''Skin'' is the 14th studio album by

Peter Hammill Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer/songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and ...

, originally released on vinyl on Foundry Records in 1986 and later re-released on CD on

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

. It was also released on CD by DaTE (a division of Line Music GmbH). The album was notable for spawning a Peter Hammill single, "Painting by Numbers", which appeared on both 7" and 12" formats. It was the 11th (and until now last) single by Hammill. The B-side was the non-album track "You Hit Me Where I Live". This track later appeared on the Virgin CD release of the album. As usual, none of these releases entered the UK charts. The DaTE CD release included two extra tracks, the aforementioned "You Hit Me Where I Live" plus "Painting by Numbers" (Extended Version). The album sees Hammill employing the

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...

, the first commercially successful digital synthesiser, an instrument which was typical for the sound of the 1980s and which he plays until today. He also made use of an

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

Drumulator drum machine.

Track listing

All songs by Peter Hammill, except where indicated. #"Skin" #"After the Show" #"Painting by Numbers" #"Shell" #"All Said and Done" #"A Perfect Date" #"Four Pails" ( Chris Judge Smith, Max Hutchinson) #"Now Lover"

Personnel

Hugh Banton Hugh Robert Banton (born April 1949) is a British musician and electronic organ builder, most widely known for playing organ and keyboards with the group Van der Graaf Generator. Career Banton was born in April 1949 in Yeovil, Somerset, into a ...

–

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

*David Coulter –

didjeridu The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

Guy Evans Guy Randolph Evans (born 17 June 1947) is an English drummer and a member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Career Whilst at the University of Warwick (1965–68), Evans played in the university band which was called The ...

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, drums *Stuart Gordon – violin *Peter Hammill – guitar,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, vocals * David Jackson –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

*David Luckhurst – voices

Technical

*Peter Hammill - recording engineer (Sofa Sound) *Coach, Neil Perry,

Stephen Street Stephen Brian Street (born 29 March 1960 in Hackney, London) is an English music producer best known for his work with The Smiths, The Cranberries and Blur. Street collaborated with Morrissey on his debut album ''Viva Hate'' following the spl ...

– recording engineers, mixing ( The Wool Hall, near Bath) *Paul Ridout – engineer, cover art *Arun Chakraverty – original mastering

References

External links

Lyrics
on Hammill's Sofa Sound website {{Authority control Peter Hammill albums 1986 albums