ROBERT CALVERT: Starfarer's praise

Graham Inglis and I have been mates for over twenty years, and for the last seven he has been sharing my house in rural North Devon. He is a mega-Hawkind fan, and when I first started to work for Gonzo Multimedia, and my first job was to prepare a new edition of Robert Calvert's book of poetry Centigrade 232, one of the first things that I did was to ask for his aid. We worked hard on the new edition, and it was published last month.

Apparently one of the major reviewing dudes in Hawkwindland is a chap called 'Steve Starfarer' who runs a website called http://www.starfarer.net/ which describes itself as: "...a less-than-reverent fan site devoted to Hawkwind, inventors of space rock".

He recently gave Centigrade 232 a through and pretty good review, culminating: "It has so much more impact given the way it is presented in this new edition. And the wider availability is excellent, perhaps affording Calvert the best chance at the recognition that he sought, nearly twenty-five years after his passing. Good job all round".

The review can be found: http://www.starfarer.net/c232bkcd.html about half way down the page. I accept his criticisms (which are pretty minor) but I would like to set the record straight on one matter, the cover.

Steve writes: "I was surprised to see that the cover has the same image as the 2007 Voiceprint edition’s, although it’s provided in a larger format: approximately 6” x 9”." Further on he writes: "Further digging reveals that Gonzo and Voiceprint are in fact the same outfit, more or less, which explains why the new edition looks so similar to the previous one: they probably reused the same printing plates etc.. "

Not actually the case. Keeping the cover was my choice and mine alone. Rob Ayling originally asked me for a psychedelicy cover, but I put the whole package together trying to bear in mind that Calvert wished to be known as a poet rather than a rock music performer, and I thought that the cover of the 2nd edition was really rather nice. I have never actually seen the first edition, and as far as I am aware no-one at Gonzo actually has a copy, so I had to err on the side of caution whilst correcting errors, and deciding what bits of artwork to leave out and what to keep in.

Thanks for your kind words Steve. I appreciate them. I hope that the next time I design a Hawkwind related package it, too, will meet with your approval.

Slainte
Jon

BOB CALVERT: Poet's Corner

There is a new edition of Robert Calvert's seminal book of poetry Centigrade 232. How do I know? Because I designed and typeset it, my wife Corinna proofread it, and Graham and I went through and fixed some cock ups that had been there since a much earlier edition.

Robert Newton Calvert: Born 9 March 1945, Died 14 August 1988 after suffering a heart attack. Contributed poetry, lyrics and vocals to legendary space rock band Hawkwind intermittently on five of their most critically acclaimed albums, including Space Ritual (1973), Quark, Strangeness & Charm (1977) and Hawklords (1978). He also recorded a number of solo albums in the mid 1970s. CENTIGRADE 232 was Robert Calvert's first collection of poems.

FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION:

Robert Calvert was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1944, but moved to
England at the age of two. He went to school in London and Margate, and later studied building technology at Canterbury Tech.

Always interested in the literary arts, he began writing and performing poetry around 1967, and in that year formed a street theatre group in London’s Chalk Farm, called ‘Street Dada Nihilismus’. Shortly afterwards he met up with
Britain’s premier space-rock band, Hawkwind, with whom he has now evolved from resident poet into lead singer. He co-composed the band’s hit single, Silver Machine, and directed their unforgettable Space Ritual stage show, appearing as poet and narrator. As well as recording with Hawkwind, he has also made two solo albums, Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters and Lucky Leif and the Longships.

More recently he has turned his wide talents to the theatre, Stars that Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice, his play about Jimi Hendrix, was staged by the
Pentameters Theatre in 1976, and he has since written a full-length stage play scheduled for production in the Spring of 1976.

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