Hawkfest 2003 Review - Part 2 of 3

HawkFest 2003 - Part 2

Hawkwind were billed as being on at 9pm, with Harvey Bainbridge preceding them at 8.15pm, so we were in the tent ready for that at the appointed time. Harvey’s set didn’t actually begin until 8.40pm but we were right at the front, and had a fantastic view. He opened the set with Coded Languages, and to our joy several guests joined Harvey onstage, notably Martin Griffin on drums and Huw Lloyd Langton on guitar. Huw was walking with a stick and had to be helped onstage – he looked incredibly frail and played seated, with a little Roland Cube amp mic’d up on a chair next to him. We could hear him well in the quieter passages, though he did tend to get drowned out at times. The good news was that Huwie’s playing was excellent, much better than last year, and he got a great reception from the fans. He, Harvey, Martin Griffin and Mr.Dibs ran through a long version of Waiting For Tomorrow. Various other members of Hawkwind, Dave Brock and Alan Davey among them, guested during Harvey’s set, which ended with Free Fall. This was ruined by Mr.Dibs, who hammered out the main riff far too fast, and was evidently listening to nobody but himself. The rest of the band were presumably keeping time with Harvey’s samples, and I saw Mr.Bainbridge looking at Dibs and shaking his head in disbelief… ***Please see the footnote at the bottom of this page***

Above: Huw (L) and Harvey (R) Right: Martin Griffin

Finally Hawkwind proper came back on, Harvey (who was not very audible, or visible, being huddled away at the back throughout) and Huw joining them for almost the entire set, as did Keith Kniveton on EMS synthi to stage right, with Mr.Dibs and Keith Barton from Spacehead guesting on some numbers, and Arthur Brown singing on a handful of numbers, too. Guests aside, Hawkwind consisted of Dave Brock, Richard Chadwick, Alan Davey (who we did not see enough of – and on some numbers he only sang, while Dibs played bass), and Simon House, who was sublimely audible throughout.

They kicked off with a fabulous version of Arrival In Utopia, swiftly followed by Arthur joining them on stage for Time Captives. He made a grand entrance in a silver lamé jacket illuminated with fairy lights, opening and closing a collapsible plastic sphere. The sound was excellent and this was one of the tightest performances I’ve seen from Hawkwind, despite the fluid line-up with guests coming onstage and going off again. The set list was similar to that for the May 2003 tour, with the 3rd number being The Watcher, which has now been developed to such a point that you feel the way that the band are currently playing it live is the definitive version. It bears some similarities to the live 1974 version heard on the 1999 Party – Live In Chicago album, but is better than that, Alan Davey of course starring on bass and vocals. More Alan, less Dibs!

Right: Keith Kniveton

I certainly enjoyed the contribution that Keith Barton made on the guitar, but I came to see Hawkwind, not Spacehead, and my personal view is that Mr.Dibs should not be allowed anywhere near the stage when Hawkwind are playing. To be fair, he did play much better for Hawkwind than he had for Harvey Bainbridge, and made no mistakes that I was aware of. But still.

Right: Alan Davey

Mr.Dibs

Matters continued with Magnu, followed by Chronoglide Skyway, which featured an effective rave breakbeat integrated into the song. It was great to hear this played live, and Simon’s violin was awesome (as usual!) but we

needed some lead guitar to really round this off. The Right Stuff was next up and this was incredibly powerful, the best version of this song ever. Following which, a surprise: Wings, from the 1990 Space Bandits album, again with Alan Davey to the fore. After that was Hurry On Sundown, and then the number which I thought represented the highpoint of the entire set, Brainbox Pollution.

Left: Simon House

Spirit of the Age came after that, and Matthew Wright did not appear on stage to sing it. For which I was grateful, wanting this to be as pure a Hawkwind experience as possible. Green Finned Demon then segued into 'In The Trees' and then another surprise inclusion, Abducted. Arthur came out for this one (I think) wearing an excellent Alien costume. At some point during the main part of the set, Tone and Kris , whose brainchild the HawkFest was and is, came on stage at Dave Brock’s prompting, to take a very well-deserved bow.

Dave was more visible than normal, coming out from his behind synths to drive the set along with slabs of blanga guitar, and even doing some two-guitars stuff with Keith Barton, which was great to see and hear.

Finally we got one of the new numbers, Angela Android, which featured a not-altogether-successful appearance by a dancer suitably attired. I also thought I had heard what must be Take Me To Your Leader somewhere along the way (it wasn’t something I recognised) but this may just have been a jamming segment of something else. I was told they had not played Sun Ray, which was the other new number to have featured on the May 2003 tour. The main part of the set finished up with Assault & Battery and The Golden Void, and then a thumping version of Where Are They Now, the band filing offstage to tumultuous applause…

We were exhorted to cheer louder if we wanted an encore, and they came back for the obligatory Hassan-i-Sahba, followed by Master of the Universe, for which everyone was back on stage. As far as I recall, Hassan did not include the ‘Space Is Their Palestine’ mid-section, and MOTU was a fitting finale to what had been a fantastic gig. Everyone

was cheered off, but Harvey and Huw in particular were given a very rousing send-off, both of them shaking hands with a few members of the audience as they went, Huw using his cane to help him along. All good things come to an end, and that was the last thing to happen in the Tent for Saturday. Richard Chadwick’s techno project, ‘Little Big Men’ were on in the barn afterwards, but only played a half hour due to technical problems, I understand. Waiting for them to come on, the stuff the DJ was playing was enough to drive us away, and to be honest anything after Hawkwind would have been a let-down, so we left it at that….

*** Footnote:

Mr.Dibs has contacted me to say this: "To be fair, it was MG's relentless drumming that made Free Fall difficult, and that was what Harvey was shaking his head at, not me. I was personally invited by all concerned to take the stage, and we all had great fun, which is what it was all about." Now, considering my criticisms could be considered somewhat intemperate, that's a very calm & reasoned response from Mr.Dibs. Which is good when you consider how large he is :-)

HawkFest 2003 - Part 1 HawkFest 2003 - Part 2 HawkFest 2003 - Part 3