Show #118: The Psychedelic Warlords

"Crap! What about some Hawkwind or Marillion?!"

I'm going to fulfill another request this week. This time it's from Arch Stanton who has been pestering me with his requests for "crazy mustachioed-bellbottom-wearing -ugly-dudes-from-England". And so, to quell his rage, we've got some Hawkwind this week.

I first heard mention of Hawkwind sometime in the mid-1980s when I was getting into progressive rock and saw the above scene from The Young Ones at about the same time. But it wasn't until 1988 that I actually bought my first album by the band, The Xenon Codex, which was their latest effort at the time and it remains a favorite of mine to this day. It's a tribute, I suppose, to an otherwise pretty crappy chain store in a mall up in Eau Claire that they had even one album by the group. By this time, the band's line-up was dramatically different than it was back in 1969 when they started out by throwing themselves headlong into the psychedelic scene in the UK. Only Dave Brock remained from the original incarnation, although Huw Lloyd-Langton had returned to the fold. (He having first joined in 1970.) Brock was the band's leader when it formed and he remains so today. The musicians surrounding him come and go but, as long as he's at the center, it is still Hawkwind.


(Photo found at Starfarer.)

As the photo above demonstrates, Hawkwind had quite a reputation for their lives shows which featured crazy lighting, luminescent paint, and their hard-edged psychedelic music which often came in the form of long, freaky jams. There was also sax player/flautist Nik Turner who had no compunction against dressing up as a space lizard. It didn't hurt that LSD was popular amongst the members either. Starting in 1971, a dancer by the name of Stacia became attached to the group and she would gyrate onstage, often times in hippie garb, but just as often with only a bit of paint, as this photo demonstrates.


(Photo by Jorgen Angel.)

In 1972, a young Lemmy joined the group for a few years before being unceremoniously booted and going on to form Motorhead. Fantasy/sci-fi author Michael Moorcock worked with the band in 1975 on Warrior on the Edge of Time. Moorcock is best-known for his Elric series, which is part of a larger Eternal Champion cycle. He would go on to work with Blue Öyster Cult.

If you're keen on exploring Hawkwind, keep in mind that the band lost control over the rights to their music a long time ago so the market is absolutely flooded with compilations of varying quality that outnumber regular/"legitimate" releases. The Hawkwind Wikipedia entry is a good place to start. Here in Madison, Mad City Music Exchange should be able to handle all your Hawkwind needs.


(Photo found at Starfarer.)

I dug out this performance from the Kinetic Playground in Birmingham, UK. It took place on 3 December 1971. While not the best recording ever, it's not too bad. A review of the show from Melody Maker noted:

Hawkwind's entire act takes place in a doomy, gloomy, space -age atmosphere - shadow figures of the band lit up by flashing footlights - luminous symbols decorating drums and speaker cabinets - and a disturbingly hypnotic strobe directed at the audience. The music is heavy electronic, repetitive and compelling. The band's claim that it is specifically aimed at dope freaks certainly seems to be valid - it rather flashes past we Tizer drinkers.

Setlist:

Technicians of Spaceship Earth
You Shouldn't Do That
First Landing On Medusa
You Know You're Only Dreaming
The Clone's Poem
Master of the Universe
Paranoia
Silver Machine
Welcome

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Hawkwind

And now for the obligatory YouTube footage. This is "Silver Machine". I believe it's from their 7 July 1972 show in Dunstable.