How Can I Be Sure ?
In 1968 I was fourteen years old with as long hair as my parents would allow. As well as sporting chequered hipsters, I had a pretty "gear" collection of singles including Mozart Vs. The Rest by Episode Six, Falling by Iron Maiden ( no, not that Iron Maiden ) and Pictures Of Lily by The who to which I knew all the words.
In our local paper was an advertisement for a pop and rock festival at Notts. County football ground on Saturday May 10th 1969. My mates Keith and Haggis were allowed to go so my Mum said I could, too.Tickets were 14/6d and the bands were Fleetwood Mac ( excellent live ), The Dream Police, Status Quo, Tremoloes, Marmalade, The Keef Hartley Band, Duster Bennett and top of the bill ? The Pink Floyd with Ummagumma just out and causing a sensation everywhere. Way, way down on the bottom of the bill in the smallest lettering and with the longest, most un-self-explanatory name of all was an item called Van Der Graaf Generator. Keith said that might be the name of the entr'acte disco; Haggis said it might be the German company responsible for the donation of an outdoor power supply. I couldn't be sure. I only realised it was a band when four young gangling guys loped onto the scaffolding stage after a warm and encouraging introduction by John Peel ( yep, same John Peel ).
What was different about them ? First thing: jeans, cords, baseball boots - the richer bands had the snakeskin boots and velvety kind of shirts.
Second thing: no electric guitar - organ, bass and drums. There wasn't a programme available and we couldn't catch the names of the individuals as even the well enunciated eloquence of Peter Hammill ( for it was he ) was brow-beaten by a very crackly P.A. system.
Third thing; there was a lot of distortion and feedback during their set. We were to learn afterwards that they had been playing on borrowed equipment.
The facts:-
1: It was a very energetic, loud set; the lead singer wore a black leather jacket; he had skinny legs, barked a lot and gave a performance of intense commitment. Sometimes he went dramatically falsetto and coiled the microphone wire, letting it go like a whiplash. At this gig, one became aware of the practice of lead singers to utilise the whole microphone stand with both hands as opposed to the "hand-held" mike technique on Top Of The Pops.
2: They definitely ended the set with Octopus from Aerosol Grey Machine which was the most frenetic number of them all.
Thinking back, the material must have been mostly from Aerosol Grey Machine and perhaps even Fool's Mate but I can't remember Hammill using either an acoustic guitar or keyboards.
On the reverse side of Van Der Graaf Generator 68 - 71 (Charisma Perspective CS 2 - 1971) there is a picture of what looks to be the line up to which I refer. I couldn't be sure at the time.
Keith liked them. Haggis liked them. I.. .well, yeah, I liked them. I was fascinated by them, certainly...no lead guitar;- even the keyboard featured bands like Spencer Davies Group, Procul Harum and Brian Augur trinity had a guitar player. Organ, Bass and drums was more of a jazz combination like The Peddlars or Ashton, Gardener and Dyke. But Van Der Graaf Generator were much more rock orientated; very down-dressed, a bit intense.
The audience responded very, very favourably. A discerning crowd, too - they had booed The Marmalade and The Tremoloes off earlier in the afternoon (good thing, too ). Had there been time Van Der Graaf could have played an encore. The crowd certainly wanted more from them.
John Peel took the microphone spot, applauding the exhausted, gangling lead singer who loped away behind him. So; Van Der Graaf Generator, we thought as we all applauded, so that's who they are. John Peel ran his hand across his receding hairline and announced sadly that we had just witnessed Van Der Graaf Generator's final gig since their van and equipment had been stolen only a few days before.
The crowd burst into sympathetic applause and the disco played Beggar's Farm from the first Jethro Tull album This Was as the roadies of The Keef Hartley Band set up a line of brand new Marshall or Laney 100 watt stacks with a double bass-drum kit, making light work of shifting the gear which Van Der Graaf Generator had had to borrow in order to play.
