- Audio CD (24 Oct 1988)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Charisma
- ASIN: B0000247EJ
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 102,401 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Nadir's Big Chance |
| 2. The Institute Of Mental Health, Burning |
| 3. Open Your Eyes |
| 4. Nobody's Business |
| 5. Been Alone So Long |
| 6. Pompeii |
| 7. Shingle Song |
| 8. Airport |
| 9. People You Were Going To |
| 10. Birthday Special |
| 11. Two Or Three Spectres |
Product Description
Influential 1975 album of angular proto-punk featuring most Van Der Graaf members.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It is difficult for me to be objective about this album as it has become so ingrained in my subconscious over the years. Many years! It is one of those albums that personally means so much and conjures up so many vivid memories of youth. It was the perfect soundtrack to all that angst adolescence which we indulged in as we became teenagers. Surely Peter wrote "Shingle Song" just for me! How did he know the loneliness and pain which I was going through! All seems a bit silly now!! But there is no denying the power and raw naked emotion which Hammill could write about.
Listening to this remastered version now, this album still touches raw nerves! Maybe those angst filled days are gone, but I can still appreciate Hammill's songwriting craft. Much has been made about how this was so influential on a fledgling Johnny Rotten and how it shaped English punk. To be honest there are only about two or three tracks which could be considered proto-punk; the title track and possibly "Nobodies Business" and "Birthday Special". In saying that, lyrically "Nadir's Big Chance" must have been what the punks were waiting to here! The rest fall into Hammill as literate troubadour. Tales of Pompeii and lost love on the reflective "Been Alone So Long" and "Shingle Song". Has there ever been a song as desperate as "Shingle Song"? When he sings "can't get you out of my mind" you know he has experienced this and anyone who has been there can feel it too.
This is probably Hammill's (as in the guise of Rikki Nadir) most rawest, stripped down album. Eschewing the experiment with synths which adorned the previous "In Camera", this is back to basics stuff. Only the live VdG album "Vital" would match this for grittiness. It is a classic for sure, but listening to it now although the meaning of it is not as important as it felt way back when, it still strikes a deep, personal chord within me. It should you too!!
Listening to this remastered version now, this album still touches raw nerves! Maybe those angst filled days are gone, but I can still appreciate Hammill's songwriting craft. Much has been made about how this was so influential on a fledgling Johnny Rotten and how it shaped English punk. To be honest there are only about two or three tracks which could be considered proto-punk; the title track and possibly "Nobodies Business" and "Birthday Special". In saying that, lyrically "Nadir's Big Chance" must have been what the punks were waiting to here! The rest fall into Hammill as literate troubadour. Tales of Pompeii and lost love on the reflective "Been Alone So Long" and "Shingle Song". Has there ever been a song as desperate as "Shingle Song"? When he sings "can't get you out of my mind" you know he has experienced this and anyone who has been there can feel it too.
This is probably Hammill's (as in the guise of Rikki Nadir) most rawest, stripped down album. Eschewing the experiment with synths which adorned the previous "In Camera", this is back to basics stuff. Only the live VdG album "Vital" would match this for grittiness. It is a classic for sure, but listening to it now although the meaning of it is not as important as it felt way back when, it still strikes a deep, personal chord within me. It should you too!!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
In the guise of his alter ego, Rikki Nadir,Peter Hammill crafted back in 1974 what he defines now as his second album of 'pop songs', the other being solo debut, 'Fools Mate', both including material dating back to the 1960s and both featuring members of his former band, Van Der Graaf Generator,poised to reform with tighter, tauter material befitting the times, but - as always - ahead of them. A raw vitality pervades this as it does the band's incoming 'Godbuff' and the gentler progressive elements found in songs like 'People You Were going To' (a re-working of a very early VdGG song) are counterpointed by three-chord banshee blasts such as the eponmyous opener. Hammill is name-checked today as an influence by the incoming punk movement. The bridge not only between his 'old and new' but analogous with the quantum shift that rock music of the late 1970s was to face, this album asserts the need to 'move on', to keep swimming, or die. Life-affirming stuff, it's matured beautifully.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Gigidunnit's review is a competent introduction to the disc and a pleasure to read; the quotes of the original Lp liner-notes are really precious. What still amazes now about this epic recording is the purity of its lyrics and the honesty of its music, so far from the pressures of stardom or fashion: a rare example of true human expression and intelligent energy in music. In my opinion this concept album was the first and last of the "indie" rock albums. Just Incredible. Hammill's fantastic gift of expression will soon move to different sound worlds and masterpieces like "The Future Now", "PH7" and "A Black Box", all very recommended. One last note: the Track "Nadir's Big Chance" was also the encore on the glorious Van Der Graaf "Vital", one of the most extraordinary live recordings in rock history. Thank you Rikki Nadir, the genius behind the mask, the mirror image, the chameleon, the undercover man!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A change of pace
"Nadir" is an unashamed pop album, or at least Hammill's idea of one, and it stands in contast to the intensity of most of his work There are no long, tortured epics here, just... Read more
Published 6 months ago by N. Dutton
Nadir still great.
I have recently listened to Nadir's big chance again. Years and years ago we listened to the vinyl version. Allways followed Peter and his band Vandergraaff. Read more
Published on 4 April 2010 by P. W. M. Langen
Not a "punky" Hammill, it's more post-punk ahead of its time
This one is often referred to as Hammill's "punk" album and
although I am very familiar with punk history, somehow I can't
see the point of this. Read more
although I am very familiar with punk history, somehow I can't
see the point of this. Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2004 by Kees Smit
THE BEST OF THE BEST
If you have never listened to Peter's music start with this . It encapsulates all that is good about Peter , thoughtfull and inteligent . Read more
Published on 20 Nov 1999
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