“We were making very peculiar music not particularly well played. We got a record contract because the record companies thought, ‘We better get weird’”: Inside the mind of Judge Smith, the man who named Van der Graaf Generator

Photograph of Judge Smith in front of a painting.

Since he co-founded Van der Graaf Generator in Manchester in 1967 with Peter Hammill, Judge Smith has been rather busy. In addition to appearing on  Hammill’s In Camera and providing material for Nadir’s Big Chance, he also contributed the libretto for Hammill’s The Fall Of The House Of Usher project. Smith has also written various musicals for the stage and as well as having worked in television, he’s also penned books on the supernatural. Something of an intrepid musical explorer, he’s released 12 records including a concept double album about the age of the airship.

In 2016, ahead of the launch of his  work Requiem Mass – written for a 50-strong choir, an eight-piece brass section and a rock band – Smith told Prog about the scale of his musical ambition.