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Reviews
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November 2025
December 2025
November 2025
A Shindig! book of the year
November 2025
January 2026
CLASSIC ALBUM REVIEW
25 November 2025
“An extensive and comprehensive read… A wonderful book… Even if you’re a completist, you’re going to find something really interesting in this.”
4 January 2026
“Despite its scope and depth, the book remains clear and engaging, avoiding academic rigidity without sacrificing seriousness." (click on logo to read online)
1 January 2026
"The level of detail and insight Banks brings to his analysis will be extremely valuable to long-term fans, but his clarity and enthusiasm will also appeal to curious, open-minded music fans who don’t know Hammill’s music. Banks does what all good music writers should do – make us want to listen to the music he is writing about." (click on logo to read online)
23 December 2025
“Banks utilises all manner of expansive and expressive vocabulary... the album ‘review’ sections are revealing, descriptive and intelligently covered." (click on logo to read online)
AT THE BARRIER
17 December 2025
“Banks pulls out a host of informational nuggets... a massive undertaking, and a massively successful one at that." (click on logo to read online)
2 December 2025
“impressive and immersive... this thoughtful study, very detailed and yet still highly readable, provides a thorough and nuanced critical appreciation of Hammill's work." (click on logo to read online)
February 2026
28 November 2025
“intelligent, informed and articulate... ‘Visionary’ is about right, for Hammill and perhaps for Banks himself. This is the VdGG/Peter Hammill book people like me have been waiting for.” (click on logo to read online)
BABY BLAUE (Germany)
November 2025
"highly recommended... It's almost unimaginable to be a Hammill/VdGG fan and not own Rock and Role..." (click on logo to read online)
20 November 2025
"Could well become the go-to book about Peter Hammill and VdGG in the seventies... Banks is to be commended on giving us such a fine study of a revered artist." (click on logo to read online)
19 November 2025
“With Rock and Role, Banks puts you right in the middle of the movie theatre as the screen reveals a band singing about witchcraft, the apocalypse, a lighthouse keeper on the brink of insanity, a tyrant who rules with an iron fist, the living dead, and every bloody emperor..." (click on logo to read online)
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