Prog Review Unboxing - Warrior on the Edge of Time Box Set - Hawkwind

Something Else! sneak peek: Hawkwind’s Nik Turner, “Fallen Angel STS-51-L” (2013)

Beginning with an anthematic countdown to liftoff, the lead song from Nik Turner’s forthcoming Cleopatra Records studio effort couldn’t sound less like its name. “Fallen Angel STS-51-L,” quite simply, begins with all engines firing.

It never stops, either. From there, Hawkwind’s blissfully offbeat co-founding saxist leads a tough group of collaborators through an anarchic, ever-churning bit of lysergic-laced rock — with Turner sitting in the middle of this boisterous maelstrom, making a space man’s recitation of the lyrics.

“Fallen Angel STS-51-L” is available for preorder through iTunes.

Read on...

Hawkwind festival was a storming success

Dave Brock (seated) founder member of legendary space rock band Hawkwind pictured with his wife and the group’s manager Kris Brock, local artist Rich Webster who painted the portrait and Elga Mackie, Seaton’s Voice director and organiser of the charity fund raiser. Photo by Ian Barradale

Legendary space-rock band Hawkwind’s visit to Seaton went down a storm - and helped to raise nearly £500 for charity.

The band staged a two day ‘HawkEaster’ festival at the Gateway over the bank holiday weekend, attended by 400 fans who came from around the world.

During the festival, local artist Rich Webster sold two paintings of the founding member, Dave Brock, with community group Seaton’s Voice buying a third painting to be used to raise money for two charities supported by the band - Devon Air Ambulance Trust and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

For the past month fans of Hawkwind have been donating money to the two charities through the Seaton Gateway website and facebook page, raising a total of £448 which will be shared equally between them.

Read on...

Hawkwind to support Australian Pink Floyd at Jodrell Bank

It's been announced that Hawkwind are to play support to the Australian Pink Floyd at the Jodrell Bank gig in July.

Hawkwind fans have mixed reaction to the idea of their veteran rock act playing second fiddle to "a mere tribute act" ...but Oz PF aren't any ordinary trib, and do appear to have been officially 'annointed' - David Gilmour had them perform at his 50th birthday celebrations. That does seem to make them a special case.

Maybe the ordinary rules of the rock n roll pecking order don't quite apply in this instance.....


Support acts for the highly anticipated Australian Pink Floyd 40th Anniversary of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ show announced as Hawkwind, The Time and Space Machine and The Lucid Dream.

A unique element of the Live From Jodrell Bank shows has seen bands beaming their projections onto The University of Manchester’s 76 metre Lovell telescope and The Australian Pink Floyd’s spectacular audio visual production can be experienced at its finest in this unique environment.

Read on...

Hawkwind: Space warriors help raise cash for Eco-warriors

Graham Inglis reviews The Elves of Silbury Hill, playing a one-off fund-raiser event at Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms, 3 May 2013.

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When five members of Hawkwind (all members except Tim Blake) and one member of Technicians of Spaceship Hawkwind (Steve Bemand) get together for an eco-warrior fund-raiser event, it's not surprising if they sound a lot like Hawkwind.

However, they sounded more like 70s Hawkwind than they have since, well, the 70s. And that surprised some of us but pleased many if not all of us!

They turned the space rock blanga control up towards 10 at this one-off fund-raiser event in Portsmouth. Right from the grungy chugging riffs of "You Shouldn't Do That" they were in the groove and entertaining the crowd at this Sea Shepherd eco-warriors bash.

Sea Shepherd is an offshoot protest group from the rather more pacifist Greenpeace, who generally frown on the sometimes-violent tactics used by Sea Shepherd against people like whale-hunters. Govenments too have criticised Sea Shepherd's rather stern brand of Direct Action, going so far as to label them "eco-terrorists".
..
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms was the venue and lots of stuff on sale as I wandered around this particular terrorist hotbed. I browsed the T-shirts and alternative-lifestyle type stuff, the Lush cosmetics company stall (pictured left), and even organic "cup-cakes with a conscience" as the stall leaflet described them!

I bought a nice Sea Shepherd long-sleeve (which I'll wear with pride when out shopping in the future) and I'm sorry to say I didn't buy a cup-cake. Instead, I made tracks for the bar, and tried a pint of the weirdly-named but very nice Doom Bar ale.
.

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Anyway, let's skip the shopping; what about the gig?