*
In 1969 I went to Grammar School from High School and, hanging around the sixth form block as was my wont ( they had a Dansette record player in the art room ), I noticed several hip albums under the arms of a few select "heads" or "scoobies" as they were known in the school;- Axis Bold As Love was common, as was Ummagumma, wheels Of Fire and John Mayall's Bluebreaker's but one day I caught sight of a purple coloured album cover with an electric shock painted on it and the words Van Der Graaf Generator alongside, tucked covetously under the arm of a long haired, army great coated sixth former.
I approached the guy and asked him if I could have a look at the cover. Two years his junior, I was dismissed with the reply that he was in a hurry to get to a lecture but when I told him I had actually seen the band live, his attitude changed. He didn't believe me at first but when I told him about a number called Octopus and the fact that they'd had their kit nicked last year, he handed the album to me, a little cagily.
As I opened the gatefold sleeve and studied the faces of the band, I couldn't recognise anyone properly at all and I felt sure that David Jackson had been the lead singer since he had a black leather jacket on. The sixth former, now smiling, was happy to correct me; he told me that the band had been on the road for six months or so before the Nottingham gig - his elder brother had seen them then - and the line up, he assured me would have been Guy Evans (Drums), Keith Ellis (Bass) Hugh Banton (Organ) and, he tapped the appropriate photograph on the inside of the folding sleeve, Peter Hammill (Vox).
Hammill. He didn't look familiar but I learned from my scholastic peer that David Jackson didn't join the band until later and so it would definitely, without question, have been Peter Hammill that I saw.
Hammill. The sound of the surname conjured up an image in my head of a mighty Wagnerian cathedral organ resonating wildly to the ascerbically spat prophecies of a pebbleglass bespectacled rodent faced old sorcerer and, to this day, I have no idea why. Too much Grimm as a child, I expect, for Peter Hammill bears little resemblance to that image if any at all, although what made Van Der Graaf's performance at Nottingham so different is that whilst the other bands like Fleetwood Mac and Keef Hartley had a very untheatrical approach to their playing, watching Hammill perform one sensed very much "the actor" at work. A sense of portrayal and enactment notwithstanding, the songs maintained their quintessential and absolute sincerity;- without any doubt, Peter Hammill is a true performer and The-Actor-In-The-Play is a concept upon which he has successfully drawn many times in his later work.
The Least We Can Do was released on the newly formed Charisma label which boasted The Nice and Genesis among their recording clientelle. I said I was pleased that Van Der Graaf were back together and that they had made their first album.
" Oh, ' he said, 'this isn't their first; they recorded one called Aerosol Grey Machine but it's only available on import. That's why I knew you were on the level when you mentioned Octopus; that's the last track on side two. what's Hammill like live ? "
We stood chatting for a while and I told him that Genesis also had a first album out called From Genesis To Revelation on Decca - I'd seen it in the shops - and he told me he had that record, too. Charisma was obviously a hip new label, we decided and as he wandered off, late for his lecture, he called out to me that Van Der Graaf Generator would be playing at the Il Rondo club in town in a fortnight's time and that I could probably get hold of a copy of Aerosol Grey Machine from a very small mail order company who advertised in among the classified ads of the Melody Maker called Virgin Records.
*
Leicester's Il Rondo is a cramped litle club venue.
Regular bands to feature there on a Friday night included Egg, Gypsy, Steamhammer, Pete Brown's Piblokto, Sam Apple Pie and East Of Eden and while Keith and Haggis had exams and couldn't go, I went along to see the newly reformed Van Der Graaf Generator.
This will Never Come Again
. . .because I'm a very punctillious and pernickety Lemming as far as my records are concerned and I know of a certain London taxi driver who feels much the same way.
S. and I were returning home from a party in North London and as our taxi drove along Chalk Farm Road, I pointed out London's Roundhouse to S., mentioning that I had once seen there - for a mere pound - Osibisa, Bell and Arc, Jackson Heights, Sam Apple Pie, Skin Alley and Medicine Head in 1970.
