Barney Bubbles Memorial Concert, 29/11/09

Barney Bubbles Memorial Concert, 29/11/09

Thanks to Graham P, the same gent who brought you all the 'Music from the Hawkwind family tree' reviews, for the text and photos on this page...

My expectations weren’t high for this; twice cancelled and finally rescheduled on a cold November Sunday in a little club in central London. The promise of a reformed ICU prompted me to buy a ticket… and then Fred and Steve pulled out, apparently because they wanted to rehearse and Trev didn’t. Oh Dear. Then the Brian James Gang Cancelled. Indeed the roll call of the missing in action kept growing. Surprise guests were conspicuously absent or, as will become clear, inconspicuously present.

Rolling up to the venue around 3 pm I’d already missed Lol Coxhill and there was a queuing system whereby only five people could be let in at once… to enter a tiny subterranean room with a postage stamp sized stage. It was already crowded and the only attractions were the Barney Bubbles exhibition (with relevant music in the background – the eighties Stiff acts who Barney drew sleeves for), Trev Hughes’s stall, and the bar. Nik, Harvey and Alan pushed through the crowd and disappeared into a makeshift dressing room around the back. Everybody carried on standing around. Apparently we were waiting to be let into the main hall so I nipped off up the road to get a sandwich. A few minutes later Harvey turned up in the same place to pick up his lunch, still every inch the mad professor. If ever Michael Gambon gets bored of playing Dumbledore…

The main room was opened and half the crowd instantly gravitated to the merchandising stall – which featured virtually every Nik Turner release known to man and several other archive recordings, including a CD of the Imperial Pompadours record, plus a smattering of CDs from Alan Davey, Ron Tree, Adrian Shaw, Trev Thoms and Earth Lab - and Hawkwind’s Spaced Out in London and the Hawkfest 2003 CD. DVDs too, plus the usual teeshirts and programmes. I think they did good business and the Hawks could learn a thing or two about merchandising! Meanwhile, the Imperial Pompadours came out on stage, around 45 minutes behind schedule: basically ICU – Nik, Trev and Dino plus bassist, female backing singer and percussionist (the main percussion instrument being an empty plastic water canister) – and backing tapes of the spoken word weirdness sections of the record. The stage set consisted entirely of selections from the album, sometimes familiar songs generally arranged very strangely. Not exactly easy listening but interesting enough and genuine Barney-inspired material.

Left: The Imperial Pompadours (Trev, Nik, and (I think) Nazar Alikhan (note water canister percussion just in shot stage left)

Half an hour or so later, after we had been regaled with Beatles songs over the PA, ICU took the stage: Nik, Trev, Dino, Nazar and female percussionist/backing vocalist. Well, actually Trev is late, off to change his teeshirt. Nik asks Quintessence if his son Elfin can borrow their percussion set up. Apparently he can. Cue female percussionist (noting empty keyboard station): “Nik – where’s Jim?” Er… Jim (Hawkman) is nowhere

to be seen so they make do without keyboards. The set leans heavily on the first three albums (Passout, The Maximum Effect, Punkadelic just in case you need reminding) kicking off with “Watching the Grass Grow”, then taking in (in no particular order), “Solitary Astrid”, “Remember Walking in the Sand”, “Space Invaders”, “Cybernetic Love” (so that’s where the Utopia lyrics started out), “Cars Eat with Autoface”, “Gas Money”, “Two Worlds” and “Lonesome Train” (the only track from New Anatomy). Nik clearly still has an incredible memory for lyrics, never missing a beat, delivering the whimsical (Two Worlds), the rock and roll (Lonesome Train) and the deadpan comedy voiceovers. Give this man a job with the Bonzos… he’d be a great choice for Viv Stanshall’s songs. Trev handled singing the harder-edged stuff like “…Autoface”. The biggest cheers (and singing along) were for “Bones of Elvis” and “Rajneesh”. The

set ended with “In The Mood”. Despite the depleted line up they were in fine form: Naz and Dino rock solid, Trev doing the punky reggae guitar lines and restraining his hard rock tendencies and Nik imperious on his sax. Before leaving the stage again, Nik reminds us that ICU was also a Barney Bubbles project, at least Barney chose the name (named after a council department). ICU may be an acquired taste but for my tastes they were spot on and well worth the price of entry.