Pappa Jones' Moonshine Band probably won't be insulted if I compare them to Lonnie Donegan, if any of you remember that 50's outfit.  Lonnie Donegan had a hit with a song called "My Old Man's A Dustman," which I did like when I was a kid, I remember. That was long before I became a Hawkwind fan, though...

I seldom take much heed of Hawkwind support acts, usually, but I did watch that lass slapping her double bass, and comparing the sounds to those of Mr Dibs' electric 'cello.

Anyway, back to the Hawkwind gig - or the Elves of Silbury Hill, as they were called tonight.

..It was only a couple of weeks ago that "#HawkwindHQ" announced on Twitter that Dave Brock would be joining in, and on the night he took to the stage for the centre part of the set only.

Thus, Brock wasn't present for quite a few Brock tracks, such as "PXR-5", "Brainbox Pollution", and the wonderfully historic "It's so Easy," and also "Web Weaver" - those latter two from the "Hall of the Mountain Grill" album era.  They proceeded just fine in his absence, but naturally there's a stir of interest in the audience when The Captain finally walks on stage.

This being Hawkwind, though, there's no follow-spots to highlight the entrance, and no particular fanfare.

He appeared after "Valium 10" was finished, holding an acoustic guitar. So, what's the next track going to be? "Hurry on Sundown"?  "We took the Wrong Step"? No, "Uncle Sam's on Mars"!  Now, that's a surprise.

He stuck around for the next few, including "Psi Power," which of course works well in strummity-strum mode.

Mid-set we also had "Green Finned Demon," which was done as a fund-raising download for Sea Shepherd a couple of years back, and "Mirror of Illusion" - a song dating back to the very dawn of Hawkwind but now enjoying a rather bouncy arrangement in its newer "Electric Tepee" format.

Mr Dibs confidently handled the wolf-howls that preluded "Steppenwolf," and his vocal performance throughout the gig showed he's stepping up to the plate - as that rather odd cliché has it - and is perfectly capable of putting his detractors to flight. And a few years ago there were quite a few, after he replaced long-standing Hawkwind member and respected "bass monster" Alan Davey on bass guitar and vocals.

Staying with vocals, Richard Chadwick, being the invisible drummer, sometimes finds his microphone's not switched on - but tonight we could hear his gruff, somewhat barking counterpoints to Mr Dibs.  He likes singing "Silver Machine," but tonight they didn't do that one.

Steve Bemand was the surprise presence for me. He's done Hawkwind duties before - Jon Downes and I first saw him with them at the Treworgey Tree Fayre way back in 1989. He's not a widely-known Hawkwind crew member, though. I gather from Mr Dibs' stage comments that he did some synth work but Dead Fred (deadus fredicus?) was also doing some, inbetween his violin duties. He's another of these sometimes-present Hawkwind people; he first played with them in 1983, I believe.

Niall Hone is the lead guitarist for Hawkwind these days, and sometimes he'll cut loose on the wah-wah pedal effects - like during "You Shouldn't Do That" - but he doesn't do that often enough, and some gigs hardly at all.  Grrr.

He'll sometimes swap bass duties with Mr Dibs but I don't think he did that this time. I opted for the overview this time, and stood at the back instead of the front. You miss the nuances when at the back, but get the overall flavour, so to speak, and also the light-show - but it can leave one a bit vague on who was doing what at any given moment.

Anyway, Niall used to be in a band called Tribe of Cro, which I've enjoyed seeing before, and they were on the bill for this gig, according to some posters. However, I can never enjoy seeing or hearing any other bands after hearing Hawkwind, as they interfere with the Hawkwind afterglow, as it were - and a stage announcement said (warned?) a DJ was on next, so I buggered off pretty damn sharpish, I can tell you, and I don't know whether or not the Cro's played subsequently.

On the visual side, the unusual absence of backdrop projections was well made up for by the strobe effects. I've always enjoyed strobes. They hadn't brought their stage dancers along, this time and Hawkwind fans are mostly so bloody old and knackered that they just stand and watch - and a stage remark on the absence of their dancers, Steff and Laura, was accompanied by the hint: "Tonight, it's you!"

Whereupon some did move around a bit to "Ejection"....

The finale was "Brainstorm" - with strobes - and I saw a few wiggly dancing activities during that one!  But Mr Dibs didn't crowd-surf the audience, though!  And when they started clearing the stage and an announcement said the DJs were on next, I went out for a cigarette and then decided to head back to my hotel.