I had that "great days" tone in my voice which S. had come to recognise and respond to with a glazed but not dissuasive smile.
" That's nothing ', came the sudden voice of an until now completely silent third party in the front seat, ' For fifteen bob I once saw Quintessence, Spooky Tooth, Brigit St. John, The Third Ear Band, Steamhammer and a less known band called High Tide..."
" No ! ' I exclaimed, ' I've still got both their albums, the only two they ever did.. . on Liberty Records."
" Ah hah ! ' said the taxi driver, suavely overtaking a Rentokil van, "but there's a third one released in Italy only called Dangerous Cargo.. .I've got it."
" Wow, I don't believe it...", I gasped, leaning forward.
" Night, night, everyone..." murmured S. and settled down to sleep beside me.
" Know what ? ' our driver continued, ' I paid twenty five quid for an album only yesterday. I had it myself once but I sold it and I've secretly wanted it back ever since. "
" Which one ? "
" Well, you might not remember it...it was by a band called Hapshash And The Coloured Coat..."
" Yes, ' I cooed excitedly, " with Tony McPhee from the Groundhogs ? "
" That's it, yeah.. . brilliant album that. They had three altogether: that one, Western Flier and one called Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids with Mickey Finn who replaced Steve Peregrine Took in Tyrannosaurus Rex..."
" That's right, yeah. "
" Twenty Five quid, though.. but I had to have it..."
" I can understand that though ' I said, ' It's like a childhood thing; there's a comforting kind of feeling attached to having your albums around you..."
" D' you know, you're darn well right. ' said the driver, ' and you know what ? That's why I wouldn't part with with any of ' em. Not a single one. "
" Yeah, they're really special, aren't they ? ' I agreed, ' I mean, albums then... it didn't matter if your mates weren't coming out of an evening because if you had your albums at home, a nice cup 0' tea..."
"...a packet of Mcvitie's Chocolate Homewheat...' murmured S.
"...yeah, ' I went on, ' twenty Player's Number Six ..."
" ... didn't even need so much as a bit of "blow", ' the cab driver enthused, ' Nice, mind you, but not essential. "
" Yeah, you were quite happy without it, weren't you ? "
" Yep...all you needed...a few nice sounds...'cos when you bought an album in those days, you had the full monté, didn't you ? You know, nice gatefold sleeve, few nice pictures of the band; you got the words to the songs, too, mostly.. .and all those nice bit's 0' details and bits about the band, sort 0' thing.. .who played what, you know..."
" Oh, yeah; it was like a whole forty-odd minute adventure ...you really wanted to look at the covers in those days; they really mattered..."
" You did, that's right...you could really...well, get into it, sort 0' thing, couldn't you ? I mean, I bought that Police album the other day...regatta some'at.. Outlando, something like that... I mean nice music on the record but the cover tells you bugger all;- might as well have put it in a Safeways carrier bag for all the information you get."
" Yeah, that's right, ' I laughed, ' Do you remember Van Der Graaf Generator ? "
" Oh, yeah.. .saw 'em loads o' times...at the Temple, The Marquee, Roundhouse.. .saw - whassisname - yeah, that's it, Hammill. I tell you, I didn't like 'im so much then but I saw 'im with the Stranglers at The Rainbow a few years back and he was one of the best things in the show, but, tell you the truth, I didn't like them as much as I liked..."
" Genesis ? "
" Oh, no.. . bleedin' 'ell.. . no ' the taxi driver spat out a loose bit of tobacco from his roll-up, ' No, I couldn't bleedin' stand Genesis...bit artsy-fartsy for me...no, what I meant to say was Atomic Rooster. Vincent Crane, mate... he was even skinnier than Hammill was...really f*ckin' thin, y' know. Looked really bleedin' weird, old Vinno. Brown Bread now"
" Hammill's still going strong, though. Better than ever."
" Yeah ? Really ? I haven't heard much recently...more difficult these days, y'know, the wife, the kids..."
