Originally, three Van der Graaf Generator concerts were announced for May 2020, at Vega in Copenhagen, Pustervik in Gothenburg and Cirkus in Stockholm. As you know, Covid 19 led to postponing the tour, and first it was moved to November 2020, but as it wasn’t possible to find a suitable date/venue in Copenhagen, it was only two dates this time, at Kulturhuset Studion in Stockholm and Brewhouse in Gothenburg. However, the corona restrictions made it necessary to move again, and this time to October 2021, when it finally happened, at Lilla Cirkus in Stockholm and Brewhouse in Gothenburg.
Apart from an English warmup gig in August, the first VdGG tour since the previous one in 2013 took place in Scandinavia, starting with 2 dates in Helsinki, before Stockholm, Gothenburg and Oslo. The tour started with an acute need for crisis management though, as drummer Guy Evans’ passport wasn’t valid for going abroad (law changes after it was issued made the validity dates written in it invalid). This was discovered at the airport, and a new temporary passport couldn’t be issued quickly enough for the Helsinki dates, so those gigs were done as a two-piece with only Peter Hammill and Hugh Banton. They were reported to be very special and much appreciated evenings, in spite of the drastic change of plan. Guy joined for the Stockholm show though.
Thank you post from PC
Last week we FINALLY got to meet and enjoy some live music again 🥰 It’s been a long wait, but we had a great time with iconic Van der Graaf Generator on stage at Lilla Cirkus in Stockholm and Brewhouse in Gothenburg. It was awesome to see them perform a superb selection of tracks from Pawn Hearts, Godbluff, Still Life, Trisector, Present and more. True prog gold with many goosebump moments!!!
Big thanks to all who helped out and made this possible: Mark Roberton Torbjörn Jonsson Daniel Lyrstedt, Lars Mosslind in Stockholm and Andreas Hanberger Nils Erichson Daniel Reichberg Anders Allgulin Eje Gustafsson Susanna Jämtgren Fd Ekholm and Björn Boman in Gothenburg – in happy collaboration with GARF – Göteborgs Artrockförening.
This will be a lovely memory to look back on, while counting down to IQ, the Anekdoten/Soniq Circus, Pendragon and Neal Morse Band in April-June next year. Check out www.progressivecircus.com for dates, info and ticket links.
Until then, take care!!
Marcus Enochsson and Anna Enochsson Stockholm photo by Carl Wilson
Photo gallery
Photos by PC