This was my 48th Hawkwind gig and I'd say the best I've heard for literally decades. I didn't do any slam-dancing, though. I must be getting old!

Hawkwind plus Easter equals ... Hawkeaster!

Hawkwind performing at Hawkeaster. Photograph: Captain Smurf

Soon after the sun had set – late tangerine rays stroking the canvas of tipis encamped in bitter cold above the sea – the tribe converged on Seaton Town Hall in Devon, no less, and the headline act at Easter's big festival began. Forget the Stones' date at Glastonbury up the road; here's the band that is the real guardian of British rock, enduring but ever-mutating, and – as the weekend's music demonstrated – ever-improving: Hawkwind.

There is a crucial difference between Hawkwind's following and that of other groups spawned in the 1960s: while the great survivors and revivers have their elder and younger fans, the originals and their children, no other has collected a seamless following at – and recruited musicians from – every musical stage along the way, from 60s acid rock through Hawkwind's own "space rock", 70s punk, 80s electro-ecstasy, 90s techno and beyond. Born of Notting Hill's summer of love in 1969 (when their first gig was also mine), Hawkwind then detonated that of the raves two decades later – so that everyone was there for Hawkeaster this weekend: space hippies who heard them play free festivals each solstice at Stonehenge, heavy-gauge bikers who tried to defend them from the police; plus now 40-something ecstasy-heads, still determinedly tri-coloured mohican punks and a new crop of teenagers and techies. (And of course the usual, modest, quota of queue-pushing meatheads and middle-managers.)

Read on..

HAWKWIND LIGHT ORCHESTRA REVIEW

HAWKWIND LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Stellar Variations

A low-fat line-up of space-rock champions carry out an attention-arresting flying exercise.

The power chords of opener “Stellar Perspective” blow away any suspicious associations of a new HAWKS spin-off with ELO or any other sort of levity, although there’s a lot of symphonic sweep and vibrant delicacy in some of these tracks – ten fresh, if partly road-tested, and a kaleidoscopic reading of Tim Blake’s solo piece “A Song For A New Age”. Yet the keyboardist’s not on board of HLO, the band comprised of guitarist Dave Brock, bassist Niall Hone and drummer Richard Chadwick, who live close to each other, so there’s no other agenda behind it all save for the geographical one. And save for that, their album is an epitome of the HAWKWIND’s progressive component, with their typical Ladbroke Grove roughness close to a minimum.

Read on...

LINK: Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time (Review)

Hawkwind – A trip through Space, Part V The Opus 

Hall was a complete success, Hawkwind had truly reached the high of their career and surely it would not be possible for them to reach this standard again? Warrior on the edge of time truly shows that it is possible for lightning to strike the same place twice. With this record being equal in stature and ability to Hall of the Mountain Grill.

The line-up between Grill and Warrior changed in standard Hawkwind fashion. Del Dettmarr had left, leaving the band without a permanent soul behind the synthesiers. In addition they hired another drummer, a man by the name of Alan Powell. This meant that Hawkwind actually had two people behind the drum kit, because apparently one wasn't enough for this band who will try anything once.

Warrior is somewhat of a concept album and much of the input came from Michael Moorcock, a science fiction writer from the 1960s onwards. The album is roughly based around his saga of the Eternal Champion. This direction helps focus the band in the same way that Grill did. Meaning that the performance is tight and well constructed. On this album Hawkwind is.

Michael Moorcock – vocals
Dave Brock – guitar, keyboards, vocals, bass guitar 
Nik Turner – saxophone, flute, vocals
Lemmy – bass guitar, vocals 
Simon House – violin, keyboards
Simon King – drums, percussions
Alan Powell – drums, percussion

Read on...

DAVEY CURTIS: Worrier at the edge of Preston

Dear Jon.

The Hawkwind Preston gig was superb! The best one I have attended.

Great light show, sound and new production from the dancers.

The sax player from the excellent support band Hipiersonik joined them on stage to give it that Nick Turner sound. Fantastic. 

The reason for my worry was that I had injured my ankle and it was 3 mile hobble into town from my hotel because unbeknown to me the bus route had been changed! I thought I would never make it! Ho Hum. 

The agony I put myself through for Hawkwind.

Regards

Davey. C

Hawkeaster

Hawkwind's mini-tour ended this week... and here's a Gonzo look at Hawkeaster, a two-day event held in Season as an opener to that tour... Photos and text by Graham Inglis, who managed to find his way home the next day....

