Hugh Banton

Hugh Banton
Hugh Banton, organist with Van der Graaf Generator
Background information
Birth name	Hugh Robert Banton
Born	April 1949 (age 68) Yeovil, Somerset, England
Occupation(s)	Organist, organ builder
Instruments	Organ, bass guitar, keyboards, bass pedals
Years active	1968-present
Associated acts	Van der Graaf Generator

Hugh Robert Banton (born April 1949, Yeovil, Somerset) is a British organist and electronic organ builder, most widely known for his work with the group Van der Graaf Generator.

Banton was born into a musical family, where his father played the piano and his mother regularly sang along to music on the radio. Two of his uncles were church organists. He first started playing the piano at the age of 4, beginning formal piano lessons at 7. He was equally influenced by the family classical record collection and by music heard on Radio Luxembourg. In his teens he studied classical piano & organ whilst attending Silcoates School in Yorkshire under Dr Percy G. Saunders, organist at Wakefield Cathedral, however he continued to enjoy both rock 'n' roll and classical music.

After leaving school he trained as a television engineer with the BBC in Evesham, and subsequently in London, before joining Van der Graaf Generator in May 1968 when the group (then consisting of just Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith) moved from Manchester to London. In performance with this group he played Farfisa and Hammond organs, adding a wide range of effects including phasing, tape echo, distortion and overdrive.

From 1970 he took over the bass-player roll within the group, using the organ foot pedals. He also played bass guitar on recordings. He modified his Hammond E112 organ to allow separate amplification, with different effects, of the output from the two keyboards and pedalboard, and added a remote reverb unit. In 1975 he began building a custom organ based on a Hammond but with added electronic oscillators to closely approximate a full pipe organ sound. Electronics, particularly the development of organs, having been a parallel interest since his early teens.