Hugh Banton

Hugh Robert Banton (born 1949) is a British organist and organ builder, most widely known for his work with the group Van der Graaf Generator in the 1970s.

Career

Banton studied piano and organ at Wakefield Cathedral, whilst attending Silcoates School in Yorkshire under Dr Percy G. Saunders. He then trained as a television engineer at the BBC before joining Van der Graaf Generator in May 1968. In performance with this group he played Farfisa and Hammond organs, adding a wide range of effects including phasing, tape echo, distortion and overdrive. He later modified a Hammond E112 organ to allow separate amplification, with different effects, of the output from the two keyboards and pedalboard, and added a remote reverb unit. He also played piano and bass guitar on recordings.

In 1975 he began building a custom organ based on a Hammond but with added electronic oscillators to closely approximate a full pipe organ sound, with bass notes down to 16 Hz played through 24-inch subwoofers.

Banton left Van der Graaf Generator at the end of 1976 to work on the development, design and installation of electronic church organs for the Makin Organs company in Oldham, Lancashire. In 1992 he set up The Organ Workshop, at Lymm in Cheshire. His organs use digitally generated waveforms to emulate the sound of given organ stops; they often incorporate these custom-designed electronic generators with existing ranks of pipes, and can be played from MIDI files as well as by a player at the traditional console.

He has continued to contribute to recordings by former members of Van der Graaf Generator, and a reunion of the group in 2005 that continues as a trio with Peter Hammill and Guy Evans.

Discography

olo

* "J.S. Bach - The Goldberg Variations" (2003)

Van der Graaf Generator

* "Aerosol Grey Machine" (1969)
* "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" (1970)
* "H to He, Who Am the Only One" (1970)
* "Pawn Hearts" (1971)
* "Godbluff" (1975)
* "Still Life" (1976)
* "World Record" (1976)
* "Time Vaults" (1982)
* "Maida Vale" (1994)
* "Present" (2005)
* "Real Time" (2007)
* "Trisector" (2008)

Other Collaborations

* "Fool's Mate" (Peter Hammill) (1971)
* "Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night" (Peter Hammill) (1973)
* "The Long Hello" (Hugh Banton, Guy Evans, David Jackson, Nic Potter) (1973)
* "The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage" (Peter Hammill) (1974)
* "Nadir's Big Chance" (Peter Hammill) (1975)
* "Psi-Fi" (Seventh Wave) (1975)
* "The Love Songs" (Peter Hammill) (1984)
* "Skin" (Peter Hammill) (1985)
* "Gentlemen Prefer Blues" (Hugh Banton, Guy Evans, David Jackson) (1986)
* "Now and Then" (1988 most of "Gentlemen Prefer Blues" repackaged with two tracks from "Time Vaults")
* "Everyone You Hold" (Peter Hammill) (1997)
* "The Union Chapel Concert" (Guy Evans, Peter Hammill) (1997)
* "Curly's Airships" (Judge Smith) (2000)

External links

* [http://www.organworkshop.co.uk/ The Organ Workshop]
* [http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/hb_oct01_1.htm interview by Tim Locke at Van der Graaf Generator fan site]
* [http://www.sofasound.com/assochb.htm The Goldberg Variations at Sofasound]

References

* Christopulos, J. & Smart, P. (2005) 'Van der Graaf Generator - The Book' (Published by "Phil and Jim") ISBN 0-9551337-0-X