Hawkwind seem to be having somewhat of a renaissance recently. OK, in my mind they never went away; my best friend and often collaborator of the past twenty-five years is a bloke called Graham Inglis who is a massive Hawkwind obsessive. He has a tendency to do things like listen to all his different versions of 'Brainstorm' (both legitimate and bootleg) in chronological order at high volume - a process that took several consecutive evenings of thunderous noise. (As he lives in my spare room, I know this from first hand experience).
Back in the day I saw them live many times, but I blush to admit that although I used to spend every summer in a tent or transit van visiting muddy fields to hear bands of longhairs make whooshing noises on analogue synths, I haven't been to a festival in over twenty years. I am actually quite shocked to admit that the last time I saw Hawkwind was at the Treworgey Tree Fayre in 1989. But Graham has kept me up to date with their various activities, and now that I am in the enviable position of writing about rock music each day once again, it is nice to do things like this: post a list of links to today's Hawkwind stories (at least the ones that don't involve bootlegs) extracted from those jolly nice people at Google News Alerts:
Hawkwind - Onward [review of forthcoming album]
I saw Hawkwind live sometime in the late 90s. It was in the Wolverhampton Civic Hall and it must have been all of 20 people in the audience. They came out looking like space pirates on the run, played like their lives depended on it and left us speechless.
It doesn’t pay to underestimate Hawkwind.
In the past few years, they seem to be undergoing a renessance of sorts. I ‘m not sure why exactly. Perhaps it’s the younger generation of prog, stoner, metal and electro fans who realised that much of the psychedelic soudscapes of their music originated with this band. Perhaps it’s just the fact that they ‘ve been doing this for so long, that they have become British Institutions. Unfortunately their discography is a sprawling mess, full of countless live albums, bootlegs and collections and it’s hard for the newbie to get into them.
http://www.crowsnbones.com/2012/03/hawkwind-onward/
[Another review of forthcoming album "Onward"]
More than four decades since the release of their eponymous debut, rock luminaries Hawkwind are still churning out albums with pleasing frequency. Many bands of this vintage get to a point where they tour constantly doing a greatest hits set and do little to challenge themselves and rarely issue new material.
Those well-established bands that do still produce new albums on a regular basis often fail to maintain the quality of yore and with numerous line-up changes and only Dave Brock surviving to this day from the original band, one doesn’t necessarily expect greatness from them in 2012.
Happily though, there is plenty of life left in these old space dogs.
http://www.thisisnotascene.com/2012/hawkwind-onward/
There is also a peculiar piece of writing entitled: Would Jesus go to a Hawkwind Concert?
I am massively enjoying this. Thank you Rob.
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