Summer Daze Festival - Langtree 1996

Summer Daze Festival - Langtree 1996

Many thanks to Marie Jenkinson of Chaos Illumination, who gave permission for this piece to appear here. It was previously published in Trevor Hughes’ ‘Ship Of Dreams’ booklet which was sold as part of the official merchandising on the 1997 UK tour. (See A Tale Of Two Programmes for more detail.)

Thanks also to Dave Law of the Hawkwind Museum, who gave permission for me to use the photos from

the 1996 Langtree Festival on this page. They were originally taken by Gavin Watson, I believe.

Well, I can certainly say one thing about the festival, they couldn’t have held it at a more remote place in Devon than Langtree. Nine hours after setting off, driving through fog banks, perpetual drizzle and lanes with knee-high grass growing down the middle, we found the place and settled down for a “good night’s sleep” hoping the weather would be better the next day. (Below: see if you can find it)

Saturday arrived - what a beautiful day. The sun was shining (I got sunburnt) and the day began to turn into the Daze. With a number of stalls selling wares at fairly reasonable prices and the extremely low-key local police force, the atmosphere from the start was very laidback. Surprisingly, the bands that played (on the main stage, anyhow) were of a high standard. One of the opening band, Bhang II Rights, complete with a stark naked bass player, offered a Levellers / Punk sound that was really rocking and went down well with the few that had turned up at twelve. Circle Groove gave a good performance highlighted by the female saxophonist giving a jazzy / funk edge to their sound. Other worthwhile bands included the Bates Motel, again a Levellers / Punk cross, but still very interesting to watch. Captain Rizz gave their usual good performance attempting to get the crowd going a bit for the headliners. Following these were Trip, who sounded like some ambient group, although I was that busy talking to friends that I didn’t really pay that much attention.

The bands on the second stage also sounded fairly good. However, by the time we decided to wander over to the next field they invariably finished. One of the thoughtful things about this festival was that the rave / techno music had been placed in another field leaving those who enjoy that sort of dance music in peace and keeping it well away from me!

By the time Hawkwind came on stage the night was just about perfect. The half moon occasionally peeking through the clouds was the only other light source visible, making the lighting show one of the best that I have ever seen, certainly beating Pentrich Rock and Blues

in ’93 and ’95. The projection screen, due to the outdoor venue, was large and the images also very crisp. The strobe flowers, etc., were almost blinding at times and the fire breathing by Kris also looked far better outside, probably because the atmosphere wasn’t as smoky as usual! Visually, it was sheer psychedelia, though I did miss the two excellent dancers during such tracks as Love In Space and Kapal, which as a result didn’t seem quite so engrossing as usual. The band’s newest, and certainly youngest, member -Troy

(Ron’s son)- gave a guest appearance as an alien, a sort of ET with a denim jacket! That -surprisingly- worked, although getting Troy off stage proved to be another matter.

Dad! Dad! Let me stay! Go on!

Musically the gig was just as mind-blowing. The set list (I think!) was as follows: Abducted, Psi Power, Vega, Blue Skin, Steppenwolf, Assassins of Allah, Sputnik Stan, Xenomorph, Aerospaceage Inferno, Love In Space, Kapal, Silver Machine and Welcome To The Future, with an encore of Secret Agent mingled with elements of Living In The Future. [Note: the actual set list was Abducted; Psi Power; Awakening; Photo Encounter; Blue Skin; Steppenwolf; Hassan-i-Sahba; Space Is Their; Hassan-i-Sahba; Sputnik Stan; Xenomorph; Vega; Love In Space; Kapal; Aerospaceage Inferno; Elfin; Silver Machine; Welcome To The Future; Secret Agent] Thankfully the ending that was used in the mini-tour in June was dropped (it was different but went down like a lead balloon at Brixton!), moving Abducted back to the front of the set. The best section of the set for me started with Steppenwolf through to Assassins, Sputnik and Xenomorph. Brilliant! Just one kicking track after another, which went great with Ron’s usual blend of spoken and sung lyrics, with some poetic improvised (?) additions, the whole gig was, as you’d expect, hard-hitting space rock.

The only downside to the entire gig was the behaviour of the crowd at the front of the stage. After Hawkwind had finished their encore and retired from the stage, a member of Captain Rizz came on stage and after enticing the usual cheering from the crowd, stated that they would do another encore providing the crowd at the front would stop tearing the stage apart - there had already been a few invading the stage, something almost unheard of [at these] usually peaceful mellow gigs. The crowd at this point started booing - whether at the Rizz member or at the trouble-causers was unclear - but arguing with a crowd of about two thousand is not recommended. Needless to say, Hawkwind did not do another encore - the midnight curfew offered as the reason, although the disgusting behaviour of some crowd members were probably more at fault.

In conclusion, the festival was a good day out, Hawkwind’s gig was not the best I have seen (Guildford in June was much better) but certainly one of the best outdoors gigs that I can remember, sounding and looking great. On the downside - it was an extremely long way to travel for anyone north of the M5 and was during the peak holiday weeks making any journey down south long and full of traffic jams. There were quite a few familiar faces down there but also -sadly- a lot of absent ones too.

-Marie Jenkinson