The two days at Seaton in East Devon were afternoon-and-evening events, and included various support bands, a fancy dress competition and a "Question Time" type of event where members of Hawkwind answered various questions put to them from the audience or from Matthew Wright.
Those who remembered to take their Hawkwind Passports along got a nice "HawkEaster 2013" stamp in green ink, inside it.
I think a girl of around 10 won a copy of "Space Melt" in the fancy dress contest. You can just see her red-dot Easter Bunny outfit to the left of the bloke in the Motorhead jacket, in the photo below! Another fancy dresser with big pink ears can be seen too...
Bands as diverse as Here & Now (Gong off-shoot), Syren (all female rock), Krankschaft and Electric Warriors (heavy metal) played, as did TOSH (Technicians of Spaceship Hawkwind) and the TOSH set was effectively a Hawkwind mini-performance, which included "You Shouldn't Do That" and "Valium 10".
Also, Tim Blake did a brief solo set during a changeover break, and got us to sing along with parts of his well-known song "Lighthouse". The 'good vibes' inside the venue and also around the area reminded me of the Leamington Spa "all-dayer" a few years ago. OK, a 2013 Hawkwind gig indoors can't really compare to a 1970s jam at a festival with dope-smokers and campfires, but it's surprising how it can nudge in that direction at times.
A subsequent report in The Guardian commented, "we were reminded this weekend, Hawkwind is the closest Britain ever had to the tribal cult of the Grateful Dead, the enduring whole greater than the sum of its multifarious parts."
And simultaneously a family occasion and a good sesh.
TOSH played the 5pm teatime slot for 45 minutes, after which many of us resumed our hunt for good pints of local real ale or a bit of food, or another tee-shirt for our rock wardrobes.
The weather was sunny but cold, so many fans bought the new Warrior jackets with hoods, that can be seen in the above photo. These commemorate the upcoming re-release of the classic 1975 album and also the name of this Hawkwind tour: "Warrior on the Edge of Time.
At 8:30 Hawkwind opened with "The Awakening" narrative and "Master of the Universe," a sequence that fans who saw them last year will hopefully recall... then two trax from the "Onward" album. And soon the long-awaited "Warrior" album, which was performed mid-set, from start to finish.
And, how do you follow that? Well, "Psychedelic Warlords" and "Silver Machine"makes a pretty good way of solving that question!
And, all too soon, it was out into the cold night for the trek back to campsites or hotel rooms. No taxis around in Seaton on Easter Sunday night at 11pm!
No comments:
Post a Comment