What a criminally underrated band

Pure poetry...And the music rises from the poem. And at last , the music gains its own identity. VDG is one of the most powerful and unique musical projects of the century.

Literally one of the best performances I've ever seen in my 40 years of life. Pawn Hearts is life changing and Peter Hammill is one of the greats.

Hard to believe that someone in 1972 actually knew how to properly video record a band playing music of this dramatic complexity, without (actually, some, but not too many) silly camera "accents". The cameras actually hit the right instruments at the right time, which leads me to believe that the producer actually knew the music. An incredible proposition.

2 pirates a lynyrd skynyrd reject and a 19th century insane man make one of the greatest songs of all time

the coolest thing ever is at 22:00 when Peter takes a sip of wine, toasts to the camera and walks away to let the band play on.

The Hohner Pianet. Not just an excellent electric piano, but aesthetically pleasing as well.

man, when he raises that wine glass at 22 mins.......that's what success looks like

I saw Van der Graaf many times in the mid 70s but they never played Lighthouse. I always assumed this was because it was too complex to play live so it's wonderful to see this video. I actually roadied for them (sort of). I was sitting in the Poly bar at Newcastle when they came in looking for volunteers to bring their gear up from the truck. That would have been late 74 or early 75....

As a Prog fanatic, this is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my entire life!

It's a masterpiece of contemporary music. No word more to say.

Absolutely love this. I'm amazed that they were able to play it live. bearing in mind all the cross-fades on the studio version.

Stunning performance

Grandissimi... Pawn Hearts è un disco da isola deserta!

magic. pure magic. simple fact: there are parts in this performance that surpasses everyting that any band on earth delivered in brutality and devastating, controlled, beautifiul and simply unbearable power. that done without a guitar and/or bass player is simply beyond reason

Pure Magic! Van der Graaf Generator was the first band I ever saw live, back in 1975. Loved them then and love them now.

the final scene with the glass of wine haha such a genius

Much better live than recorded. I finally saw them in Milan two days ago. Nothing to share with the young bands. The magical Peter is 73 years old, Banton too, while Evans is 74. A concert like only VDGG can do, and fifty and more years lafer. Unbelievable! Forever young, forever love 🎶🎹💙💜

A very ambitious piece to perform live!

I know everything is amazing about this performance, but his singing is something magnificent.

I've loved this band for over 50 years now.... Totally underrated. Amazing fantastic.

Absolutely amazing. This suite still makes an electrifying impression after so many years.

This still brings up the goosebumps every single time I hear it. Timeless.

Love it at the 3.30 mark candles to sparklers! But seriously with all the ideas that went into the writing this, it is a compressed opera.

Van Der Graaf Generator - A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers (1972) Live for Belgian TV, March 21st 1972 Drums, Percussion - Guy Evans Keyboards, Backing Vocals - Hugh Banton Saxophone, Flute, Backing Vocals - David Jackson Voice, Piano, Electric Piano, Acoustic Guitar - Peter Hammill

Love the bit at rhe end where peter has played his part,takes a sip of wine and strolls around lost un the aura that vdgg produce

Brilliant band. One of the best ever.

Peter Hammil, Hugh Banton, Jackson with his two saxos, are all pals from my youth and they will be forever

The more I listen to this band the more I love there music 🟤

I was searching the url of deleted videos from my playlist just to find this masterpiece again, ty god i found it

How can something so amazing have so little views?

So is no one going to point out that glass of red at the end 22 minutes in? A whole mood right there.

I sense this TV broadcast was in proximity to Genesis playing at the same venue. Perhaps the Belgium TV station contracted the two Charisma label bands for showcasing their unique talents. VDGG was so original as was Pete Hammill's vocal. When I think of the prog years, Pete had the most unique vocal style of them all.

Pure class. Music so beautifully composed and played. I never tire of this album.

One of the most inspiring bands ever! Or one of the top bands ever!

Wow, amazing footage! VDGG one of the best prog-group ever!

Peter has some amazing poetry published.........bought some in London ages back........

There is prog rock..............and then there's VAN DER GRAAF

This is what music is about - This is the base line of everything we are looking for in music - we are not alone, our solitude is shared ... we are one!

