Even at the height of the first wave of prog rock, Van der Graaf Generator were a breed apart. Driven by Peter Hammill’s idiosyncratic songwriting, Hugh Banton’s expressive and expansive organ playing and Guy Evans’s declamatory drumming, there was darkness emanating from the band that cast a long shadow over the opening overs of the 1970s. And there, in the thick of their attack, was the extraordinary saxophone work of David Jackson. No polite blowing from him, but a brass hurricane that whipped up a sonic storm fed through a phalanx of pedals and effects that largely negated guitars while creating a style of his own.
Jackson and VdGG may not have been without honour except in their own country – they only troubled the UK Top 50 album chart once – but their status in Italy was comparable to Godzilla’s rampage across Tokyo with riots following in their wake.
Yet despite their overseas success, punishing schedules, financial mismanagement and domestic indifference lead to VdGG’s first split in 1972. And while Hammill ploughed his own individual furrow – often with the help of his erstwhile bandmates – the rest of the band would carry on as The Long Hello. Jackson’s health faltered in the wake of VdGG’s first reunion and he first retrained as an HGV driver before moving into education and music therapy and then working with VdGG one last time in the 00s. Now reuniting with percussionist René van Commenée on their new album Keep Your Lane, he looks back at his career from a vantage point of over 50 years.
Who or what drew you to the saxophone?
It was my big brother, who was a brilliant clarinettist and then he took up the sax. And it was, “Oh, God! He’s got a sax now! What’s that?” And