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...

 

Hawkwind personnel seated L-R: Mr Dibs, Nial Hone, compere Matthew Wright, Richard Chadwick, Dave Brock, Chris Tait, and Tim Blake.

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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!

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Butterworth interview

The first phase of Gonzo's Graham Inglis interview with science fantasy writer Michael Butterworth...

Gonzo: Hi Michael ... before I ask you about any recent activities, can I delve back into the mists of time and ask you a few things about your book The Time of the Hawklords. Where did the idea come from, of the things like Hawkwind's music warding off the effects of death generators?

MB: In "the mists of time" it certainly was, but I'll do my best for you! The idea for the book had already been agreed between Michael Moorcock and the publisher before I came on the scene. My job at an advertising agency had just come to an end, I was a single parent, so I decided to try my hand at freelance. With two very young children to support, it seemed best to be working from home. Mike was one of the people I approached for help, and he very generously gave me the books -- there were three, though at that stage only the first one had a title. The idea could have been written on the back of a matchbox. It was simply: "Hawkwind rocking in the ruins of London." The idea for the music guns came either from Mike or James Cawthorn [1929-2008]. They had done a comic strip together called 'Codename Hawkwind: The Sonic Assassins' for Frendz underground newspaper, in which the music wars are first played out [Frendz #16, Nov 29th 1971]. I can't remember now how I came across the strip, but I may have been shown it by Mike or Jim. Anyhow, I incorporated that into the synopsis I presented to the publisher's.

Gonzo: Anyone embarking on a writing project might well do some field research first. Yours could have consisted of going to lots of early-seventies Hawkwind gigs and getting bombed out of your skull! Was it actually like that?

MB: I didn't know much about Hawkwind. Early Pink Floyd was much more my kind of music, who were more inner space, but I very quickly got to like the Hawks who were unashamedly space cowboys and girl. They were more Mandrax than LSD, and yes, there were many zonked-out concerts, though unfortunately not for me. Although I had had LSD by then, and had tried mescaline and mushrooms, I hadn't taken them at a concert, where I mostly had alcohol and occasionally dope. I didn't find them conducive to music. It wasn't until the so called second summer of love in the late eighties, when dance music started, that I got into psychedelics in a bigger way (actually in the early 90s). Ecstasy made them more controllable. What I would have thought had I been able to try ecstasy at those Hawkwind 70s concerts I went to, I don't know. The light shows were so incredible. It's probably just as well I wasn't able to because I would have wrecked my head my now. Many have done, of course.

Gonzo: I've heard that, although Michael Moorcock is 'billed' as a co-author on the cover, he only wrote the first few lines. That's an unusual division of labour, isn't it?

MB: It was, and it was a very steep challenge, as I'd never written a novel before. I don't know why it happened the way it did, except I was keen to do it and Mike just let me get on with it. I showed it to him only at the end, when he added names to some of the guitars and sharpened some of my descriptions of the Hawklords in the opening chapter. Why it appears so unusual, I think, was because  Star Books had bought a Michael Moorcock book, not a Michael Butterworth one, so his name had to go on to fulfill the contract, which I had more or less taken over. He was actually appalled by what I had produced in his name, and told me so, though he later rang me to apologise and to say that it wasn't quite as bad as he initially thought!

Gonzo: At the time you wrote the book, I suppose "Warrior on the Edge of Time" was the then-latest album by Hawkwind. I liked the line about them doing an endless jam loosely based around Assault & Battery. Next month, Hawkwind's tour will - for the first time ever - include a full performance of the Warrior album.  Are you tempted to go along and see a show... for "old times' sake" as it were?

MB: I should, really. It would be nice, though to be honest I have given up going out, mainly to preserve what grey matter remains. The last time I saw them was at the Ritz in Manchester, towards the end of the 90s, when Trevor Hughes invited me. I have hardly done anything since 2000.

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This interview hopefully to be continued soon!

 The Hawkwind tour referred to, towards the end of this piece, has now taken place. 

Rock legends Hawkwind prepare for Lancashire show

Hawkwind

DAVE Brock has a thousand and one inter-galactic tales to tell about his anarchic career as captain of one of the world’s longest-running bands, Hawkwind.

From astounding stage spectacles — including the lavish Space Ritual shows — legal battles, bust-ups and reunions, rock’s master of the universe has even recorded a couple of tracks with original Star Trek captain William Shatner.