Right: ICU in full flight…or is it the Imperial Pompadours: Nik, Naz and Trev

Above: Turner junior, Nik, Naz … Naz and Trev

Starting immediately on the small stage, the Pentameter Players performed the two- person one-act Calvert

play “The Stars Who Played with Laughing Sam’s Dice”, featuring a young Hendrix in the army and telling his sergeant about his dreams of the future. Probably 20 people watched the play and probably fewer heard it, since the performance was not amplified and the assembled crowds carried on talking… but it was a fascinating glimpse of Calvert’s non-musical work, his facility with language and imagery (and various phrases that would crop up in his lyrics).

By the time this finished, Quintessence were already on stage but sounded unexciting so I went off for a pizza. When I returned I would swear they were still playing the same song, which I guess just tells you I wasn’t in the mood for their laid-back fare.

The stage was rapidly set for the main event but it took a good while before individual Hawks came out

to set up their gear (no roadies to steal their jobs!!). Jerry came out and plugged in his guitar, Alan (who has grown his hair again) brings his bass, Steve Swindells stood behind his keyboards. Danny Thompson towered over the drum kit – made it look like a toy kit. Nik carried out his saxophone and flute, Ron Tree appeared, looking increasingly like an emaciated piece of string, carrying piles of paper, which he proceeded to drop on the stage and had to pick them up and reorganise them. Harvey took up a position on the left; Ade Shaw added his bass and then retreated. Nik obviously is centre stage, the rest of the front line being Jerry, Ron and Alan. With little fanfare they are up and running: the sound from in front of the stage is solid if a bit ponderous. Alan and Danny keep it solid, the bass drum vibrations a physical assault. Jerry is efficient without emulating Mr Brock’s rhythm attack. Nik’s sax is high in the mix but the keyboards barely audible (although later on, from the back of the hall, the balance is much better). Ron reads most of the lyrics and has to crouch on the stage floor half the time to see the words, although some of his performances (notably on Steppenwolf and Psi Power) are really excellent. He is also convinced that the band are going to play “Urban Guerrilla”, twice announcing it to no avail. Alan twice swaps bass duties with Adrian. No egos here (and none of the nonsense of multiple bassists on stage at the same time which helped make the early Hawkestra gigs such a farce (if videos of same are anything to go by). Despite a severe lack of space on stage there are dancers for a few songs (Angel and two friends, plus Tony Crerar - supposedly, although he never showed his face). The one real let down was the light show. Pretty non-descript throughout and low intensity.

The set features more than a smattering of Space Ritual tracks (Orgone Accumulator, Brainstorm,

Master of the Universe, Ten Seconds of Forever, Seven by Seven, Sonic Attack, Shouldn’t Do That) but also ventures into the later catalogue for Opa Loka, a fairly bizarre reading of The Reptoid from Ron, the above mentioned Steppenwolf (excellent), and the closing Psi Power (outstanding – by this time I’d drifted to the back of the hall and could actually hear Steve Swindells’ keyboard work – and for once Ron didn’t need to read all the lyrics).

Nik announces that they need to bring things to a close and reads out apologies from Thomas Crimble (present apparently but arrived too late to play), Terry Ollis (off with flu), Mick Slattery (injured finger), Stacia (“perhaps she couldn’t get two seats on the plane” says Alan), and DikMik. Simon King is somewhere in the audience he says, but doesn’t rise to Nik’s invitation to join them on stage. The crew are thanked, and the spirit of Barney invoked again. It’s probably not fair to say this but the real elephant in the room is Dave Brock’s inevitable absence from proceedings. The band conspicuously lacks the edge of the real thing but on the other hand they are all speaking to each other despite past differences, they all have some genuine claim on at least some parts of the legacy and Nik is a fabulous front man. Age has not slowed him down.

By this time, I was standing at the back of the hall to ensure I could make a quick getaway to catch my train. Looking around I finally spotted him, an unassuming, neatly dressed and short-haired middle aged man, chatting to Trev Thoms. Acknowledging Nik’s stage announcement with a small wave,

Simon King, the former Hound Master and engine room of Space Ritual era Hawkwind, slips out of the door. Sometimes it’s better that legends stay that way… And as the Hawklords bludgeon their way into

Silver Machine, this seems like a good time to leave.