Hawkwind are an English
rock band, one of
the earliest space rock groups.
Their lyrics favour urban and
science
fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to
punk rock.
Formed in November 1969 by singer/songwriter/guitarist
Dave Brock, Hawkwind have gone through many
incarnations and styles of music. Critic Jim Green describes their
trademark sound as characterised by "that gargantuan and
impenetrable pre-metal/hardcore drone, those great riffs, that
inexorable drive to destinations unknown". Dozens of musicians have
worked with the group; notable
fantasy and science fiction writer
Michael Moorcock was an occasional
collaborator.
History
1969: Formation
Dave Brock
Dave Brock and Mick
Slattery had been in the London
-based
psychedelic band Famous Cure, and a
meeting with bassist John Harrison revealed a mutual interest in
electronic music that kicked off
this new venture. Seventeen year old drummer
Terry Ollis replied to an advert in one of the
music weeklies, while
Nik Turner and
Michael 'Dik Mik' Davies, old acquaintances
of Brock, offered help with transport and gear, but were soon
pulled into the band.
Gatecrashing a local talent night at the
All Saints Hall, Notting Hill
, they were so untogether as to not even have a
name, plumping for "Group X" at the last minute, nor any songs,
choosing to play an extended 20-minute jam on The Byrds "Eight Miles
High". BBC Radio 1 DJ
John Peel was in the audience and was
impressed enough to tell event organiser, Douglas Smith, to keep an
eye on them. Smith signed them up and got them a deal with
Liberty Records on the back of a deal he was
setting up for
Cochise.
The band settled on the name Hawkwind after briefly being billed as
Hawkwind Zoo, Hawkwind being the nickname of
Turner derived from his unappealing habit of clearing his throat
(hawking) and excessive flatulence (wind). An
Abbey Road session took place recording demos of
"Hurry On Sundown" and others (included on the remasters version of
Hawkwind), after which
Slattery left to be replaced by
Huw
Lloyd-Langton, who had known Brock from his days working in a
music shop selling guitar strings to Brock, then a
busker.
1970-75: United Artists era
Pretty Things guitarist
Dick Taylor was brought in to produce the 1970
debut album
Hawkwind.
Although it wasn't a commercial success, it did bring them to the
attention of the
UK underground scene
finding them playing free concerts, benefit gigs and festivals.
Playing
free outside the Bath Festival, they
encountered another Ladbroke Grove
based band, the Pink
Fairies, who shared similar interests in music and recreational
activities, a friendship developed which led to the two bands
becoming running partners and performing as "Pinkwind".
Their use of drugs, however, led to the departure of Harrison, who
didn't imbibe, followed by Lloyd-Langton after a bad
LSD trip at the
Isle
of Wight Festival led to his having a
nervous breakdown.
Their follow up album, 1971's
In
Search of Space, brought greater commercial success,
reaching #18 on the UK album charts, and also saw the band's image
and philosophy take shape, courtesy of graphic artist
Barney Bubbles and underground press writer
Robert Calvert, as depicted in the
accompanying
Hawklog booklet which would further be
developed into the
Space Ritual stage show. Science
fiction author
Michael Moorcock and
dancer
Stacia also started contributing to
the band. Dik Mik had left the band, replaced by sound engineer
Del Dettmar, but chose to return for
this album giving the band two electronics players.
Bass player Dave Anderson, who had been in the
German
band Amon Düül
II had also joined but departed before its release because of
personal tensions with some other members of the band.
Meanwhile, Ollis quit, unhappy with the commercial direction the
band were heading in.
The addition of bassist
Lemmy and drummer
Simon King propelled the band
to greater heights.
