Vital (Van der Graaf Generator album)

Vital: Van der Graaf Live
Live album by Van der Graaf
Released	July 1978
Recorded	16 January 1978
Venue	Marquee Club, London
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	86:14
Label	UK Charisma Records USA PVC Records
Producer	Guy Evans
Van der Graaf chronology
The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (1977) Vital: Van der Graaf Live (1978) Time Vaults (1982)

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AllMusic	[1]

Vital: Van der Graaf Live is the first live album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. It was recorded 16 January 1978 at the Marquee Club in London and was released in July, one month after the band's 1978 break-up.^[2] The album (on vinyl and, later, on CD) was credited under the abbreviated name Van der Graaf, like the previous year's The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (1977), and featured the same line-up plus newcomer cellist/keyboardist Charles Dickie, who had officially joined the band in August 1977,^[2] and original saxophonist and flautist David Jackson, who re-joined the band for this recording.

The album is noted for its sometimes radical reworking of the older material. Although Van der Graaf Generator were seldom less than intense on stage, the 1977 and 1978 tours were remarkable for their ferocity. The absence of Hugh Banton, whose organ work was a hallmark of the group's sound before his departure in 1976, as well as frontman Peter Hammill's increased duties as a rhythm guitarist, account for much of this.