page_title: Van der Graaf Generator
section_title: Trio (2006 – present)
hierarchical_section_title: Van der Graaf Generator / History / Trio (2006 – present)
caption_attribution_description: English: Organist of the Rock Band Van der Graaf Generator
context_page_description: Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commercial success in the UK, but became popular in Italy during the 1970s. In 2005 the band reformed, and are still musically active with a line-up of Hammill, organist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans.
  The band formed at the University of Manchester, but settled in London where they signed with Charisma. They went through several incarnations in their early years, including a brief split in 1969. When they reformed, they found minor commercial success with The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other, and after the follow-up album, H to He, Who Am the Only One, stabilised around a line-up of Hammill, Banton, Evans and saxophonist David Jackson. The quartet subsequently achieved significant success in Italy with the release of Pawn Hearts in 1971. After several exhausting tours of Italy, the band split in 1972. They reformed in 1975, releasing Godbluff and frequently touring Italy again, before a major line-up change and a slight rename to Van der Graaf.
context_section_description: After Jackson's departure, the group took a break before touring as a trio in April and July 2007 over Europe. A concert on 14 April 2007 in the Paradiso in Amsterdam was recorded and streamed on the FabChannel website until March 2009, and was released on DVD and CD that June.
  The first trio recording, Trisector, was released on 17 March 2008. Live concerts were played in Europe in March and April, and in Japan in June, among them, one at the Gouveia Art Rock Festival. There were further concerts in January 2009 in Europe, and the band played several concerts in Canada and the United States in the summer of 2009, among them a performance at NEARfest in Bethlehem PA. It was only the second time Van der Graaf Generator had visited the United States (their first being in New York City in 1976).
  In spring 2010, the group recorded a new album in Devon. A Grounding in Numbers was released on 14 March 2011. Live at Metropolis Studios 2010 was released as a 2CD/1DVD set by Salvo/Union Square Music on 4 June 2012. The band then toured the eastern part of the United States and Canada during June and July 2012, including an appearance at NEARfest Apocalypse in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 22 June. An album of out-takes and in-studio jams, similar to the second disc of Present, called ALT was released in June 2012. Hammill has stated that he has enjoyed the current reunion, as "the activity has reinvigorated me. Going from one thing to another is an energizing thing."
  Hammill revealed via his website that the band's former bassist Nic Potter died on the night of 16 January 2013, aged 61. The group continued to tour in 2013, including the first live performance of "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers". In 2014, the group collaborated with Soviet dissident artist Vladislav Shabalin for an art venture titled the Earlybird Project. The title comes from the track of the same name on ALT. In 2015, the group released the live album, Merlin Atmos featuring tracks recorded during the 2013 tour, and After the Flood, an album of BBC recordings from 1968–1977. A new album, Do Not Disturb was released in September 2016. It included the song "Alfa Berlina" which documented the group's 1970s Italian tours. Critics speculated that it would be the band's last album, though this has not been confirmed.
caption: Hugh Banton on stage with Van der Graaf Generator in 2010
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