Hammill, Peter - 1994 - There Goes The Daylight

"There goes the Daylight" offers 72 minutes of a live concert at The Grand, London, on April 29th, 1993. Peter Hammill, singing and playing the guitar, staffed an unconventional rock band ("The Noise") for this evening with his exquisite fellow musicians Stuart Gordon (violin, guitar), Manny Elias (drums) and Nic Potter (bass). No keyboards, no saxes here. The concert was recorded by David Lord, mixed and produced by Peter Hammill in an excellent way.

The 12 songs are taken from Peter Hammill's solo albums "Over" (1976), "Sitting Targets" (1981), "In a Foreign Town" (1988), "Fireships" (1991), "The Noise" (1992) and the Van der Graaf album "The Quiet Zone, the Pleasure Dome" (1977).

The concert must have been rehearsed well, the musicians play with enthusiasm, but still sound very relaxed. All concert long "The Noise" act as a band and there's no focus an any of the musicians on the stage.

The intonation of the songs mainly reminds to the sound of "The Quiet Zone" or "Vital" (1978) and so is not every Peter Hammill's fan's taste. But there are two tracks here for which it is worth owning the album.

The first of these songs is "Sign". The Noise play a stunning version of this tune from "Sitting Targets" (1981), also published by Peter Hammill and the K Group on "The Margin" (1985). Stuart Gordon uses his violin here as a rythm guitar and produces a funky rythm section together with drums and bass. It's most interesting to compare the three released versions. The interpretations are totally different on the basis of the same song.

The other track is "Lost and Found" from "Over". One of my all time favourites. Peter Hammill plays a marvellous guitar on this live version. I could listen forever to the heavenly swinging chords at the beginning of the song. The guitar solo at the second part of the song is as breathtaking as on the studio version.

The booklet shows five pictures with most expressive portraits of the band and it's members.

A most rewarding album for Peter Hammill listeners, no must for others.

1 Sci-Finance (Revisited) Hammill 5:21
2 The Habit of the Broken Heart Hammill 6:34
3 Sign Hammill 7:58
4 I Will Find You Hammill 5:22
5 Lost and Found Hammill 7:58
6 Planet Coventry Hammill 6:25
7 Empress's Clothes Hammill 5:05
8 Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever (Running) Hammill, Smith 6:10
9 Primo on the Parapet Hammill 12:17
10 Central Hotel Hammill 5:33

¡Aquí!