“It’s all still there after 44 years — space, politics, love and some peace,” says Brock, the only original Hawkwind member in the line-up.

“The Star Trek thing was nuts. William Shatner did a spoken word album of space-themed songs and included our big hit Silver Machine.

“Shatner’s a Hawkwind fan and now we’ve done Sonic Attack with him, which is totally different.

Read on...

LINK: Dave Brock interview

Dave Brock, has fronted Hawkwind since the beginning.

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DAVE BROCK has fronted the legendary Hawkwind since 1969. Ahead of their Cardiff date he chats to ANDY HOWELLS about the band, past, present and future

“WHEN you start off you only live for the day,” says Dave Brock as he looks back over Hawkwind’s amazing 43-year history.

“As time goes by you get tours booked up years in advance. We still tour all over the place.”

Originally formed as Hawkwind Zoo in 1969, the band had seemingly unlikely beginnings with founder member and former member of The Famous Cure, Dave Brock playing numerous turns as a busker on the streets of London.

Read on...

EXCLUSIVE: Graham Inglis interviews Alan Davey - part 2

The first half of the Alan Davey interview was published on Gonzo on Saturday 23rd March. 

Here, the conversation continues with that Psychedelic Warlords project, already discussed, and its upcoming tour which will recreate the classic live 70s Hawkwind album "Space Ritual Alive".

And then we turn to Alan's latest album and other things....

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GI- For many fans, the main 'point' about the Space Ritual album is the extensive riffing by Lemmy and Dave Brock. One can barely hear Nik Turner on the album. Will this project have that same sort of structural focus?

AD- Yeah, Vince the guitarist and I work well together on stage so we can jam out and get back to the song structure with a wink or a nod. Being  tight and loose at the same time is essential for the Space Ritual show and the true spirit in which this sort of music should be approached, not endlessly rehearsed, that just kills it!

GI- Will the Psychedelic Warlords band do other albums on other tours in the future?

AD- Yeah, got lotsa plans for some very special shows coming up, some unexpected ones too!

GI- Turning now to your album "Cyber Tooth"....

It's a concept album about computer viruses?  On listening, I thought it seemed to be more about people than about machines.

AD- Yeah, people, computers and viruses is what it's about not just virises so I'm glad that comes across and not just the virus part.

  GI- Musicians usually dislike being pidgeon-holed. But Hawkwind fans will probably find nice echoes of "Space Chase" on the instrumental track "Root Killer," it seems a bit less rocky than Eclectic Devils, and there's quite a few space-rock type instrumentals. Would you object to the album being categorised as a space-rock album?

AD- Not at all, it's in my blood, eh! I don't honestly know what pigeon hole I'm in though! I felt like experimenting with Cyber Tooth and tried some different approaches using some new VST plug ins I acquired for my studio program and I'm very pleased with the outcome. I've had many kind messages from fans about it and quite a few have said its my best album so far!  ;-)

GI- I have a kind of a mental image of you at your computer one day, and it crashes... and instead of screaming curses at it, you sit down and write an album about computer problems!  I guess it wasn't really quite like that? How did it all start?

AD- Not really but a good guess! My friend Kevin Sommers who does my album designing works for Intel as the "new processor design glitch sorter outta" ;-) I don't know the official title but we were talking about viruses and the interesting names some of them have and what they specifically target. Like Bootkiller for instance. So that's what triggered the whole concept.

I started researching and got sucked in, then a light bulb / dyslexic moment, the name Cyber Tooth (Sabre Tooth Tiger) came to mind out of nowhere which was great, 'cause I'd been trying to come up with a new name for a new computer virus as an album title. A eureka moment..!! ;-)

GI- The feel of it, I have the feeling it's not intended to be a vehicle for furthering your "bass monster" reputation?

AD- No and ya right, but I wanted to experiment with Cyber Tooth as I said and Bass Monstering wouldn't work with most of the songs on it. It's a nice sit back, relax and get taken on a journey album. I have 2 maybe 3 sides musically, I like loud heavy bassing but also like playing mellow, atmospheric stuff too.

GI- I've seen some of your Twitter "tweets" and notice you don't use it like some people do... who almost tell everyone what they've had for breakfast that day! Are you much of a fan of Facebook and "social media" stuff like that?