" Oh, I've got 'em all...' I said, ' pride of my life, my albums. "
" Oh, yeah.' said the driver, ' Me, too. The missus always dusts around 'em.. . and I know if they've been moved, too; touched, even. Oh, yes; I'd know. Four shelves I got; there's exactly one thousand one hundred and fourteen -that's counting the doubles as one; all in alphabetical order, samplers to the left and boxes to the right. "
I remembered a colour picture in Disc and Music Echo in about 1969 or 1970 of John Peel sitting in an armchair before a backdrop of shelves stacked with L.P. records, their multicoloured spines as enchanting and bewitching as the rows and rows of jars of bright, juicy lollipops on a sweetshop shelf.
" Oh, yes...' the driver went on, honking brusquely at an inoffensive milk float, as we sped toward the Euston Road,
I always say that when you put your albums on and you relaxed back on your sofa, all the troubles and cares of the world just disappeared. "
" That's right..."
" You know, if everyone did that - you know, just relaxed and took in a few albums, there'd be no more wars, no crime in the world...and no violence, no violence at all. "
" You know, you're right there..."
" ...But I never, ever lent my albums out..."
" ......... fatal..."
" Not one. Never. I tell you, I made the mistake of lending out one record to a bloke at work who kept begging me to lend 'im my Blossom Toes album, If Only For A Moment. I told him "no" but he kept on until I did, pleading he was..."
" And ? "
" Came back scratched, didnt it ? Late and scratched. "
" What did you do ? "
" I went straight'round his house and kicked 'is f***in' head in..."
*
The only records that the schoolboy Lemming could afford in 1968 were singles or the odd album at 14/6d on Pye's Golden Guinea label or Marble Arch Records - I remember wondering who Bob Downes was and what his Deep Down Heavy album was like since it was only 14/6d on EMI's Music For pleasure label as was Captain Beefheart's original release in the U.K. of Safe As Milk on Buddah Records.
I had been bought The Beatles' Double White Album and Sergeant Pepper for Birthday and Christmas, but two double albums in the shops, Cream's Wheels Of Fire and Hendrix' Electric Ladyland were out of my price range.
Apart from those albums, you could only get Herb Alpert and his Tijuana brass, Top Of The Pops Vol's 1 & 2 by cover artists and The Sound Of Music from the rusting record rack at my local record store which was, in fact, a Halfords cycle shop.
One magical Friday at twilight, however, Lemming found in that self-same rusting record rack, an album entitled " You Can All Join In " with many happy, hairy people on the front cover who were all featured variously on the recording.
It was an album featuring single tracks from albums on the Island label by bands like Jethro Tull, Free, Traffic and Spooky Tooth.
I could scarcely believe my eyes. Some of the bands I had heard of, - Spencer Davies Group, Fairport Convention - but others were spellbindingly and deliciously obscure; Clouds, Art, Tramline, Nirvana and the solo artists John Martyn ( a very young John Martyn, too ) and Wynder K. Frog.
At fourteen and six, the gog-eyed Lemming could still afford to go to the pictures with his friends to see Modesty Blaise at the Ritz.
From five o'clock until tea time at a quarter to six in the magical atmosphere of his bedroom (Red coloured light bulb; Woolworths, 3/6d), a whole new world of music opened up in my young imagination. I left school that afternoon a young schoolboy but I went to pictures that night a "turned on" teenager.
There followed several other sampler album's from other record labels at affordable prices (for Lemmings) featuring just as enticingly arcane bands and artists; Decca released Wowie Zowie: The World Of Progressive Music with sample tracks from a very young Genesis, East Of Eden, Keef Hartley Band, Touch, Savoy Brown and John Mayall at 19/11d; Gutbucket and Son of Gutbucket featuring music by The Groundhogs, the late Jo-anne Kelly, High Tide, Hapshash and The Coloured Coat, Ian A. Anderson, The Idle Race, Roy Harper, Captain Beefheart and Canned Heat.