I saw 3 quarters of them live in Birmingham 2 days ago and of course they didn`t play it , but I will never forget the experience of seeing one of the greatest groups ever -better late than never. An absolute masterpiece of an album ,hairs on the back of the neck.

One of the greatest songs ever by one of the greatest bands ever.

Best thing ever. I've been watching the dvd version religiously.

All the different groups that came out from late 60 and up to mid 70 was a wide music heaven...so many...

A masterpiece like this with only 910 views?

Guy Evans is such an underrated drummer. He is perfect here.

I'm a guitar player and total guitar geek or dork or whatever. For me to dig a band that so little of their output contains any guitar shows how badass these guys are. I know they had Robert Fripp on a couple of their things but I bet some Steve Hackett or Howe would sound amazing.

Such an adventurous time for music it was. While bands like King Crimson and Yes were filling arenas, music of such audacity as this was also being made. I'm not sure anyone ever combined piano and organ to such dramatic effect since Benjamin Britten. The periods of glorious chaos in this piece have me laughing hysterically, only to stand in awe at its glorious conclusion.

Mindblowing, this track really got me into their music along with Theme One. I can't stop playing this track as it is musical perfection.

Super GREAT Legends !!! ART thank You!! Share

so very good, and might I add, such a tasteful production!

I check in on this every so often - Always delivers.

it does not get better than this. Live with motion pictures more accesible. Once you are into vdGG you are addicted.

Beyond phenomenal and incredibly musical!

Guy Evans is the drummer's drummer. Neil Peart knew this. Peerless stuff. I once saw him on a train to Exeter. Speechless.

The best video on youtube imo

perhaps the best live performance ever recorded

Well, they kept me wanting more. Stunning.

Obra cumbre de esta maravillosa banda.

it's fascinating to know, they were highly influenced by an alternate state of reality when composing this masterpiece, infact the whole of "pawn hearts". a true "one off" classic.

a good DVD! I saw them in Naples 1972....

Wow! Thank you so much for uploading this! Really takes me back...

Wow! What an unexpected treat

Holy shit did they ever kick ass

Uno dei più grandi momenti della musica d'autore da sempre. Incredibile vederlo dal vivo dopo quasi cinquant'anni con delle immagini così vive

Mon chanteur et mon groupe préférés !

I've always thought they had an element of punk in their music.

Gloriously dark!

OMG! 50 years ago in 2022.

Yeh.............even a young john lydon liked VDGGG.,........proves their genius........loved by so many & so varied fans............

13:49 the chaos of the music manifests symbolically in the real world

What a Group. Easily should have been bigger. They were on Charisma records in the early 70’s with Early Genesis and Barclay James Harvest..., What a trio just for Fog on The Tyne and The Musical Box. VDGG are on another planet and so damn good. It so touches me. Awesome band and Peter Hammil is incredible as are the whole group( Jackson, Banton & Evans ).

