"Captain Trips" or not, Turner is now on the road with a band, who perform music that he believes captures the spirit of Hawkwind. Nik Turner's Hawkwind will play Peabody's DownUnder this Tuesday, February 1, but this tour almost didn't happen.
"It's not the same Hawkwind that you might have seen before," Turner says by phone from somewhere on the road. "I'm not the band Hawkwind. What I'm presenting is like the spirit of Hawkwind, so I call it 'Nik Turner's Hawkwind'. It's a slightly different animal, and the show we're doing is a different animal as well. What we're doing is re-creating the sound and spirit of early Hawkwind. I hope people will like it. We're doing a very theatrical show. We're calling it 'Space Ritual '94.' "
The show is a flashback to Hawkwind's 1973 double album SPACE RITUAL, which was the band's most commercially successful recording. Turner, who co-founded the band in 1969, left the group in 1976. His latest album, PROPHETS OF TIME, was just released this month, and it features Helios Creed, Genesis P. Orridge, Simon House and Pressurehed, all of whom will be performing with Turner at Peabody's DownUnder.
The wrangling between the former bandmates has heated up in recent months.
"I've had problems with the other Hawkwind," Turner explains. "I didn't think I was on bad terms with them until they suddenly served an injunction on one of the gigs and got the gig cancelled because I'm using the name. Dave Brock [original Hawkwind guitarist / vocalist] is the one who's causing all of the problems," he continues. "What happened with Hawkwind is that Dave was the one who sort of hired and fired everybody. We all thought it was a people's band, like the Grateful Dead, and we were actually likened to the Dead in the early days. I was supposed to be the British counterpart to Jerry Garcia."
"The band went on with everybody thinking it was the people's band, and suddenly people started getting sacked. I was in the band for eight years, and then suddenly I got sacked. I thought it was my band and everybody's band, and suddenly it wasn't. It was Dave Brock's band, and he made sure of that."
Turner, ever the hippie, maintains that there is no ill will between him and Brock. "I don't bear any malice against him," Turner says. "I just think it's all a bit stupid. It's not really in the spirit of what Hawkwind should be and what people believe Hawkwind to be about."
Considering the legal action that has already been initiated, the Hawkwind legacy has taken a shot to the groin. Turner, for one, remains deeply concerned about what the ramifications of the legal actions will be.
"We've stipulated to all the promoters that they should advertise it as 'Nik Turner's Hawkwind' or 'Nik Turner - co-founder of Hawkwind', something like that," Turner explains. "This is what I'm up against at the moment. I just came over here thinking I'd do a simple, little tour as Nik Turner's Hawkwind, [and it's] obviously not the same as the other Hawkwind. But that's my problem."
So far, the tour is going well, selling out clubs in certain major cities, but not all the dates have been sold out.
"It's going very well," Turner says. "We're getting a great reaction everywhere we go. We did a sold-out show at the Club Lingerie in L.A., and we've done other sold-out gigs. There was one gig, however, in Lubbock, Texas, that wasn't, shall I say, very well attended."
Lubbock, Texas? That's Buddy Holly's hometown. I tell Turner that I wouldn't expect people in Lubbock, Texas to come out to see Hawkwind.
"Well, maybe we should've been Buddy Holly's Hawkwind," Turner says with a laugh. "We could have done 'Peggy Sue' with synthesizers and oscillators. Actually I'd like to do that someday."
Hey Nik! Nothing's too weird for 1994...
-Mark Holan
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