Asa young lad in the early 1970s, I purchased a budget compilation titled Van Der Graaf Generator 68-71 on the assumption that, given their exotic name, VDGG must be a heavy metal combo. I was wrong (or was I? Discuss), but nevertheless became a fan for life, enraptured – or perhaps incarcerated – by the band’s tortured music and leader Peter Hammill’s mad poetry.