Moment (1988)
- In a Foreign Town (1988)
- Out of Water (1990)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (1991)
- Fireships (1992)
- The Noise (1993)
- Roaring Forties (1994)
- X My Heart (1996)
- Sonix - Hybrid Experiments 1994-1996 (1996)
- Everyone You Hold (1997)
- This (1998)
- The Appointed Hour (1999)
- None of the Above (2000)
- What, Now? (2001)
- Unsung (2001)
- Clutch (2002)
- Incoherence (2004)
- Singularity (2006)
- Thin Air (2009)
- Consequences (2012)
- Other World (2014)
- ...All That Might Have Been... (2014)
- From the Trees (2017)
- In Translation (2021)
- The Margin (1985)
- Room Temperature (1990)
- There Goes the Daylight (1993)
- The Peel Sessions (1995)
- The Union Chapel Concert (1997)
- Typical (1999)
- The Margin + (2002)
- Veracious (2006)
- Pno Gtr Vox (2011)
- Pno Gtr Vox Box (2012)
- Peter Hammill & The K Group Live at Rockpalast 26/11/81 (2016)
- X/Ten (2018)
- Not Yet Not Now (2019)
- "Red Shift" (1973)
- "Birthday Special" (1975)
- "Crying Wolf" (1977)
- "If I Could" (1978)
- "The Polaroid" (1979)
- "My Experience" (1981)
- "Paradox Drive" (1982)
- "Film Noir" (1983)
- "Just Good Friends" (1985)
- "Painting by Numbers" (1986)
- A Fix on the Mix (1992) (CD, EP)
- In the Passionskirche (1992)
- Live at Rockpalast - Hamburg 1981 (2016)
- Vision (1978)
- The Love Songs (1984)
- The Essential Collection (1986)
- The Storm (Before the Calm) (1993)
- The Calm (After the Storm) (1993)
- Offensichtlich Goldfisch (1993)
- After the Show - A Collection (1996)
- Past Go: Collected (1996)
- The Thin Man Sings Ballads (2002)
- Judge Smith
- David Jackson
- Guy Evans
- John Ellis
- Nic Potter
- Roger Eno
- Stuart Gordon
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