Hawkwind thread.

[oz1701]

i'm pretty sure that was a joke - if you looked at the finnish prog and the listening thread its the same thing lol!

i liked bridget wishart - she breathed some new life into the band.

[Massed Gadgets]

Bridget was very underrated. I agree with you there, Oz, she did breath new life into Hawkwind. She's still involved in the space rock scene with the Spirit's Burning collective and Stephen Palmer's Mooch. She also recently co-wrote and sang on one song on Osiris: The Rebirth's new album.

[MY RRRRS]

i listened to chronicle of the black sword last night - i always remembered it as being pretty naff - i actually enjoyed it. it was better than i remembered. not as good as warrior but still...

[Sonic Destruction]

i listened to chronicle of the black sword last night - i always remembered it as being pretty naff - i actually enjoyed it. it was better than i remembered. not as good as warrior but still...

Yeah, "Chronicle Of The Black Sword" was a reasonable stab at doing something interesting, although I much preferred the live version - "Live Chronicles" - where they manage to work in some of their older tracks ("Magnu", "Master Of The Universe", "Dragons And Fables", etc) into the Elric saga, plus the fabulous Huw Lloyd-Langton track "Moonglum", which never made it to the studio album for some reason. The live DVD has a fat wimpy-looking Elric, and more than a few unintentionally funny moments.

[oz1701]

yes i've seen the dvd - got a copy of it somewhere - are you sure the moments were unintentionally funny - its been a long while since i dug it out - i seem to remember it was eminently cringeworthy.

[Sonic Destruction]

They should have got some guy who looked like the covers on the DAW books to play Elric. As it is, the music is better without the visuals.

[oz1701]

i concur

[my breakfast.]

There is a fair chunk of Chronicle footage on youtube. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfSI7fpq5fM

Huw Lloyd Langdon is a massively underrated guitarist imho. You can also see just how much Alan Davey copped his bass technique from Lemmy with that strummed Rickenbacker technique.

I cannot tell if that clip is too cheesy/Spinal Tap or not. Its funny to see that even when dressed up Dave Brock refused to shave off his giant sideburns.


On a related note I was trawling my CDs today and I found a CD titled "Hawkwind BBC" which I got in a trade a wee while back. It was not their 1972 BBC In Concert recording but a bunch of recordings dating back to the first two albums. There is a really good version of Hurry on Sundown on there with an epic solo, and lots of other one-chord drone sessions and things. A few tracks off X In Search of Space as well for good measure. I could try and upload it if anybody wants to listen to it, as I don't think their BBC stuff gets circulated much in unmolested form. The same version of Hurry On Sundown is on the Text of a Festival bootleg, but it has a significant mid boost and possibly some added reverb iirc.

[Terentek]

Interesting reading all.
I have been a fan of Hawkwind for as long as I have listened to music.
So many happy memories bound up in their massive catalouge.

I also have family ties to the Hawks as Alan Davey is my cousin,and band mate (Gunslinger)
I also worked with Alan and Simon House on Alan's latest solo album "Eclectic Devils"

It seems to me the latter albums stray ever further from what Hawkwind were.
I've not heard their latest,but I read mixed reports.

Nigel

[oz1701]

i bought the two lp set of texts of festival a lot of years ago, and i can thoroughly recommend you dont buy it - the best thing about it was the cover. the sub- par sound quality on the lp i had was unlistenable.

[Sonic Destruction]

i bought the two lp set of texts of festival a lot of years ago, and i can thoroughly recommend you dont buy it - the best thing about it was the cover. the sub- par sound quality on the lp i had was unlistenable.

Yeah, it's for completists only, that's for sure; even they had better not have very high expectations.

The worst thing is, "Text Of Festival" is not even the crappiest album out there; "Bring Me The Head Of Yuri Gagarin" is even more useless.

[oz1701]

well it was the crappiest one i bought - the Yuri Gagarin one is worse i agree - i saw it in the shops after i bought and listened to texts so i played a little in the shop (in the days when you could) good job i didnt have control of the tone arm

[my breakfast.]

Yeah, it's for completists only, that's for sure; even they had better not have very high expectations.

The worst thing is, "Text Of Festival" is not even the crappiest album out there; "Bring Me The Head Of Yuri Gagarin" is even more useless.

Text of a Festival has a place. The original LP version has some jams recorded at a uni gig that have never been used since. I think there was a version of Be Yourself on there, and the rest was BBC material (but incomplete). I would not *mind* a copy of it, but I'm not hunting one down.

I think I have the complete Gagarin gig as well. It has a few space poems on it you cannot hear elsewhere but the sound quality is attrocious. Sounds like it was recorded from the carpark using Thomas Edison gear. I think both albums came from the Dave Anderson camp, but I could be wrong.

[J Ed]

MyBreakfast:
are you saying this BBC disc you found in your collection sounds better than the various Text of Festival variations?
I for one like listening to that album in very small doses, once a year or so, and always wish there was a version direct from the BBC's tapes or some newly discovered transcription disc, instead of somebodys cassette dub off the radio or whatever the actual muffled source currently is

[my breakfast.]

My disk is like unprocessed Text of a Festival stuff. As I say the guys who mastered Text tried to make Hurry on Sundown sound a bit beefier, and I didn't like their work. My disk is still recorded off the radio somehow, possibly even a mic infront of the speaker, but it is largely unmolested. Extreme lofi, akin to a bad bootleg, but invaluable for that sort of era of Hawkwind.