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carol27
747 posts

Re: Hawkwind advice please
May 26, 2017, 20:50
Problem with 'Hawkwind' is the same one as with The Fall - one egomaniac comes to think the band is him when it's simply not the case. Nik Turner's 'Space Ritual' featuring several ex Hawkwind members are more Hawkwind than the alleged band of that name. Even Moorcock's fallen out with Brock!
Fatalist
Fatalist
1123 posts

Re: Hawkwind advice please
Jun 02, 2017, 11:18
Andfurthermoreagain wrote:
Fatalist wrote:
Andfurthermoreagain wrote:
Ha ha - thanks for picking me up on the label confusion (I knew RCA were involved at some point, but where I got Arista from I have no idea. I have read a few rock biographies lately so my mind is mush :-))

Thanks for the recommendations - very useful on the Calvert years as this is likely my next investigation (I try to keep things chronological).
Will definitely consider Quark... but am very very tempted to Hawklords - the 2CD Atomhenge version with the Sonic Assassins outtakes looks great


Go for it, the Sonic Assassins stuff is also fantastic


Picked up 25 Years On and (in a fit of pique - or rather it was the only CD they had in the shop at that point) The Machine Stops.
Love em' both;
25 Years On - only got this yesterday so hasn't sunk in yet but first impressions; fantastic album, totally different - as one would expect - to the UA Years, and even Brock's guitar sounds different, more intricate, quite Frippish in some places. Standouts are as you mentioned, Psi Power and particularly Freefall. Not listened to all the second disc yet (I tend to absorb an album fully before wanting to hear alternative versions/demos), but the Sonic Assassins stuff is as you suggested, really fucking good - particularly the rambling free-form ad-lib of Over The Top (which Ian Abrahams compares to the Club Zoo live version of Sleeping Gas - and I can see why).
The Machine Stops - without having heard all the bits and pieces in between this and the UA Years, so can't really compare, I really like it (and love Haz Wheaton's bass playing on the last couple of tracks - The Tube particularly). A couple of the more pacey electro-rock (The Machine, Synchronized Blue) tracks just made me think, this guy's in his 70s and he's outdoing bands like Kasabian who still think they 'invented' that style*. It just feels like a great Hawkwind album - Warrior on The Edge of Time with more contemporary sounds. Brilliant.

*remember Serge Pizzaro stating a couple of years back that Kasabian were blending 60s acid rock with dance music and nobody he could think of had done that before - er, Hawkwind been doing it for decades mate!


Glad you're enjoying Hawklords, it's a real unsung classic
Andfurthermoreagain
Andfurthermoreagain
696 posts

Re: Hawkwind advice please
Jun 02, 2017, 11:40
Indeed, and of course it's fairly far removed from the UA years but there are many familiar reference points (and having Captain Lockheed kinda helps bridge the gap).
I'm now torn between which album (this or Lockheed) is Calvert's greatest achievement.
I also love the ludicrously surreal Pan-Transcendental Industries manifesto (that is reproduced within the CD booklet). Serves as this album's Hawklog.
In fact, it's easy to take for granted the holistic multi-media approach Hawkwind often applied to their concepts (particularly when Calvert and Barny Bubbles were involved).

G + A = H - CD (there are no car doors in Heaven when Angels are on the ground)

I think we can all take something from that wisdom!?
Fatalist
Fatalist
1123 posts

Re: Hawkwind advice please
Jun 02, 2017, 18:37
Andfurthermoreagain wrote:
Indeed, and of course it's fairly far removed from the UA years but there are many familiar reference points (and having Captain Lockheed kinda helps bridge the gap).
I'm now torn between which album (this or Lockheed) is Calvert's greatest achievement.
I also love the ludicrously surreal Pan-Transcendental Industries manifesto (that is reproduced within the CD booklet). Serves as this album's Hawklog.
In fact, it's easy to take for granted the holistic multi-media approach Hawkwind often applied to their concepts (particularly when Calvert and Barny Bubbles were involved).

G + A = H - CD (there are no car doors in Heaven when Angels are on the ground)

I think we can all take something from that wisdom!?


Yes, I love the PTI stuff, it's probably the closest that Calvert got to the surreal spirit of new wave sci-fi, the angels/car door thing is almost Ballardian. Would have loved to see that tour. There's a film of it somewhere (allegedly in the Cherry Red vaults), but it's never been made publically available.
radagast
radagast
264 posts

Edited Jun 02, 2017, 21:01
Re: Hawkwind advice please
Jun 02, 2017, 20:58
Don't want to enter into the Turner-Brock debate fully - would take ages and lots of bad feelings involved. But it has to be said that Nik Turner is at least as much an egomaniac as Brock and leads a sad spitting image of Hawkwind karaoke these days, whereas Brock's new Hawkwind incarnation at least tries to get things together.
By the way - Brock has fallen out with Moorcock, which the latter much regrets. Watch the bbc Hawkwind documentary where Moorcock regrets siding with Turner at first, "which cost me Dave's friendship".

The "real Hawkwind" - whether in the 70s or the 90s - got its magic and power from the combined energy of quite strong characters - personal and musical - and I consider it a waste of time to compare the splinter groups and spin-offs. And then lets have Lemmy the last word: "Hawkwind is really Dave's band like Motorhead is mine".
Stevo
Stevo
6664 posts

Re: Hawkwind advice please
Jun 03, 2017, 08:10
Wasn't the name Hawkwind a description of a snotty, flatulent Nik Turner though? Which makes that a little ironic dunnit.
Vybik Jon
Vybik Jon
7717 posts

Old Boys Reunion
Jun 16, 2017, 09:23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-PFWBzrbs8
Squid Tempest
Squid Tempest
8761 posts

Re: Old Boys Reunion
Jun 16, 2017, 13:40
Oh yes!
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