One of the first gigs this band played was a
benefit for the Greasy Truckers at The Roundhouse
on 13 February 1972. A live album of the
concert
Greasy Truckers
Party was released, and after re-recording the vocal, a
single "
Silver Machine" was also
released, reaching #3 in the UK charts. This generated sufficient
funds for the subsequent album
Doremi Fasol Latido Space Ritual
tour. The show featured dancers
Stacia and
Miss Renee, mime artist
Tony Crerar and a light show by
Liquid Len and is immortalised on the elaborate
package
Space Ritual. At the
height of their success in 1973, the band released the single
"
Urban Guerrilla" which coincided
with an
IRA
bombing campaign in London, so the
BBC refused
to play it and the band's management reluctantly decided to
withdraw it fearing accusations of opportunism, despite the disc
having already climbed to #39 in the UK chart.
Dik Mik departed during 1973 and Calvert ended his association with
the band to concentrate on solo projects. Dettmar also indicated
that he was to leave the band, so
Simon
House was recruited as keyboardist and violinist playing live
shows, a North America tour and recording the 1974 album
Hall of the Mountain
Grill. Dettmar left after a European tour, emigrating to
Canada, whilst
Alan Powell deputised for
an incapacitated King on that European tour, but remained giving
the band two drummers.
At the beginning of 1975, the band recorded the album
Warrior on the Edge of Time
in collaboration with
Michael
Moorcock loosely based on his
Eternal Champion figure. However, during a
North America tour in May, Lemmy was caught in possession of
amphetamine crossing the border from the
USA into Canada. The border police mistook the powder for cocaine
and he was jailed, forcing the band to cancel some shows. Fed up
with his erratic behaviour, the band fired the bass player
replacing him with their long standing friend and former Pink
Fairies guitarist
Paul
Rudolph. Lemmy then teamed up with another Pink Fairies
guitarist, Larry Wallis, to form
Motörhead, named after the last song he had
written for Hawkwind.
1976-78: Charisma era
Robert Calvert made a guest appearance with band for their headline
set at the
Reading Festival in
August 1975, after which he chose to rejoin the band as a full-time
vocalist and front man.
Stacia, on the other
hand, chose to relinquish her dancing duties and settle down to
family life. The band changed record company to
Charisma Records and band management from
Douglas Smith to Tony Howard.
1976's
Astounding
Sounds, Amazing Music is the first album of this era and
highlights both Calvert's well crafted lyrics written with stage
performance in mind and a greater proficiency and scope in the
music. But on the eve of recording the follow-up
Back on the Streets
single, Turner was sacked for his erratic live playing and Powell
was deemed surplus to requirements. After a tour to promote the
single and during rehearsals for the next album, Rudolph was also
sacked for allegedly trying to steer the band into a musical
direction at odds with Calvert and Brock's vision.
Adrian "Ade" Shaw, who as the bass player
for
Magic Muscle had supported Hawkwind
on the
Space Ritual tour, came in for the 1977 album
Quark, Strangeness and
Charm. The band continued to enjoy moderate commercial
success, but Calvert's mental illness often caused problems. A
manic phase saw the band abandon a European tour in France, while a
depression phase during a 1978 North American tour convinced Brock
to disband the group. In between these two tours, the band had
recorded the album
PXR5 in January
1978, but its release was delayed until 1979.
On 23
December 1977 in Barnstaple
, Brock and Calvert had performed a one-off gig with
Devon band Ark as the Sonic Assassins, and looking for a new
project in 1978, bassist Harvey
Bainbridge and drummer Martin
Griffin were recruited from this event. Steve Swindells was recruited as keyboard
player. The band was named
Hawklords, probably for
legal reasons having recently split with their management, and
recording took place on a farm in Devon using a mobile studio
resulting in the album
25 Years
On. King had originally been the drummer for the project
but quit during recording sessions to return to London, while
House, who had temporarily left the band to join a
David Bowie tour, elected to remain with Bowie
full-time, but nevertheless did contribute violin to these
sessions. At the end of the album's UK tour, Calvert, wanting King
back in the band, fired Griffin, then promptly resigned himself,
choosing to pursue a career in literature. Swindells left to record
a solo album after an offer had been made to him by the record
company
ATCO.