There followed the double album sampler from CBS after the Rock Machine series at 29/6d with music from Soft Machine, The Flock, Skin Alley, Santana, Trees, The Byrds, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Laura Nyro and Al Stewart.
Island reissued a second sampler, Nice Enough To Eat featuring newer artistic acquisitions such as King Crimson, Heavy Jelly, Doctor Strangely Strange, the late Nick Drake, Quintessence and Blodwyn Pig.Georgio Giomelski's Marmalade label issued "100 per cent proof featuring Blossom Toes, Brian Augur, Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman and, if you made sure to listen to John Peel's Top Gear programme on Radio One you'd be likely to be introduced to the sound of bands like Black Sabbath, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Humblebums (Gerry 'Baker Street' Rafferty and a young Billy Connolly), Michael Chapman and Captain Beefheart.
Thus began Lemming's musical education. I spent many a Saturday in Brees' record store in Leicester town centre gazing at the monumental, unaf fordable albums ( 32/6d ) from which single tracks had been taken on my sampler albums at home: Jethro Tull's Stand Up, Quintessence's In Blissful Company with all it's centre fold pages and gate fold cover.Albums were changing in appearance; gone were the single jacketed sleeves featuring a "smarten up, guys" photograph with moody, sultry poses and a "hey ! groovy ! we think you'll like them, these boys are different" kind of sleeve note by their record producer.The concept album had arrived; gatefold sleeves, designs by Hipgnosis, trick photography and psychedelic trompe l'oeil; cryptic sleevenotes and gobble-de-gook album credits to persons of mysterious mystical nickname.
There were some very adventurous sleeves, too - elaborate multi-fold packages by Rameses ( Space Hymns ) and Heaven ( Brass Rock ) and Quintessence's coloured booklet concept for their album In Blissful Company recalled and improved upon The Beatles' original idea on their double E.P. package Magical Mystery Tour.I could spend a whole morning - and often did - just drinking in the information from the record sleeves; I could amaze my friends Keith and Haggis with the knowledge of who played what with whom and on which album whilst their brain power was alternatively employed by study of another kind -namely, University Entrance Exams.
Buying a full priced album was a major investment, an occasion of great financial import and spiritual commitment and often your friends came along to watch the transaction take place, cooing with envy as your two pound notes hit the counter top.One of the first full priced albums I bought was Free's second album "Free" which I still consider to be their best and the second L.P. I saved for, having been mesmerised and enchanted by the groups performance of the title track on John Peel's Top Gear was King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King.
The day I bought that album, I spent the whole bus ride home lost in the artwork and the grand guinol of the lyrics. It rained that Saturday afternoon and it was cold, but in my bedroom beneath the glow of my red Woolworths light bulb, all the way from the opening riff of Twenty First Century Schizoid Man to the closing mellotron chord of the title track, I was transported to an Ilyrian moonscape of purple and soft pink, my only sustenance, a packet of McVities Chocolate homewheat and a big mug of tea. My little dansette record player was only mono, too.
However, it didn't stop me buying newer sampler albums that hit the market in late 1969 and early 1970 such as EMI's newly formed Harvest label's "Picnic; A Breath Of Fresh Air" which featured tracks from Roy Harper, The Pretty Things, Kevin Ayers, Pete Brown's Piblokto, Quatermass, Pink Floyd, Edgar Broughton, Syd Barrett and the Third Ear Band. Vertigo, whose Mother label was Phillips/Phonogram, issued The Vertigo Album with work by Rod Stewart, Juicy Luicy, Cressida, Jon Hiseman's Colisseum and Manfred Man's Earth Band and another label formed by the late Tony Stratton Smith, featuring The Nice, Genesis and, step forward Van Der Graaf Generator, although without a sampler at this stage, was advertising it's musical output on the pages of the popular music press.
