Hawkwind: Do Not Panic!

[Wayne]

Wanna know a bit more about Hawkwind?

If you do, there's a docu on BBC4 on Friday the 30th at 9pm. (repeated at 11.50pm & 2.50am)

"Told for the first time, the inside story of Hawkwind, one of Britain's wildest acid rock bands. They emerged from the Ladbroke Grove underground at the end of the 1960s, trailing the radicalism of the counter-culture in their wake, and have been a direct influence on punk, metal, dance and rave - as well as pioneering multimedia rock shows with their legendary Space Ritual tour, and leading the free festival scene from its birth to its apogee at the last Stonehenge in 1984.
Unruly, anarchic, and often at war with themselves, Hawkwind are one of the last great outsider bands. Although the testimony of guitarist and founder member Dave Brock isn't present, the film includes interviews with some of the band's enduring legends, including bassist Lemmy, writer Michael Moorcock, founder members Terry Ollis, Nik Turner and Mick Slattery, former managers Doug Smith and Jeff Dexter, leading rock critic Nick Kent and broadcaster and super-fan Matthew Wright."

Very unusual for my favourite band to get any media attention whatsoever these days!

[Ralph]

I'm not really familiar with Hawkwind at all. I might try and catch one of the screenings to check out the Waynester appeal

[Wayne]

I've no idea what this docu will be like, But the fact that Dave Brock - Hawkwind's founder member & mainstay is not included is rather odd, since he's the only one who's been there since day one, & is still there.
I don't know whether it's his own choice, but i would suspect so, since there's been an unfortunate feud with ex co-founder Nik Turner for several years, since Brock took him to court over his putting out substandard live Hawkwind recordings on his own label that were from his own collection that amounted to little more than bootleg quality, purely for personal gain.
Still, i'm very interested to see how they (Hawkwind) will be presented.

[Jonno]

Are you sure you've given us enough warning, Wayne? This thread will have disappeared off the page by next Friday!

I shall be watching Camille and co. on The Weakest Link that night.

[Dave Tudor]

This might even prompt me to watch THAT video, Wayne...

[Wayne]

Are you sure you've given us enough warning, Wayne? This thread will have disappeared off the page by next Friday!

I shall bring it back on Fiday morning.

I shall be watching Camille and co. on The Weakest Link that night.

The Hawkwind docu is on 3 times that night, you know!

As it happens, i'm out gigging so i'll have to set my timer to record it, anyway. I may be back in time for the 11.50 showing, but if not, i'll just have to catch the really late one, if anything goes wrong with the timer record.

Oh & @Dave!

[Wayne]

I shall bring it back on Fiday morning.


The Hawkwind docu is on 3 times that night, you know!

As it happens, i'm out gigging so i'll have to set my timer to record it, anyway. I may be back in time for the 11.50 showing, but if not, i'll just have to catch the really late one, if anything goes wrong with the timer record.

Oh & @Dave!

As promised, A reminder for tonight, in case anyone's interested.
(not that i'm expecting anyone to be converted overnight, or anything)

[Dave Tudor]

I've been out tonight, but I shall be setting a tape for the 11.50 showing.

[Wayne]

I've been out tonight, but I shall be setting a tape for the 11.50 showing.

That's the showing that i watched & recorded. I've since found out that there was an unscheduled 'extra' right after the 9pm showing, - of the 'Silver Machine' promo video that was used on TOTP in 1972. I've seen clips from this over the years, but i've never seen it the whole thing, & i didn't get record the 9pm showing because i knew i was gonna be back in time for the repeat. Luckily Jonno managed to grab it though.
Anyway, it was an interesting docu. I didn't really learn anything that i didn't know, but i expected that. There were a few snippets of footage from the 'Space Ritual' era that i've never seen before, but Dave Brock's presence was missed amongst the contributors.
The docu focussed larely on the early days & the 70's, during which time the band were at their most succesfull from a commercial standpoint. I suppose it was inevitable that the 80's (which was the time i was most into Hawkwind) was pretty much skipped over, as this was the decade that saw Hawkwind's gradual commercial decline to the status of a 'cult' band. Sadly, that missed out Huw Lloyd-Langton's main contribution as lead guitarist during all of the 80's, & his chief musical input into the documentary was an acoustic guitar version of 'Hurry On Sundown'. Unfortunately, Huw may be a great lead gutarist, but he's a limited vocalist, & that song was of course sung by Dave Brock, who along with the now dead Bob Calvert, was the main 'voice' of Hawkwind. Getting Huw Loyd-Langton to do it, is a bit like getting Jimmy Page to sing 'Communication Breakdown' or something. A bit of a daft idea really, & unfortunately, Ron Tree similar vocal debauchery of 'Psi-Power' only made it more obvious how much missed Dave Brock was from this docu.
Still, such artistic faux paux aside, it was still good to see them getting a bit of recognition for 37yrs worth of music. As expected, Lemmy was the most entertaining of the contributors. His singular wit, & his 'tell it like it is - warts n' all' (no pun intended) approach is always refreshing in today's world of bullshit, hype, & spin.

[Wayne]

This might even prompt me to watch THAT video, Wayne...

I've been out tonight, but I shall be setting a tape for the 11.50 showing.

Any comments, Dave?

[Dave Tudor]

Any comments, Dave?

I'm sure it's very good.

I'm glad you reminded me of this, Wayne - I'm starting to build up a collection of things I've taped over the past few weeks, which I haven't got round to watching, the Hawkwind doc being one of them! I'll try to watch it this weekend - might make a good Bank Holiday treat.