1980s
In late 1979, Hawkwind reformed with Brock, Bainbridge and King
being joined by
Huw Lloyd-Langton
(who had played on the debut album) and
Tim
Blake (formerly of
Gong), embarking
upon a UK tour despite not having a record deal or any product to
promote. Some shows were recorded and a deal was made with
Bronze Records resulting in the
Live Seventy Nine album, quickly
followed by the studio album
Levitation. However, during the
recording of
Levitation King quit and
Ginger Baker was drafted in for the sessions,
but he chose to stay with the band for the tour, during which
Tim Blake left to be replaced by Keith
Hale.
In 1981 Baker and Hale left after their insistence that Bainbridge
should be sacked was declined, and Brock and Bainbridge elected to
handle synthesizers and sequencers themselves with drummer Griffin
from the Hawklords rejoining. Three albums, which again saw Michael
Moorcock contributing lyrics and vocals, were recorded for
RCA/Active:
Sonic Attack, the electronic
Church of Hawkwind and
Choose Your Masques.
This band
headlined the 1981 Glastonbury Festival
and made an appearance at the 1982 Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, as
well as continuing to play the summer solstice at Stonehenge Free
Festival.
Nik Turner had returned as a guest for the 1982
Choose Your
Masques tour and was invited back permanently. Further tours
ensued with Dead Fred Reeves augmenting the line-up on keyboards
and violin, but neither Turner nor Reeves would appear on the only
recording of 1983/84,
The
Earth Ritual Preview, but there was a guest spot for
Lemmy. The
Earth Ritual tour was filmed for Hawkwind's
first ever video release,
Night of the
Hawk.
Alan Davey was
a young fan of the band who had sent a tape of his playing to
Brock, and Brock chose to oust Reeves moving Bainbridge from bass
to keyboards in order to accommodate Davey. This experimental
line-up played at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1984, which was
filmed and release as
Stonehenge 84.
Subsequent personal and professional tensions between Brock and
Turner led to the latter's expulsion at the beginning of
1985.
Brock had started using drum machines for his home demos and became
increasingly frustrated at the inability of drummers to keep
perfect time, leading to a succession of drummers coming and going.
First, Griffin was ousted and the band tried Simon King again, but
unhappy with his playing at that time, he was rejected.
Andy Anderson filled in while he was
also playing for
The Cure, as did
Robert Heaton prior to the rise of
New Model Army.
Lloyd Langton Group drummer John Clark
did some recording sessions, Rik Martinez started the
Earth
Ritual tour but failed to end it, being replaced by Clive
Deamer, who was deemed "too professional" for the band. Eventually
in 1985 Danny Thompson Jr, a friend of bassist Alan Davey, was
drafted in and remained almost to the end of the decade.
Hawkwind's association with Moorcock climaxed in their most
ambitious project,
The Chronicle of the Black
Sword, based loosely around the
Elric
series of books and theatrically staged with
Tony Crerar as the central character. Moorcock
contributed lyrics, but only performed some spoken pieces on some
live dates. The tour was recorded and issued as an album
Live Chronicles and video
The
Chronicle of the Black Sword. A headline appearance at the
1986
Reading Festival was followed
by a UK tour to promote the
Live Chronicles album which
was filmed and released as
Chaos. In 1988 the band
recorded the album
The Xenon
Codex with Guy Bidmead, but all was not well in the band
and soon after, both Lloyd-Langton and Thompson departed.
1990s
Drummer Richard Chadwick, who joined in the summer of '88, had been
playing in small alternative free festival bands, most notably
Bath's Smart Pils, for a decade and had frequently crossed paths
with Hawkwind and Brock. He was initially invited simply to play
with the band, but eventually replaced stand in drummer Mick Kirton
to become the band's drummer to the present day.
Bridget Wishart, an associate of Chadwick's
from the festival circuit, also joined to become the band's one and
only frontwoman, and this new lineup was rounded off by the return
of Simon House playing lead violin. This band produced two albums,
1990s
Space Bandits and
1991's
Palace
Springs and also filmed a 1-hour appearance for the
Bedrock
TV series.
