Hawkwind (again)

[Platypus]

Anyone been to see them in the last few years?

I see they're playing some gigs in early December, and I might go.

But will be be like the "good old days" of Space Rock ?

 

[Fred Bloggs]

Yay! Just booked tickets for 11th December!

 

[wurzel]

Saw Nik Turner's Space Ritual a while back at Frome Cheese & Grain(!) - basically a band of ex-Hawkwind members. Was an excellent gig & they did a lot of the late 70s Calvert era stuff which I like the most out of Hawkwind's back catalogue. Incredible they were so good as they had all their kit nicked the night before & were using borrowed stuff. Turner even had his clothes stolen & was pleading for someone in the crowd to give him a shirt, provided it was sufficiently weird of course.

 

[Platypus]

Ok, I booked two tickets. Last time I saw them was >20 yrs ago !

 

[rootsnall]

They were rubbish 20 years ago and are still rubbish.

 

[darmstadt]

Ok, I booked two tickets. Last time I saw them was >20 yrs ago !

I will admit to having seen them numerous times, interviewed them, played with ex-members and possessing in the region of 80 musical items of theirs (and related including the single with Sam Fox) but I do like this review of them:

Hawkwind
London Brixton Academy - 1993
------------------------------
"You lucky bastards! You spawny, grizzled, coffin-dodging, brain-
frazzled old gits!" This is undoubtedly what God is thinking as he
cringingly watches this grim spectacle through his fingers. Hawkwind
filling Brixton Academy in 1993!

Hilfe! Hilfe! It would seem that people once more believe that singing
about space bandits and making swirly mystic hand movements says more
to them than just, "I was that tosser with jam-jar glasses reading
'Forests Of Gor' at the side of you class at school - help me,
please."

Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. The word kind of loses its
significance the more you think about it, and at an event like this,
where you're stoned, tripping, speeding and having your constipation
suddenly cured within ten minutes of breathing the air, you can
almost forget. But anyone with a tentative grasp of sobriety will
soon realise what wonders chemicals have done for Hawkwind. You see,
they are, essentially, Bryan Adams on 25 years of really bad acid.

This means they play lots of three chord pub rock chunders which
fizzle out after two minutes, replaced by lots of spacecake keyboard
FX sounds going 'ktikkaktikkaktikkaktikkaktikkaktikka' for another
nine minutes. It means that instead of the songs being about feelin'
alright on a Saturday night they're all about flying to Saturn in a
VW van. It means the backdrop features a huge child's drawing of a
futuristic city from a Daily Star 'What Your Town Will Look Like In
The Year 2000' feature. It means that lead singer Dave Brock doesn't
look a day over 134.

But you can't deny they've tried to update their act. The slightly
fumbling fire-eaters you see at every festival on earth cavort across
the stage during the more inexcusably tedious moments. They even play
a couple of revamped techno-ised numbers at the end of the set; the
same bollocks as before with an inappropriate 'Hooked On Classics'
thumping beat behind them. Somehow, though, a nagging, moral voice
pierces the boredom saying "Bloody hippies - string 'em up."

 

[VectraMan]

I saw them 5 or 6 years ago in Oxford. I was quite disapointed really as it was more like going to a rave than a live band (not that I've ever been to a rave) : just constant pulsating electronically generated noise. They may as well have not been there. It was Dave Brock, but not sure who the others were at that stage. A bit hard to keep up with who's who in Hawkwind.

 

[darmstadt]

Just saw this

 

[DimPrawn]

There was a man down our street when I was kid whose CB radio handle was "Hawkwind". A scary eyed bloke with long straggly hair and beard who still lived with his mum.

 

[Platypus]

Just saw this

Tasteful