In March 2015 I listened to the band Van der Graaf Generator for the first time. UK magazine Record Collector had an article about them which sparked an interest and so I decided to give them a try. Nine years later and I am now fully hooked, including the singer’s solo output. I never intended to collect them, yet here we are: I recently bought two UK Charisma pink scroll albums from 1970 and 1971 for a pretty penny, a 1969 promotional US 7″ and today I got this lovely 7″ single called Masks.

It is a French promotional single, released in October 1976, which only features the song Masks. Since that song lasts for 7 minutes and no proper edit was or could be made, it was decided to cut it into two pieces and put each piece on one side of the single.

As with many French singles from that time, the back side is plain white. And again, as with many promotional French singles from that time, this one also features a promotional stamp on the back.

What most, or probably none, of the singles for this release have, are signatures by the whole band! This particular copy features signatures by Peter Hammill (vocals, guitar and piano), Hugh Banton (organ), David Jackson (saxophone) and Guy Evans (drum and percussion) which were obtained by a big and well-known VDGG fan and collector during the early to mid-80’s.

This single is already rare, but these signatures give it a great additional touch, making it even more special and desirable. Or at least for me it does..