Again, gatefold albums, beautifully packaged and presented, great care taken not just to attract the buyer, but to offer something better than just a mere souvenir recording of a band you once saw and happened to like. Although the budget forced them up in price to 37/6d, the album, the rock album, became something unique; music with a theme, a message; an artistic statement in it's own right.The artists seemed to care not just about how it sounded, but about how it looked, how it was packaged. Albums were produced with care, if the band or producers could find better ways to enhance overall appreciation and presentation of the band's offering, they would. None more than Van Der Graaf Generator and one Peter Hammill who wrote on the insert sheet to the band's second album The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other; "I'm not going to speak for the music on this album; I couldn't do so if I tried... But some warnings:Don't listen when you're hustling, because it won't get in your head.
Don't listen when you're angry, because you'll smash something.
Don't listen when you're depressed, because you'll get more so.
Don't listen with any preoccupations, because you'll blow it. And if you're a perpetually angry, depressed hustler with set ideas, don't bother, it wasn't meant for you in the first place. "He goes on to give a potted history of the band's existence, thanking those who have helped and supported them in their efforts and closes by saying; " I realise that I haven't said anything at all...well, it's the last day of an old decade; tomorrow we can start anew...I'm really only waving, a smile on my face and one tentative tear standing ready to fall... We're all awash in a sea of blood, and the least we can do is wave to each other '
( John Minton ) Written off the top of my head 31.12.69 Peter Hammill "
You got a lot for 37/6d in those days.
If The Guitars Don't Get You The Drums Will.Riffs. what are they ?Your resourceful Lemming's comprehension of the word may only be approximate.My Collin's Gem has it that a riff is, and I quote; " An Ostinato played over changing harmonies ".
Nah. A good beefy bit of bludgeoning Bantonesque bass complimented by some pulsatingly punchy powerful Potter-plucking whiplashed along by some heaving thunder-from-the-Heavens Evans all of which combine to form an inexorable musical Panzer Tank of the lower staves which threatens all in it's path including David Jackson's warlike Banshee sax which wails and screams in frenetic defiance; - that's a riff, mate.
Now. while all this is going on, what is left for Mister Hammill to do, presuming at this point that he is not playing either his guitar or piano ? Well, I put it to you, my honourable friends, that he gallumps.Gallump ? what this ? This verb, only to be found in the Lemming Comprehensive dictionary (Abridged) has it thus; To gallump is to lunge (as in fencing but without a foil) around the stage (or kitchen) in time to the riff (see above) miming a chosen instrument (optional - the lampstand is Lemming's chosen favourite Gallumping prop although tennis rackets as guitars are popular) whilst - and this is most important - pulling the most horrendous face (test it on the cat; if the cat simply stares back at you then your gallumping has not yet fully developed. On the other hand, if it scatters, bingo !).An appetite for gallumping is often insatiable and can prompt the executor to put the stylus back a few grooves (or to rewind) to the passage which has spontaneously inspired the gallumping.
Gallumping is not to be confused with the Carrolian activity "galumphing" which occurs, I believe, in The Walrus And The Carpenter, alluding to "triumphal dancing or parading". Gallumping, by comparison, has a certain urgent gravitas .The only incident which can bring Gallumping to an abrupt halt (and this can only occur in the home) is the sudden appearance at the kitchen window of a neighbour, innocently popping by to borrow a cup of sugar. Instantaneously, their vacant and startled expression can induce hyper-awareness in the gallumper who then realises that the stereo is ridiculously loud and that he or she is sweating profusely. The symptom which follows is one of self-consciousness and shame (Gallumphobia) and, as there exists no rational explanation for gallumping, the gallumper is advised not to even attempt one. The best thing by far is just to say; "Cup of sugar ? Sure ! No probs. ! "So why the kitchen, then, if one could be so vulnerable to unforseen interruption ? why not the semi-impenetrable sanctum of the bedroom ? Some reasons are listed below;
1: Anyone else in the house will think the ceiling is about to fall in. You will never hear their shouting and so their sudden bursting in may alarm you mid-gallump.
2: You will hear neither the doorbell nor the telephone.