In 1991 Bainbridge,House and Wishart departed and The band
continued as a three piece relying heavily on synthesizers and
sequencers to create a wall-of-sound. The 1992 album
Electric Tepee combined hard rock and
light ambient pieces, while
It is the
Business of the Future to be Dangerous is almost devoid of
the rock leanings.
The Business
Trip is a record of the previous album's tour, but rockier
as would be expected from a live outing. The
White Zone album was released under the
alias Psychedelic Warriors to distance itself entirely from the
rock expectancy of Hawkwind.
A general criticism of techno music at that time was its
facelessness and lack of personality, which the band were coming to
feel also plagued them.
Ron Tree had known
the band on the festival circuit and offered his services as a
frontman, and the band duly employed him for the album
Alien 4 and its accompanying tour which
resulted in the album
Love in
Space and video
Love in Space.
Unhappy with the musical direction of the band, bassist Davey left,
forming his own Middle-Eastern flavoured hard-rock group Bedouin
and a Motörhead tribute act named Ace of Spades. His bass playing
role was picked up by singer Tree and the band were joined by lead
guitarist Jerry Richards (another stalwart of the festival scene,
playing for Tubilah Dog who had merged with Brock's Agents of Chaos
during 1988) for the albums
Distant
Horizons and
In Your
Area. Rasta chanter Captain Rizz also joined the band for
guest spots during live shows.
2000s
The concept of a
Hawkestra, a reunion event
featuring appearances from all past and present members, had
originally been intended to coincide with the band's 30th
anniversary and the release of the career spanning
Epocheclipse – 30 Year Anthology set, but
logistical problems delayed it until 21 October 2000.
It took place at the
Brixton
Academy
with about 20 members taking part in a 3+ hour set
which was filmed and recorded. Guests included
Samantha Fox who sang Master of the Universe.
However, arguments and disputes over financial recompense and
musical input resulted in the prospect of the event being restaged
unlikely, and any album or DVD release being indefinitely
shelved.
The Hawkestra had set a template for Brock to assemble a core band
of Tree, Brock, Richards, Davey, Chadwick and for the use of former
members as guests on live shows and studio recordings. The 2000
Christmas Astoria show was recorded with contributions from House,
Blake, Rizz, Moorcock, Jez Huggett and Keith Kniveton and released
as
Yule Ritual the following
year. In 2001, Davey agreed to rejoin the band permanently, but
only afiter the departure of Tree and Richards.
Meanwhile, having rekindled relationships with old friends at the
Hawkestra, Turner organised further Hawkestra gigs resulting in the
formation of xhawkwind.com, a band consisting mainly of ex-Hawkwind
members and playing old Hawkwind songs. An appearance at Guilfest
in 2002 led to confusion as to whether this actually was Hawkwind,
sufficiently irking Brock into taking legal action to prohibit
Turner from trading under the name Hawkwind. Turner lost the case
and the band now perform as
Space
Ritual.
An appearance at the Canterbury Sound Festival in August 2001,
resulting in another live album
Canterbury Fayre 2001, saw guest
appearances from Lloyd-Langton, House, Kniveton with
Arthur Brown on "Silver Machine".
The band organised the first of their own weekend festivals, named
Hawkfest, in Devon in the summer of 2002.
Brown joined the band in 2002 for a Winter tour which featured some
Kingdom Come songs and
saw appearances from Blake and Lloyd-Langton, the Newcastle show
being released on DVD as
Out of the
Shadows and the London show on CD as
Spaced Out in London.
In 2005 the long anticipated new album
Take Me to Your
Leader was released. Recorded by the core band of
Brock/Davey/Chadwick, contributors included new keyboardist
Jason Stuart, Arthur Brown,
tabloid writer and TV personality
Matthew
Wright, 1970s New Wave singer
Lene
Lovich, Simon House and Jez Huggett. This was followed in 2006
by the CD/DVD disc
Take Me to
Your Future.
The band were the subject of an hour-long television documentary
entitled
Hawkwind: Do Not Panic that aired on
BBC Four as part of the
Originals series.
It was broadcast on 30 March 2007 and repeated on 10 August 2007.