*A PLAGUE OF LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS* I. Eyewitness Still waiting for my saviour, storms tear me limb from limb my fingers feel like seaweed...I'm so far out, I'm too far in I am a lonely man...my solitude is true my eyes have borne stark witness and now my knights are numbered too. I've seen the smiles on dead hands, the stars shine, but they're not for me. I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost.... I shine but, shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost. On the table lies blank paper and my tower is built on stone I only have blunt scissors, I only have the bluntest onde I've been the witness, and the seal of death lingers in the molten wax that is my head. When you see the skeletons of sailing-ship spars sinking low You'll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancient myths are solemnly directed straight at you. II. Pictures/Lighthouse (Eddies/rocks/ships/collision/remorse.) III. Eyewitness No time now for contrition, the time for that's long past. The walls are thin as tissue and if I talk I'll crack the glass. So I only think on how it might have been, locked in silent monologue, in silent scream Anyway, I'm much too tired to speak and, as the waves crash on the bleak stones of the tower, I start to freak.... ...and find that I am overcome... IV. S.H.M. 'Unreal, unreal!' ghost helmsmen scream and fall in through the sky, not breaking through my seagull shrieks... no breaks until I die the spectres scratch on window-slits hollowed faces, mindless grins only intent on destroying what they've lost. I craw the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall; my pail has sailed into the sea, no joking hopes at dawn. White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark and parallel my isolated tower no paraffin for the flame no harbour left to gain. V. The Presence of the Night 'Alone, alone, ' the ghosts all call, pinpoint me in the light. The only life I feel at all is the presence of the night. Would you cry if I died? Would you cry if I died? Would you catch the final words of mine? Would you catch my words? I know that there's no time I know that there's no rhyme... (false signs find me) I don't want to hate, I just want to grow; why can't I let me live and be free? but I die very slowly alone. I know no more ways, I am so afraid, myself won't let me just be myself and so I am completely alone. VI. Kosmos Tours The maelstrom of my memory is a vampire and it feeds on me now, staggering madly, over the brink I fall. VII. (Custard's) Last Stand Lighthouses might house the key but can I reach the door? I want to walk on the sea so that I may better find ashore... but how can I ever keep my feet dry? I scan the horizon I must keep my eyes on all parts of me. Looking back on the years it seems that I have lost the way Like a dog in the night, I have run to a manger now I am the stranger I stay in. All of the grief I have seen leaves me chasing solitary peace but I hold experience in my head I'm too close to the light I don't think I see right, for I blind me. VIII. The Clot Thickens WHERE is the God that guides my hand? HOW can the hands of others reach me? WHEN will I find what I grope for? WHO is going to teach me? I am me/me are we/we can't see any way out of here. Crashing sea/atrophied history: Chance has lost my Guinevere. I don't want to be one wave in the water But sea will drag me deep One more haggard DROWNED MAN... I can see the Lemmings coming, but I know I'm just a man; Do I join or do I founder? Which can is the best I may? IX. Land's End (Sineline) Oceans drifting sideways, I am pulled into the spell I feel you around me, I know you well Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark I feel I am drowning, hands stretch in the dark. Camps of panoply and majesty, what is Freedom of Choice? Where do I stand in the pageantry...whose is my voice? It doesn't feel so very bad now, I think the end is the start. Begin to feel very glad now: ALL THINGS ARE A PART ALL THINGS ARE APART ALL THINGS ARE A PART X. We Go Now Oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh...

A Plague is their magnum opus. The same as "Supper's Ready" for Genesis or "Close To The Edge" for Yes

Quel souvenir ! L'émission Pop Shop de la RTB, Van Der Graaf Generator m'avait boulversé

the lack of views disturbs me

Impresionante!!!que obra maravillosa, gracias!!!

Progressive rock has a fairly broad definition. If you have to pin it down to one moment and one song only then this one pretty much defines the genre

still love your sounds!!

Un gruppo che si discosta da tutti i loro contemporanei il non perseguire il commerciale dona una libertà di ricerca unica e impareggiabile volutamente rumorosi caotici connessi nella trama

Awesome!!! Class and genius...Great VDGG!!!

this band would never have existed without david jackon

superb musicianship and sonic sensitivity !!!

Best band ever!! Peter Hammil is very close to genius

I’m so far out, I’m too far in

the intro with all the candles is just perfect.

Magnifique!

here after my ib english a exam

Hammill in god. Bantom and Evans are "the angels" Jackson is "the killer"

Saw them live, probably 1972, in Watford, and they were great.

Grande hammill,grande band,hanno fatto loro strada senza cercare successo mediatico,solo per la musica

Unbelievable, just unbelievable..

Thanks for this; really amazing

magnificent

⚜️🔱𝕍𝔻𝔾𝔾'𝕤 𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕟𝕦𝕞 𝕠𝕡𝕦𝕤!!🔱⚜️

quelle epoque fantastique je suis ne trop tard (1965 ) cette musique me le rappele cruellement j adore ce "rock progressif" j ai ete fan de uk king crimson mais ce groupe inconnu avait l air d etre vraiment en avance.....

Quite simply BRILLIANT

Amazing band...........

The most important discovery I've EVER found. I was forever 'changed'.

wonderful saxophone

На заре ютьюба было это же видео с гораздо большим числом просмотров, снесли зачем то. А тут за 9 лет не слишком много просмотров набралось. Мы уходим: кто уже совсем, кто в силу возрастных изменений, кто что-то полегче выбирает. У новых поколений своя музыка. Неизбежный эволюционный процесс. А жалко до невозможности. Эталонная группа, эталонная музыка, эталонные музыканты. Сколько хватит лет, столько буду слушать.