Fool's Mate

01. Imperial Zeppelin (Peter Hammill/Chris Judge Smith)
02. Candle
03. Happy
04. Solitude
05. Vision
06. Re-awakening
07. Sunshine
08. Child
09. Summer Song (in the Autumn)
10. Viking (Peter Hammill/Chris Judge Smith)
11. The Birds
12. I once wrote some poems

Bonus Tracks on 2005 remastered edition(Early Demos):
13. Re-Awakening
14. Summer Song in the Autumn
15. The Birds
16. Sunshine
17. Happy

Download the album as MP3 from Amazon - Fool's Mate

Music and lyrics by Peter Hammill, except where indicated.

Peter Hammill - vocal, acoustic guitar, piano
Hugh Banton - piano, organ
Nic Potter - bass
David Jackson - alto sax, tenor sax, flute
Guy Evans- drums
Robert Fripp - guitar
Martin Pottinger -drums
Ray Jackson - harp, mandolin
Rod Clements - bass, violin
Paul Whitehead - tam-tam

Fool's Mate was the first solo album, though all of the band members had a part in it.
It was produced by Trident Studios' in-house producer John Anthony. The album was recorded in 1971, in the midst of one of VdGG's most prolific periods, shortly before the production of their "magnum opus" Pawn Hearts. Hammill used the album to record a backlog of songs which were much shorter and simpler than his VdGG material, and declared on the original album sleeve:

"This isn't intended to be any kind of statement of my present musical position, but at the same time, it is an album which involves a great deal of me, the person, basically a return to the roots."

Fool's Mate includes one of Hammill's most celebrated love songs, "Vision", which he still performs regularly in concert to the present day. Guest musicians on the album included the members of VdGG, members of his label mates Lindisfarne, and guitarist Robert Fripp.

The UK music press was generally very positive about Fool's Mate. Melody Maker saw "one of THE albums of the year".

The cover was designed by Paul Whitehead ( see his interview on Phil Smart site) who at the time was the favourite cover artist for Charisma bands Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator.

In 2005 the album was issued in remastered form by EMI Virgin Records, supplemented with bonus demo recordings of several songs.

Source: Phil Smart's site and Wikipedia