Although Brock participated in its making he did not appear in the
programme, it is alleged that he requested all footage of himself
be removed after he was denied any artistic control over the
documentary.. In one of the documentary's opening narratives
regarding Brock, it is stated that he declined to be interviewed
for the programme because of Nik Turner's involvement, indicating
that the two men have still not been reconciled over the
xhawkwind.com incident.
June 2007 saw the departure of Alan Davey, who left to perform and
record with two new bands: Gunslinger and Thunor. He was replaced
by "Mr Dibs", a long-standing member of the road crew and bassist
for the bands Spacehead and Krel (who had supported Hawkwind during
1992). The band performed at their annual Hawkfest festival and
headlined the US festival NEARfest and played gigs in PA and NY. At
the end of 2007,
Tim Blake once again
joined the band filling the lead role playing keyboards and
theremin. The band played 5 Christmas
dates, the London show being released as an audio CD and video DVD
under the title
Knights of
Space.
In January 2008 the band reversed its anti-taping policy, long a
sore-point with many fans, announcing that it would allow audio
recording and non-commercial distribution of such recordings,
provided there was no competing official release. At the end of
2008, Atomhenge Records (a subsidiary of
Cherry Red Records) commenced the
re-issuing of Hawkwind's back catalogue from the years 1976 through
to 1997 with the release of two triple CD anthologies
Spirit of the Age and
The Dream Goes
On .
On 8 September 2008 keyboard player Jason Stuart died due to a
brain haemorrhage. In October 2008, guitarist Niall Hone (former
Tribe of Cro) joined Hawkwind for their Winter 2008 tour, along
with returning synth/theremin player Tim Blake.
Influence & Legacy
Hawkwind have been cited as an influence by artists such as
Al Jourgensen of
Ministry,
Monster
Magnet, the
Sex Pistols(who have
covered "
Silver Machine"),
Joy Division,
Henry
Rollins of
Black Flag,
The Orb, and
Ozric Tentacles.
Discography
Studio Albums
1970
Hawkwind
1971
In Search of
Space
1972
Doremi Fasol
Latido
1974
Hall of the Mountain
Grill
1975
Warrior on the Edge
of Time
1976
Astounding
Sounds, Amazing Music
1977
Quark, Strangeness
and Charm
1978
25 Years On —
Hawklords
1979
PXR5
1980
Levitation
1981
Sonic
Attack
1982
Church of
Hawkwind
1982
Choose Your
Masques
1985
The Chronicle
of the Black Sword
1988
The Xenon Codex
1990
Space Bandits
1992
Electric Tepee
1993
It Is the
Business of the Future to Be Dangerous
1995
White Zone — Psychedelic
Warriors
1995
Alien 4
1997
Distant
Horizons
1999
In Your Area — live and
studio
2000
Spacebrock — Dave Brock
solo
2005
Take Me
to Your Leader
2006
Take Me to Your
Future
Live Albums
1973
Space Ritual
1980
Live Seventy
Nine
1986
Live Chronicles
1991
Palace
Springs
1994
The Business
Trip
1996
Love in Space
1999
Hawkwind 1997
2001
Yule Ritual
2002
Canterbury Fayre
2001
2004
Spaced Out in
London
2008
Knights of
Space
Archive Albums
1980
The Weird Tapes
(1966-1983)
1983
The Text of
Festival (1970-1971)
1983
Zones (1980 and
1982)
1984
This Is
Hawkwind, Do Not Panic (1980 and 1984)
1984
Bring Me the
Head of Yuri Gagarin (1973)
1984
Space Ritual Volume
2 (1972)
1985
Hawkwind Anthology
(1967-1982)
1987
Out & Intake
(1982 and 1986)
1991
BBC Radio 1 Live in
Concert (1972)
1992
The Friday Rock
Show Sessions (1985)
1992
Hawklords Live
(1978)
1992
California
Brainstorm (1990)
1995
Undisclosed Files
