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RIP Nic Potter
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 4:45 am
by Gob
Oh arse, it's getting so you cannot open a news website without finding some former hero or respected musician having popped his clogs!!*
Bass player Nic Potter's inventive rhythms were an integral part of the band Van der Graaf Generator. Formed at Manchester University their brand of progressive rock was somewhat darker than many of their contemporaries, prompting comparison with King Crimson. Potter joined the band in 1970 as they were recording their most commercially successful album, The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. He featured on three tracks of their next recording but quit after becoming dissatisfied with the direction of the band's music.
He rejoined the band in 1977 but only for a brief spell although he continued to record and tour with Van der Graff's Peter Hammill. He also released a string of solo albums throughout the 1980s all of which were remastered and reissued in 2009.
During the last two years of his life, Potter suffered from Pick's disease. In January 2013, Potter was admitted to University College Hospital suffering from pneumonia. He died there in the later hours of 16 January
VDGG one of the most under-rated prog bands ever.
Re: RIP Nic Potter
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 8:02 pm
by dales
Shocking
Sorry for being such a cock, Gob.
Re: RIP Nic Potter
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 8:20 pm
by Gob
No worries, Dales. It's apt in a black humour sort of way...
Are we allowed to say "black humour" these days?
Re: RIP Nic Potter
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:26 pm
by Joe Guy
It seems only logical that a guitar player would be very prone to pick's disease...
(more black humor)
YIKES!
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 6:28 am
by RayThom
Certainly not a good way to die... if there is a good way.
Re: RIP Nic Potter
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:00 pm
by Gob
I think I'd prefer the John Entwistle way, heart attack while coked up and banging a couple of young hookers.
RIP: Here lies John Entwistle...
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:01 pm
by RayThom
... he thought he was coming, but he was going.
Re: RIP Nic Potter
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:20 pm
by Gob
A performance of "Darkness" taken from German TV ... ca. 1970, when Nic Potter was still in the band.
Day dawns dark, it now numbers infinity.
Life crawls from the past, watching in wonder
I trace its patterns in me.
Tomorrow's tomorrow is birth again.
Boats burn the bridge in the fens;
The time of the past returns to my life
And uses it.
Don't blame me for the letters
That may form in the sand;
Don't look in my eyes, you may see all the numbers
That stretch in my sky and colour my hand.
Don't say that I'm wrong in imagining
That the voice of my life cannot sing.
Fate enters and talks in old words:
They amuse it.
The hands shine darkly and white:
Only in dark they appear.
Bless the baby born today,
Flying in pitch, flying on fear.
They shine in my eyes and touch my face
Where i have seen them placed before;
Don't blame me, please, for the fate that falls:
I did not choose it.
I did not, no no, i did not
I truly did not choose it.