The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 90

Friday, April 26, 19851'art VI 15 PETER HAMMILL'S SMALL BUT LOYAL FOLLOWING hasn't had an American label since 1981. Hammill's work has many of the qualities that eventually earned large followings for Dowie and Gabriel daring, variety, integrityand he sees a common ground. "We all started at about the same time and have some of the same attitudes. We took our music seriously. We didn't just want to be pop stars.

That unites us, though there are stylistic differences and differences in terms of lives just outside Dath with his wife and two daughters, admits that the size of his audience does gall him but only a little. "I have more of a jazz attitude than a rock attitudes What matters is the work. And no matter what your level of success, your problems remain the same. Still, naturally, I've desired wider popularity. What 1 wouldn't want to trade for that, though, is the approach my audience has to the music.

They have to work at it a bit." Group, but on this tour he'll be working alone. His loyal fans aren't likely to object, since he's visited that way before. Even after 23 albums, Hammill is still going to be a new name to most pop fans. How should they approach him? "Just forget that my songs are supposed to be difficult," he advises. "Just listen to them emotionally.

I simply present questions, like: Have you considered this particular thing about life? Hut they're not meant to be tests for students." guished, Hammill's music has frequently been described as difficult. The British press also once tagged him with the nickname "Dr. Doom." He thinks that the nickname is ridiculous and that the description is only correct in a certain way. "Some of it is difficult. Some of it is extremely simple.

The 'difficulty' mostly comes from the fact that most of my albums have encompassed five or six styles. It's not what people are used to." Hammill recently released a live double album in England with his Dy TERRY ATKINSON Peter Hammill inspires the sort of fan devotion that David Bowie and Peter Gabriel are used to, even if Hammill's army comes in platoons rather than legions. But seldom have so few lavished so much cult adoration. For the English singer's rare American appearances (tonight's show at the Roxy is his first local performance in four years), people to somehow immaculately conceive. She wrote me this enormously long letter about how she was going to then take the child into Switzerland and so on.

She was quite off the planet. But that's probably the most extreme thing a fan has ever done. "In view of the committed nature of my audience, there's surprisingly little weirdncss. Maybe it's because I'm an ordinary chap. When I The 36-year-old Hammill, who Often edgy, sometimes an CTTXtl M' ilXVX) the MOVE EXPERENCE Canyon Crest Riverside Wascovi 1450 Wut Covlm Pkwy.

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Though he's been heard on 15 of them (plus nine Van Der Graaf albums), Hammill hasn't been able to shake obscurity. He have been known to line up days before tickets go on sale. Avid male fans lose friends because Hammill is all they can talk about. Female admirers want to have his baby. One had a novel notion about how this could be achieved, Hammill revealed with a laugh during a phone interview from Toronto, where he was beginning a 12-city North American tour.

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