wire: june 2021

Van der Graaf Generator special! With a new box set of all Van der Graaf Generator's albums being readied for release in July, and its singer and songwriter Peter Hammill about to release an album of cover versions as well as a new collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound Of London), the cover of the June issue will be a two-part special devoted to these perennial outliers of UK underground art rock. In part one, Emily Bick talks to Hammill, and fellow group members Guy Evans and Hugh Banton, about 50 years of collaboration; while in part two, Mike Barnes, author of A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s, contributes an extensive user's guide to the group's back catalogue, as well as Hammill's parallel and prodigious solo output. Plus: Stephanie Phillips interviews and profiles Hyperdub label producer Loraine James; while long standing UK improvisors drummer Mark Sanders and trombonist Sarah Gail Brand test each other's musical knowledge in the next of our musician-to-musician Invisible Jukebox features.