Reviews: E.B.S. Sampler + Hawkwind Live 1995

Reviews: E.B.S. Sampler + Hawkwind Live 1995

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.)

I thought that the sample CD was a brilliant idea. Whilst, if you have most of the recent Hawkwind releases, you have already got half the tracks, it was still excellent value for money - Ł3.99 at Sheffield’s Virgin Megastore. Of the tracks that I hadn’t got, I liked all but one. Spacehead’s new CD has their definite Krel sound bringing back reminiscence of the Tepee tour. It’s good to know they are still going and still producing excellent material. It reminds me of one of their Krel tracks, although the name of it escapes me (something to do with living in the stars and pyramids I think?) and has definitely been ordered from my friendly independent record shop (it’s cheaper than bloody Our Price! – they tried charging me Ł5.00 for the sample CD), along with Simon House’s Yassassim. And, of course, Alan Davey’s solo album “Captured Rotation” has joined my ever-growing list of orders. (“Higher Than Before”? Where do they get these song titles from?)

I did like the Captain Rizz track but I’m not rushing out to the shops for that one just yet (I’m not made of money!) As for the last track? Yet more sampling and drumbeats. ARRRGGHHH. I don’t think I’ll be buying that one thank you very much.

[Here’s the full tracklisting: The Camera That Could Lie / Green Finned Demon – Hawkwind; Rizz's Radio Song - Captain Rizz; Frenzzy - Psychedelic Warriors; Coded Languages / Angels Of Death – Hawkwind; Yassasim - Simon House; White Zone - Dave Brock; Journey /Xenomorph – Hawkwind; Morbius Brain Machine – Spacehead; Higher Than Before - Alan Davey; Sonic Destruction – Advent]

Of course, the live “Love In Space” album is a must. Xenomorph certainly bodes well for the full album. So all in all, very pleased with that little sample CD. Of course, I have only mentioned the tracks that I hadn’t heard before. For any fan who isn’t too sure about spending Ł15.00 on “White Zone”, Brock’s solo “Strange Trips”, “Undisclosed Files” etc., then it provides a good introduction to these CD’s and a rough idea about whether they are worth buying or not – which was probably the idea behind it in the first place!

Since I’ve written the top bit, “Love In Space” has finally, after numerous altered release dates, made it to my local. A brilliant bit of live recording: turn the volume up to vibration point –loud enough so that any ornaments on top of the speakers plummet to the ground- and make sure you drown out any potential neighbourly banging on walls, switch on any cool lighting you may have (we’ve got U.V.’s, strobe lights, lava lamps and projectors so it’s just like being in a gig – OK, so it’s without your cider being spilt, people nudging you, standing on your toes, getting splashed in paraffin when the fire breathers are in full flow, being captured by people to hand out leaflets –who might that be?- bumping into people you know from Wales and Blackpool, having bouncers starre at you while you skin up, having some guy recognising you from his photo collection blah blah blah…you get the picture) sit back, spark up, and enjoy ninety minutes of Hawkwind at their best.

Each track merges wonderfully into the next (as it did on tour too) and, for me anyway, it is the Space Ritual of the nineties. Whilst the last live album, Business Trip was good, the addition of ron makes all the difference. It gives “Love In Space” a definitie edge, with a wider variety of vocal styles whether sung or spoken linking the music far better with previous Hawkwind – i.e. Turner and Calvert’s unique front man style.

As far as separate tracks go, by far the best track for myself is Love In Space. I absolutely loved this track on tour, don’t know why, and when I got the album home, it was the first track I played (followed by Elfin and photo Encounter because they’re not on the Alien 4 album) and I was not disappointed. Just the best track for me. The rest of the album was simply spot on – in fact, because we spent so much time near the front of the stage at gigs, it was probably the first time I had heard the music properly with only the addition of Silver Machine (again, yawn) letting it down slightly although I can understand why it was included but Lord Of Light was much better and is sadly lacking on this album.

Minor niggles number one – where are the lyrics on this LP. Surely they could have been either on the inside of the gatefold – the pictures are nice but lyrics would have been nicer as we’ve never been able to work out what the hell Ron says in “Xenomorph”, or, even better, the lyrics scould have been placed on the inner sleeves instead of the boring white ones. People who buy vinyl can read too you know!!! Seeing as Neil bought the CD I’m not too p***ed off about this – the lyrics aren’t 100% accurate anyway from what we can make out.

Niggle number two – at last, I can complain about the digipack CD. This digipack stuff looks very snazzy. Nice and glossy, loads of pretty photos etc.. However the slots for the CD’s are too small. The packaging on the CD is already damaged because the damned things were completely stuck. I had the same problem with my Alien 4 digipack. The packaging is nice and different but it is no good if it falls to pieces with continuous use, no mattger how careful you are. The “Trip” and “White Zone” packaging was better.

-Marie Jenkinson