Addendum (1984 and 1988)
1997
The 1999 Party
(1974)
1999
Glastonbury 90
(1990)
1999
Choose Your
Masques: Collectors Series Volume 2 (1982)
1999
Complete
'79: Collectors Series Volume 1 (1979)
2000
Atomhenge 76 (1976)
2002
Live 1990
(1990)
2008
Minneapolis, 4 October 1989 (1989)
2008
Reading University, 19 May 1992 (1992)
2009
Live '78 (1978)
Videography
- 1984 – Night of the Hawks – 60min concert
- 1984 – Stonehenge – 60min
concert with The Enid and Roy Harper
- 1984 – Stonehenge - 60min concert
- 1985 – The Chronicle of the Black Sword – 60min
concert
- 1986 – Bristol Custom Bike Show – 15min concert with
Voodoo Child
- 1986 – Chaos - 60min concert
- 1989 – Treworgey Tree Fayre – 90min concert
- 1990 – Nottingham – 60min TV concert
- 1990 – Bournemouth Academy – 90min concert
- 1992 – Brixton Academy – 123min concert
- 1995 – Love in Space –
90min concert
- 2002 – Out of the Shadows – 90min concert
- 2008 – Knights of
Space – 90min concert
Remixes
Members
Book references
Other references
- Buckley
2003, p. 403, "The addition of Simon
House(violin/keyboards) in 1974 mellowed the musical assault
without damaging the fabric, but with proto-punk Lemmy on the bass
the demands of heavy rock would always be satisfied."
- http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=hawkwind
- Mick Slattery — www.spaceritual.net
- Douglas Smith — Philm Freax presents...
- Mojo, September 1999 — The Egos Have Landed
- Vintage Guitar Magazine, February 2003 — Huw Lloyd-Langton…
Gets on the move again — www.huwlloyd-langton.co.uk
- Mojo, September 1999 — The Egos Have Landed — www.starfarer.net
- Hawkwind Family Tree, Pete Frame 1979[1]
- The Saga of Hawkwind (pp95) — Carol Clerk
- NME, 1 September 1973 — News www.hawkwindmuseum.co.uk
- NME, 28th June 1975 — The Trials Of Lemmy — [2]
- Hawkwind Family Tree, Pete Frame 1979
- NME, 12th November 1977 — Hawklord in KGB Wedding Affair —
Jon's Attic
- This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic, Chapter 6 — Kris Tait
- Aural Innovations, Issue 18 — Working Down A Diamond
Mine
- This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic, Chapter 7 — Kris Tait
- Hawkfan 13 — A Chat With Alan Davey — www.hawkwindmuseum.co.uk
- Mojo, December 2005 — Hello Goodbye — www.starfarer.net
- Music UK, March 1985 — Hawkwind — HawkFanFare
- The Saga of Hawkwind (pp413) — Carol Clerk
- The Saga of Hawkwind (pp418) — Carol Clerk
- BBC Suffolk Feature - Hawkwind: The Leader Speaks
- The Saga of Hawkwind, Chapter 30: The Great Hawkestra Disaster
— Carol Clerk
- The Saga of Hawkwind (pp486) — Carol Clerk
- The Saga of Hawkwind, Chapter 32: The Hawkwars — Carol
Clerk
- BBC 6 Music, Freakzone, 4 February 2007 — Nik
Turner interview
- Atomhenge Records
-
http://www.vh1classic.com/view/playlist/1518001/69502/VH1_Classic_Q_A_Al_Jourgensen/Al_Jourgensen_Part_1/index.jhtml
-
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/monstermagnet/biography
- http://www.nme.com/news/sex-pistols/38286
- http://www.seatwave.com/hawkwind-tickets/season
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2004/12/06/hawkwind_event_feature.shtml
Further reading
There are three biographies of Hawkwind.
- Kris Tait This is Hawkwind: Do Not Panic (1984,
published by the band and now only available second hand)
- Ian Abrahams Sonic Assassins (Published by SAF
publishing; ISBN 0-946719-69-1)
- Carol Clerk's Saga of Hawkwind (Publisher: Music Sales
Limited ISBN 1-84449-101-3)
External links
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