Hawkwind: Do Not Panic

Dylan · Mar 30, 2007

I know there are a few space rock heads amongst the members, so a quick heads up about a documentary about the venerable 'Wind tonight Friday 9PM BBC4

Should be plenty of psychedelic squawkings from Nik Turner who incidentally favours a Mk VI for tenor, and Yanis for all his other requirements.

D 8)

Bobby G · Mar 30, 2007

Nik Turner made one of my favourite remarks about his relationship with his horns, his method of self-expression, and how he approaches his playing; "I just dig freaking about on saxophones".

Cheers, Bob

Dylan · Mar 30, 2007

Bobby G wrote:
"I just dig freaking about on saxophones".

We all know he's making sense ! 😛

He's a very generous chap. Gave me my first experience of playing at a decent sized gig with a sh*t hot band - what a blast that was.

I enjoyed the documentary - especially the clips of early Bob Calvert. Not seen those before.

Inner City Unit - another of his bands (more of a punk persuasion than space rock) are due to play Walthamstow in May if you're up for it Bob !

D

Bobby G · Mar 30, 2007

At the Royal Standard? Have horn will travel? I may just do it. If you see a very hairy bloke there, in his 50's, with a blank-ish expression it'll probably be the near-legendary Mark Astronaut.

Actually, I'm not surprised by his generosity as he was a founding member of Hawkwind along with Dave Brock back in the days of the counter-culture... as it happens, Huw Lloyd-Langton, also in the band at the time, is playing at some kind of psychedelic technicolour space-rock extravaganza in Hitchin quite soon.

Hurry on Sundown.

Cheers, Bob

Cheers, Bob

Jules · Mar 31, 2007

I thought Huw Lloyd langton had gone religious and turned his back on the psychedelic technicolour space-rock extravaganza sort of thing?
By the way- anyone seen any sign of Here & Now in the last few years, thinking of of psychedelic technicolour space-rock reggae ska extravaganzas? Those guys were my faves back in the days of yore....

Bobby G · Mar 31, 2007

I've not seen or heard anything of Here and Now for ages, although I was vaguely involved in their free gigs thing in the late 70's and early 80's, both as a solo artiste (missing link between R Harper and B Bragg, me) and a sometime member of the semi-legendary anarcho-folkies the Astronauts. Also around at the time were tuneless gits Danny and the Dressmakers, and even more tuneless gits the 012. I'm sure Grant Showbiz, later connected to the Smiffs was involved somewhere too.

I still bear the scars from sleeping at Leeds station before hitch-hiking home after a memorable night at the Ffforde Green Hotel.

Cheers, Bob

Dylan · Mar 31, 2007

nachoman wrote:
I thought Huw Lloyd langton had gone religious and turned his back on the psychedelic technicolour space-rock extravaganza sort of thing?

Poor old Huw LL was really not well for many years after he was given a drink spiked with copious amounts of LSD before playing at the Isle of Wight festival. He experienced a road to Damascus type event some time later that completely cured him leading to his religious leanings. He still plays as the Lloyd Langton Group.

Bobby G wrote:
I still bear the scars from sleeping at Leeds station before hitch-hiking home after a memorable night at the Ffforde Green Hotel.

Know what you mean !Did either of you guys go to the Acid Daze festival at the Queens Hall in Leeds in '87? That was a gig and a half, even if it was an all dayer held in a shed with no heating in December. From memory (ha ha :whistle: ) the line up included apart from Hawkwind - the Pink Fairies, the Enid, Bob Calvert and the Starfighters, Suicide - I certainly was inclined that way after listening to that particular beat combo - Dr and the Medics, Spacemen 3 and and and.. they'll come back to me.

D

Bobby G · Mar 31, 2007

87 was the slough of my despond I'm afraid! A combination of the socio-political climate, a recurrence of a mild form of clinical depression and the rise of the American power ballad had left me angry and cynical about life in general and music in particular. There was an album out at the time by the KLF called 'It's 1987 And What The *** Is Going On'. Quite.

Cheers, Bob

Jules · Mar 31, 2007

HA! I was at that one, just prior to becoming a Southerner!!!! Queen's hall- now there was a dump! Great gig though....

Know what you mean !Did either of you guys go to the Acid Daze festival at the Queens Hall in Leeds in '87? That was a gig and a half, even if it was an all dayer held in a shed with no heating in December. From memory (ha ha :whistle: ) the line up included apart from Hawkwind - the Pink Fairies, the Enid, Bob Calvert and the Starfighters, Suicide - I certainly was inclined that way after listening to that particular beat combo - Dr and the Medics, Spacemen 3 and and and.. they'll come back to me.

