Contempt, 2012

Garage, 2012

Sleeper, 2012

Commuter, 2012

Nobody’s Business is the fourth track on Peter Hammill’s 1975 album, Nadir’s Big Chance. Nadir was my way in to Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator’s work. I’d admired the record sleeves for a long time before – they were outlandish and ugly in some ways, but I loved their rejection of “normal” imagery, and I was sure the music would reflect this obtuseness. I listened to Nadir’s Big Chance twice before deciding it wasn’t for me. A bit too seventies, and a bit well not exactly proggy but pretty difficult to listen to. I put the album aside for a good year and got on with my life. Then I got ill and spent a lot of time in bed, listening to old CDs and Nadir somehow made it to the top of the pile. Argh, I thought as I listened to the first track, this again, but track two, The Institute of Mental Health, Burning was just the right side of strange-sounding and had laugh out loud lyrics. It was the lyrics that hooked me. They were written by Chris Judge Smith to whom I am very grateful, because I listened to the track over and over, and eventually made the leap to listening to and then loving the whole album (and from there the whole of Peter Hammill’s catalogue and everything by Van der Graaf Generator). You can read more about the album here.