Show starts at 8pm so we wander into the auditorium at 8.15pm. Bedouin are already on, thought HLL would have been propping up the bill. Maybe Alan Davey needs the break between sets. Not seen Bedouin before, they are pretty good. They play "LSD" from Electric Tepee. Go up to the back of the auditorium to smoke, see bouncers converging on us. Have to go outside to smoke. The Fairfield Halls is staffed by affable old buffers in blazers, there's no smoking in the hall, and the security seems edgy. We go outside to have a puff and are being all surreptitious about it. Then we see an anarchic looking HW fan
Back inside, Huw Lloyd Langton is halfway through his acoustic set. It's all right. He finishes and Hawkwind come on. Dave encourages us to applaud Huw and says "Huwie will be back later for Motorway City". Huw goes off - it's 9pm. There is a rush for the front and security spread themselves out to stop us from storming the stage like smitten schoolgirls at a Westlife gig. And they stop people from smoking too. Ron asks them to chill out, well done Ron. Launch into Assault & Battery, followed by Golden Void. Sound is good, the band are tight and the lights are good. Richard is on drums, really low at the back of the stage. Dave is behind his synths stage right, also towards the back. I have heard he likes football, I bet he plays at right back. Jerry Richards is out on the left (as the audience sees the stage). Alan Davey to the right of him, Ron Tree in the middle, and Simon House is playing at Centre Back.
Simon looks amazing, an abstracted college professor in an episode of Morse (but dressed like an old hippy). Alan Davey is really hammering the bass tonight, playing right on or even in front of the beat. The band is f***ing tight. Dave is in good humour & wearing a Hawkwind Galactic Tour t-shirt in the style of the Weird CD cover art. He has grown his tache back. Also on stage are new keyboard player Keith Kniveton, known to some as Captain Bl@ck of Starfield. He is on the right wing (football, not politics!). And the bloke who played sax at Hawkestra/Astoria, whose name I still didn't catch -he dresses like one of the Blues Brothers- is at front right, intermittently blocking view of The Captain.
I think I am going to be thrown out by security when they poke me in the shoulder and tell me no smoking. They settle for it being stubbed out. Meanwhile there is an intense looking geezer near me, must be a speed freak. He's got a real Dickensian snarl on him too and is monopolising the left ear of someone who plainly doesn't want to know - both of them are engulfed in dry ice and when it clears the speed freak has wandered off somewhere. The atmosphere lightens and I find myself grinning like an idiot, Alan Davey plainly thinks so when I make eye contact with him. I also grinned like an idiot at a lady who was backstage, taking photos with a digital camera. I have seen her before, last at Blackheath in 1997. I don't know who she is, but she smiled back. I think it might be Kris Tait.
The set list is very mid-70's, the highlights are the most unexpected numbers - You'd Better Believe It and Spiral Galaxy 28948. With Alan and Simon playing it is like the band of ten years ago, a really good period. But no Bridget Wishart. No Sam Fox either. Or Tim Blake. Or dancers. This is kind of a stripped down show by HW standards but they are playing like demons tonight. Captain Rizz came and did his thing, Huwie did indeed come back, played on a few numbers before they finished. And came back for an encore, Motorway City. Excellent to hear that again. Then Hurry On Sundown, and that was it. The house lights came back on, Huw took a last bow and said "uh" into a microphone. And the buffoons in blazers ushered us out of the building and we had to go home. Aldershot next Sunday, we will be there. Joe Brown won't.
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