D

bobk · Mar 31, 2007

I do dearly love Hawkwind both then (first gig, Watford Town Hall '74) and now (most recently some nightclub(!!!) in Middlesborough a year or so ago), but I would also love to see a sax player with Motorhead. Lemmy has been playing the harmonica live of late so maybe there's a chance...

Dylan · Mar 31, 2007

nachoman wrote:
Queen's hall- now there was a dump! Great gig though....

Too true. I thought it had more the ambience of a tram shed than a "hall". The floor seemed to be covered with oil for some bizarre reason.

A sax player with Motorhead. Wahey - I'd be up for having a go at that Bob.

D

Bobby G · Mar 31, 2007

Good grief! I've always been a bit mercurial in my musical tastes, so I haven't seen Hawkwind live, or really listened to them I s'pose since the mid-70's, although the first LP gets dragged out once in a while... I must have been at that Watford gig too (I think this may have been mentioned before) although by 74 I'd moved onto things like Gong, Henry Cow, Hatfield and the North etc for sax-y rock-y (loosely, very loosely at times) tunes.

As for the Pink Fairies, they could be a bit hit and miss; sometimes great and sometimes cr@p. Not depending on which gig or which song, they could go from one extreme to the other in the [/b]same song![/b] Always entertaining, though, especially their 2-drummer line-up featuring Twink, ex-Pretty Things (SF Sorrow, the great lost Brit-psychedelic masterpiece).
Cheers, Bob

bobk · Mar 31, 2007

We did, indeed, figure out that we were probably both at Watford Town Hall in '74.

Another connection - I was also meant support some variant of Here & Now in Leeds in about '82 but was in hospital so couldn't make it! I sort of drifted away from stuff like Hawkwind, Amon Duul, Fairies etc. for a while, but decided, as I got older, that I didn't care whether they were 'good' or not, I still liked them. Hannah, my daughter, used to dance around the room to the loud bits from 'Hall of the Mountain Grill' when she was two or three. She recognised the songs when we went to see them live when she was eight.

Sort of getting back to the topic, one of this things in the documentary which seemed very very true was that seeing Hawkwind, as opposed to seeing Yes for example, was that you thought 'hey ho - I can play Master of the Universe - let's go', the fiddly bit at the start of 'Roundabout' is rather harder. So, like punk, I reckon Hawkwind must have encouraged lots of people to actually play instead of listen or just walk round with album covers under their arms.

Bobby G · Mar 31, 2007

Yer right there, Bob, I think the 'have-a-go-you-can-do-it' punk ethic was there a lot earlier than '76, possibly even as early as the skiffle boom 20 years earlier or the folk and blues boom in the early to mid 60's, or the street-corner doowop groups in the 50's. I reckon it's part of the rich tradition of folk music, handed down or passed on orally/aurally.

I for one would love to see more people making music out in the street (like Greywolf's street band, perhaps) for the love of it, but I'm just a romantic fool, and I can't find anyone round here who's up for it.

Cheers, Bob

Jules · Apr 1, 2007

I'm sure I once saw Motorhead with a sax player on TV once- covering some old Little Richard tune... probably Snake Davis (I've seen him creditted as Motorhead's sax palyer on his website

bobk wrote:
I do dearly love Hawkwind both then (first gig, Watford Town Hall '74) and now (most recently some nightclub(!!!) in Middlesborough a year or so ago), but I would also love to see a sax player with Motorhead. Lemmy has been playing the harmonica live of late so maybe there's a chance...

Throckmorten · Apr 3, 2007

Lord. What a blast from the past.

Interesting that they continue to have name recognition.
I saw them live back in the day, at least I sort of remember the occasion in a small college town in central Pennsylvania (of all places) , must have been about the time of their 2nd LP. I didn't know they were Brits :blush:

bobk · Apr 3, 2007

Still touring (not 'comeback tours', they never stopped), still making new music, still a laugh and a half, but no Nik Turner (as you might have gathered from the TV documentary) and no other sax either last time I saw them...

Bobby G · Apr 3, 2007

No sax? Perhaps interested parties could form a queue. While old Nik was hardly virtuosic when I used to go and see them, the sa was an integral part of their sound.

Cheers, Bob

Dylan · Apr 4, 2007

Nik Turner is still a busy chap. Peforming head honcho duties in Space Ritual, Galaktikos and Inner City Unit.

Also, pops up regularly busking around South Wales.

As a shameless plug for my mates most excellent band the Jalapenos (tag line: rock 'n' roll as it should be! >:)