The Margin


The Margin is a live album by Peter Hammill, documenting early nineteen-eighties concerts by his K Group. Hammill was K, Nic Potter was Mozart, Guy Evans was Brain, and John Ellis was Fury. The album was originally released as a double album on Foundry Records in 1985. It was reissued some years later on CD on Virgin Records in the UK with one track missing in order to make it fit onto a single CD and on Line Records in Germany with two tracks missing. Hammill then reissued it again on his own Fie! record label, as The Margin +. This issue did not restore the track lost from the UK CD edition from the original vinyl release, "The Second Hand", but included an additional disc of material previously released as a live bootleg called The Secret Asteroid Jungle. The liner notes explain that Hammill chose to include a different performance of "The Second Hand".
The original album is a live-recording without audience sounds, the additional disc of The Margin + does have audience sounds.
The album cover is a stark black and white photograph of Hammill by the noted Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn. It has become an iconic image of Hammill, often used for live posters and other promotional material.

Track listing

The Margin

  1. "The Future Now"
  2. "Porton Down"
  3. "Stranger Still"
  4. "Sign"
  5. "Jargon King"
  6. "The Second Hand"
  7. "Empress's Clothes"
  8. "The Sphinx In The Face"
  9. "Labour Of Love"
  10. "Sitting Targets"
  11. "Patient"
  12. "Flight"

    +

  13. "The Second Hand"
  14. "My Experience"
  15. "Paradox Drive"
  16. "Modern"
  17. "Film Noir"
  18. "The Great Experiment"
  19. "Happy Hour"
  20. "Central Hotel"
  21. "Again"
  22. "If I Could"

    Personnel

The K Group