Peter Hammill – guitar, vocals, Hugh Banton – organ, Guy Evans – drums English drummer Chris Judge Smith was part of the hippy generation in San Francisco in 1967 when he dreamed up the Van Der Graaf Generator band. Returning to England, his vision became a single but by the time it was released his group was on the verge of breaking up. Their first album The Aerosol Grey Machine was almost published as Peter Hammill’s solo record, but the group remained together, and Judge Smith was replaced... with Guy Evans. This was the great era of progressive rock, spawning institutions like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes and Genesis. Van Der Graaf was as good as these other bands but made less of a splash. They didn’t force things or indulge in visual elements and they were darker, more dramatic and more personal. But they still recorded such milestone albums as The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, H to He, Who Am The Only One and Pawn Hearts. They had a break from 1971 to 1975, then released five albums in three years. In the 80s and 90s, they only played occasional concerts together, but in 2003, Peter Hammill, who had released several dozen solo discs, invited all his “Generator colleagues” onto the stage for a single song. This led to a series of joint recordings and concerts. Their latest material Trisector (2008) following Present (2005) is regarded by fans as some of the best music Van Der Graaf has ever made. It reflects the band’s forty year past and is unified, balanced and spine-tingling taut. This is a real treat for progressive rock fans: the “Gods of the Generators” mount a new summit in their long career when they arrive on stage at the Palace of Arts.
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.