Inspired by a post by @polmico in another thread, I decided to make the 42nd thread on Progressive Ears with Hawkwind's name in the title. Most of the prior threads have either been inactive for some years, or were more specific. I'd like this one to be a general appreciation thread that we can add to as we need to.
I first happened on Hawkwind in the early 1980s, introduced to it at boarding school by a young teacher who was in his first job out of college. He expressed an interest in taking school pupils to see rock concerts if we could get enough interest to use the school mini bus. My friend Gregor and I keenly scanned through our copies of Sounds and Melody maker to see what was coming up. I mentioned to the teacher that there was a Hawkwind concert soon, but that I didn't know them. He said that would be great, and that he had a couple of their albums if I cared to hear them. He had both Space Ritual and the recently released Live 79 and I very quickly knew that this was something that I wanted to see live. I set out to find a dozen people to justify use of the school the mini bus, and within a day, I had the numbers. We would go and see Hawkwind. It was transformative.
By the time Sonic Attack was released, I had already used a fair amount of my saved pocket money to buy five earlier Hawkwind albums, and it was clear that this was a band who had extraordinary beginnings, a lot of different line-ups and artistic styles and plenty of talent and energy left in them. While the same teacher had also introduced me to CAN and I was buying up all kinds of Krautrock too, Hawkwind were live, vital and accessible in the present. By the time my first full-time job rolled around in 1985, I had seen them dozens of times, had every studio release, and had even stood in a band signing session next to Huw Lloyd Langton at a convention and signed a bunch of their albums at his urging. Naughty.
Hawkwind have continued to interest me. Now in their seventh decade, they continue to ply their trade with space rock album releases (something like 33 studio albums so far, with a new one due later this year) and frequent touring. While their 'hit rate' is not what it once was, and despite having had an incredible stable core lineup that reduces in the external influences, Dave Brock can still turn out some inventive ideas, and they continue to be in their element in a live setting with a responsive audience.
Bookmarks