AD- I hate twitter actually, I can't seem to work out how to use it, Most things are easy, I may delete my twitter accounts soon. Facebook is much better, still a pain sometimes but much easier to use than twitter which is seeming more and more pointless by the day! FB is a good way for fans to get directly in touch with me and me with them which is cool.

GI- I've heard you are (or were) working with [former Hawkwind vocalist] Bridget Wishart on a project called "Djinn" [pronounced 'gin']. Can you tell us a bit about that...

AD- Bridget and I like Arabic music alot so we decided to do an album together of Arabic scaled songs. I'd send some music to her and she'd write the lyrics and put the vocals on and she is fantastic on it.! She came up with some brilliant vocal parts, inspiring they are! If ya didn't know Djinn is the Arabic word for Genie hence the album title, Last Wish!

She also plays some EWI on it, it's a midi blown instrument and sounds pretty wild when in Bridget's mouth! Ohhhhhh...... Thats doesnt sound good eh, an "oooohhhh matron" moment comes to mind! ;-) Anyway, we've had great feedback so far for it and we will do another album together I'm sure, time allowing, she's very easy to work with is our Bridget ;-)


GI- If someone were updating your biog, what bands would you say you're currently a member of, or still working with?

AD- The Psychedelic Warlords, Gunslinger (Which is on sabbatical this year ) and The Meads of Aspodel with whom I did bass for their new album recently. I did the bass for the new Pre-Med album recently also but I won't be playing live with PreMed - maybe one day with The Meads though, I hope.  That'd be a blast!

GI- And what are you currently working on?

AD- I'm working on Vol.2 of my Al Chemicals Lysergic Orchestra series which is way out psychedelic stuff. This one will be based on Death Valley and the places there I've been to. It's like a different planet, very inspiring as a writer/artist. For instance one song is called Bad Water, a place of saline, toxic water and miles of salt flats. It can be very hot, 54 degrees [130° Fahrenheit] when I was there in Sept 2012! My artist Kevin sings on this Bad Water song and plays his Naval on it; trumpet too.

[and Gonzo's hoping to arrange what would effectively be a 'part 3' to this interview.]

All info and news about all my albums and projects can be found on
www.alandaveymusic.com

Cheers for having me and enjoy Cyber Tooth, AD

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And cybertooth is currently available here:
Cybertooth
SCD - £9.99

CABINET OF CURIOSITIES: Hawkwind when they were Young

An unusual page surfaced in the 1988 Hawkwind tour programme, where gig-goers were invited to "spot the hawk" -

As a memory refresher, it might help if we recap on just who was in the band, in the early 1988 pre-Chadwick days!  Dave Brock's fellow-Hawks back then were Huw Lloyd-Langton, Harvey Bainbridge, and Alan Davey. Danny Thompson was the drummer, starting his fourth and final year.

For anyone who decides to have a go at guessing, in the comments area below, is the prize a free holiday for two in the Caribbean? Er, no. Sadly not.

EXCLUSIVE: Graham Inglis interviews Alan Davey

Alan Davey's currently in the middle of a tour (see here for the dates) but Gonzo's Graham Inglis managed to electronically catch him, via emails, and ask him a few things about his recent album, his future work, and even Twitter.

Hopefully we'll be able to carry on the conversation in the near future, but in the meantime here's the first portion of the existing interview....  


GI- Thank you for talking to Gonzo... Before I ask you anything about your recent recording work, You've just done a gig celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Space Ritual Alive album. How did that gig go?

AD- It was great fun, lots of jamming and interaction with each other, it was a fab gig! We recorded it too and I've been doing some rough mixes and it really does sound like an early 70's Hawkwind gig! It'll be released later this year but not sure when yet.

GI- The band's called "The Psychedelic Warlords" - whose band is it and is it intended just to be a tribute band?

AD- It wasn't the Psychedelic Warlords (a Hawkwind concept band I started up last year) at Herne Bay - that was Space Ritual/Hawklords. The Psychedelic Warlords are going out in UK and Europe this year doing the Space Ritual show. We played our first gig in Rotherham [on March 1st] and it was very well received.

Vince Cory, Radio Ray, Meurig Griffiths, Julian Slawinski and Nigel Ward who did the Herne Bay gig also play in the Psychedelic Warlords along with Rich Om on sound FX and Demolitia is dancing with us too.

We're headlining the Thursday night at this year's Roadburn Festival in Holland (Tribute bands don't headline fests like this) on the main stage and a special light show is being developed just for us... this is gonna be a great show!