3: Someone may have been watching you from the bedroom doorway for several moments (Gallumpus In Flagrante). The shame of this is unbearable as it may lead to parental sarcasm which never fails to demene on family occasions. Remember Julie Andrews and The Von Trapp children being caught Group-Gallumping (rare) singing My Favourite Things in the film of The Sound Of Music in a Coup De Gallump by the steely Captain ? I felt for them all.The golden rule for Gallumpers is never gallump with your eyes closed unless, of course, you have drawn the blinds and locked the doors - and put the cat out, of course. A good idea - and an added luxury - is to gallump before a mirror thereby having a vantage point from which to outsmart a Gallump-spotter whilst also being able to admire the sartorial finesse of your gallumping.You may be appalled at my confessing to being a Gallumper of some twenty five years standing (I'm a Lemming; what have I to lose ?) in which case, I shall further appal you by listing herewith my very favourite riffs, in random order, to which, when S. is out shopping, I remorselessly Gallump.1: A Louse Is Not A Home (The Mental Ferrule) from the album
" The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage "
The bass part preceding the lines:
" I've lived in houses composed of glass..."
Nerr Nerr NEERRR Nurr, nerr-nurr nerr nerr Nerrh !
2: Scorched Earth from the album "Godbluff" After the fourth stanza and the line;
" Leaving nothing behind but the tell-tall of his track."
Ner ner Nooph ner-Nurr nurr ner-ner-ner Boof Boof ner-ner-ni-nah na-noon-ni na-noon-ni Nerr !
3: Man Erg from the album Pawn Hearts
Musical prelude to the third stanza beginning;
" How can I get free ? How can I get help ? "
Ner-ni, ner-ni, ner-ni Nerk, Nerk, Nerk, Nerk, Nerk !
4: Killer from the album H to He who Am The Only One. The main theme or "Riff";
wheerrng, wheerrng, Nurg-a, nurg-a, nurg-uuhhh, Neerrnn !
5: Silk Worm Wings from "Flight" from the album A Black Box;
Following the line; " I say nothing is nothing "
Gernng-Gerrng Nicketty Gerrng-Gerrng Nicketty
Gerrng-Gerrng Nicketty (gooff !) nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh
6: Masks from the album World Record Following the line:
"How could they know what was false and what was true ?"
Nurga-nurga nunng, nuuunng, nuuunng nunn-ga, nunn-ga
7: white Hammer from the album
The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other After the decrescendo at the very end of the song; wheernngg, wheernng, wheernng, wheernng Makes Black Sabbath sound like The Pet Shop Boys. ( N.B. - no fancy "fills" by Guy Evans, here - it would have been all too tempting to embroider and embellish to a lesser drummer. He serves the riff faithfully.)
8: Accidents from the album Enter K.
The main theme or motif.
Guunng Guunng Guunng Guunng
Guunng Guunng Guunng Guunng
Guunng Guunng Guunng Guunng whhuurnnagh Nuurrggh
9: Hemlock from the album In A Foreign Town After the lines;
"In these alleys all are blind
Skittles fall for the dreams of humankind " whhuungg - Ker Nerndly-Dung
Guunnggg - Ker Nerndly whhuungg - Ker Nerndly-Dung Guunnggg - Ker Nerndly.
10: Door from the album Vital
The very opening riff on electric guitar.
"Schlook - dung; niddle - iddle - ump poom purr nik
Schkerrr - Wwwhaaannng !N.B. - The above musical notation is written in Gallumpics, the recognised form of transcription devised, employed and recommended by The Royal Academy of Gallumping Art (R.A.G.A.).SO, happy Gallumping. As a last word, I would recommend that you give the last person to leave the house a good hundred yard distance before commencing and certainly check your diary for any appointments or visits you may have overlooked which can, of course, evoke Gallumpus Interruptus.I speak from experience. I was once caught Gallumping by non other than Cog on an unaccounted for visit.
Even now, it takes no more than his impish smile and a cautionary forefinger to bring Lemming out in a mild but embarrasing rash of Gallumphobia.***
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