Hugh Banton
“With so many extraordinarily gifted, creative and genuine figures throughout the progressive rock history, it might seem like a hard task picking out one’s favourite, and I can assure you that it certainly is! However, my thoughts quickly go to Mr Hugh Banton of Van der Graaf Generator. I have to admit that he is the man who has given me more than a handful of technical ideas for modifying my
Hammond organ and expanding the possibilities of sound from this instrument. There’s a good reason why I got myself a 70s Watkins Copicat tape echo shortly after getting my hands on my first Hammond organ: that was exactly what Mr Banton used himself in the early days of Van der Graaf.
“His take on Hammill’s otherworldly musical ideas never cease to amaze me. He creates the calmest and most beautifully different tone structures… or he makes sounds like the bizarre and atonally distorted chants from a void between distant galaxies!
“A long time ago, a guy at my local record shop recommended me the Van der Graaf Generator album Pawn Hearts. My life has never been the same since! Of course, the gentleman that introduced me to this amazing music became the bass player in Ring Van Möbius!
“A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Double Saxophonist himself, David Jackson, when I was playing at the Haugaland Prog & Rock Festival in Norway. David gave me a lot of information regarding
Hugh Banton’s techniques and gear. He has all sorts of fascinating solutions!
“I’m quite sure that if we met we could talk for days and weeks regarding the very start, and the start of the sound, of that band. Being a skilled church organist, Hugh Banton brought something different to Van der Graaf Generator’s sound, and I have never heard the usual, stereotypical keyboard brilliance, that most prog bands would incorporate, from this man. Taking over the bass guitar position and replacing it with his bass pedals, the outcome was always going to be very different. He was and is a maverick on many levels. He even built his own organ, the HB1! In fact, he built many over the years. I still love his sound, and we’re talking albums across a 50-year period.
Play Man-Erg on full volume and tell me you’re not convinced… I wouldn’t believe you!”