GI- This spring, Hawkwind will be doing the Warrior album live and the Psychedelic Warlords will be doing the Space Ritual album live. These sort of things have never happened before. For fans, it's like waiting ages for a bus and eventually two arrive together! Is it coincidence?

AD- No idea if it's a coincidence or not but I had the idea to do this sort of show in April 2012 and first tried it at the Sonic Rock Solstice Festival in Wales  of June 2012 and it went down a storm! One fan saying, "That's the best Hawkwind gig I've seen for years!" 
 
But if ya gonna do these type of concept shows you gotta do it right or not at all. You just can't play the songs and feel like you've done it, that's copping out! You have to go to great lengths to perfect the sounds/tones used back then. I've just spent £1000 I ain't really got getting the right amp and cabs for the job. Had to sell an amp and a guitar to raise the money but when I do something I do it right and the fans that have now seen The Psychedelic Warlords know we mean business paying respect to these  classic old songs!

We've  perfected the sounds of all the instruments on the Space Ritual show that we're performing at the moment and as one Hawkwind fan pointed out to me, only Lemmy or I could pull this off as the bass drives the show big time! Same goes with all the albums Lemmy was on, I suppose!

GI- I wasn't there, but I gather the Hawkwind of 1972 played really loud and I imagine those Space Ritual Tour gigs didn't sound much like the album release the following year. Will the Psychedelic Warlords gigs seek to recreate the original sound experience or the later vinyl mix?

AD- Both; 'cause they're both valid as sounds, one is raw and edgy and the other is the definitive listen. We've managed to mix both angles of it really well!

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To be continued.... with more on the Psychedelic Warlords project. Also Alan's "Cyber Tooth" album

PART TWO

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Cybertooth

...and other planned activities.

In the meantime, info and news about all Alan's albums and projects can be found on...

www.alandaveymusic.com

And more about the upcoming Roadburn festival, Holland, can be found here.

LINK: Fascinatingly Bizarre Radio Ads for ’60s and ’70 Bands

Check it out...

Cabinet of Curiosities: Hawkwind 'funny money'

Barter tokens or 'Local Money' can be found in many towns across the world. Most operate on a system of alternative dollars or pounds, or represent a hour of work. Few, one imagines, would operate on a system of shillings ('bobs' in old-fashioned English) and even fewer would see fit to issue a trading note for the strange denomination of nine bob.

Someone, presumably a Hawkwind fan, did just that, many years ago.

The note was produced in a B.P. age - Before Photoshop - and it's difficult to imagine the note having ever gained any level of fiscal trust among traders anywhere. No matter how stoned they might be!



Until the 1960s, Britain had ten shilling notes in circulation, and a common derogatory phrase was "queer as a nine-bob note." Presumably the creators of this obscure Hawkwind currency were inspired by that phrase.


How many of these notes would have been required to gain entry to a Hawkwind gig?

LINK: Hawkwind Easter Festival Sells Out

Hawkwind’s Easter festival has sold out weeks ahead of the weekend event.

Billed as “two days of March madness,” HawkEaster takes place in Seaton, Devon, and stars the space rock icons plus Krel, Girlschool, Here And Now, Electric Wizard and more.

Day tickets ran out earlier this month with weekend passes following suit.

Read on...

LINK: Hawkwind Legend Nik Turner To Perform Legendary 'Space Ritual' Album Live At The Echoplex In Los Angeles – March 10, 2013

Los Angeles, CA - Much to the anticipation of west coast Prog/Psych music fans, legendary Hawkwind member Nik Turner will be performing at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on March 10, 2013. Making this event even more historic, Nik Turner and his band will be performing Hawkind's famed 'Space Ritual' album in its entirety live! 

Nik Turner was a founding member of Hawkwind during what has been considered their most commercially successful and critically acclaimed period for the band from 1970 to 1976. He wrote/co-wrote some of the group's most popular songs such as “Brainstorm” and “Master Of The Universe”. Hawkwind's 4th and possibly most popular album 'The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London' was recorded in 1972 (released in May 1973). Reaching #9 in the UK album charts and #179 in the Billboard Top 200, the double-record was recorded during the tour to promote the band's 'Doremi Fasol Latido' (third) release. The Space Ritual show attempted to create a full audio-visual experience. The performances featured dancers, lightshow by Liquid Len and poetry recitations by Robert Calvert. Now Nik Turner brings the historic show to the US shores, recreating the magic once again!

Read on...