Nik Turner's Hawklords and Gunslinger, O2 Academy Islington, 29th October 2011

Nik Turner's Hawklords & Gunslinger, O2 Academy Islington, 29th October 2011

Thanks to Graham P for this gig review and those photos that are placed inline with the text. Thanks to Bryan Rideout for the extra pics, from the Hawklords gig at Mr.Kyp's, Poole, on 26/10/2011

The doors opened at 6 pm while London was still packed with shoppers. We arrive around 6.30 and eventually found our way into the tiny venue hidden in the middle of a shopping centre. Up the stairs, first you enter a small reception area, where the merchandising was set up and from there into the venue itself – two bars, a stage and definitely nowhere to sit. Second support, the Institute of Modern Love were already on as we entered – the sound was loud, languorous and guitar-based, occasionally gaining urgency and sounding a bit like Muse. We stood at the back and watched as various Hawklords arrived – Nik, Harvey, Adrian Shaw, Jerry Richards, Ron Tree. The merchandising stall had plenty of familiar releases plus some new CDs from Steve Swindells and from Ron’s new version of MOAB (more of which later), a DVD by “Group X” (i.e. Hawklords minus Nik), and none of the Nik Turner concert material in evidence at the 2009 show.

The merchandise desk offered two ambient CDs from Steve Swindells: Enigma Elevations and Bam Boo (really laid-back chill-out music) and a re-launch of MOAB from Ron on Raw and Ruff. Obviously there was no Trev Thoms on the latter and reading the credits (the crew this time includes Alice Rhubarb on vocals and mouth organ) didn’t do much for expectations. Anyway, it is mostly Ron on vocals and guitars and the short (31 minute) nine song set is pleasingly energetic and noisy without being especially inspired.

Meanwhile, back at the gig, Gunslinger were rock solid and kept things concise and to the point, and they weren’t even too loud. Minimal between song banter, maximum attention to blasting out some well-honed riff-based songs. It just seemed a bit of a shame that they were playing a tiny venue that was still only about half-full. This being the first time I’ve seen them in action, it struck me that Davey’s junior and senior have exactly the same singing voice. Ron Tree stood near the back of the hall during their set, chatting with mates, looking as skinny as ever and obviously in good spirits.

By 8pm the Hawk[lord]s were on, with a front line of Richards, Tree, Turner and Davey, flanked by Bainbridge and Swindells (who arrived under a massive blond afro wig, sadly rapidly discarded). Ron had a music stand in front of him with all his lyric sheets. Behind was a drummer who looked a bit like Danny Thompson but apparently wasn’t. They opened with “Aerospaceage Inferno”, the sound dominated by bass and guitar, keyboards lost in the mix, vocals a bit muffled. “Digital Age” was definitely better, with Ron getting well into it and the

sound from the back of the venue was not too bad – having said that, later on when I moved closer to get a couple of photos the sound was pretty murky. “You Shouldn’t Do That” (plus “Addicted To You”) was also solid without being inspired. At this point Alan Davey handed over to Ade Shaw on bass duties and we headed for the late 70s and “Only the Dead Dreams…”

The Hawks generally appeared well-rehearsed, almost slick, and the emphasis was on slightly newer material (especially 1976-78), which was refreshing and meant that Ade Shaw, Steve Swindells and Harvey Bainbridge got to play on material they played on originally including material they wrote or co-wrote. It was good to hear “Only the Dead Dreams…”, “Shot Down in the Night”, “Psi Power”, “Spirit of the Age”, “Flying Doctor”, “Quark, Strangeness and Charm”, “25 Years”, “Robot” and “Steppenwolf”, among others. The

rhythm was less clunky than in 2009. Alan Davey and Ade Shaw shared the bass chores pretty evenly, with a marked shift in feel between the heavier Davey-fronted material (and his bass really did dominate the sound) and the lighter late 70s material with Ade Shaw on bass. Jerry Richards played acoustic guitar on a couple of tracks, again adding variety. For all this, there was something not quite right about the dynamics.

Firstly, the drummer turned out not to be Danny Thompson – although this was possibly a good thing in that he was always my least favourite Hawkwind drummer. Current Hawklords drummer Meurig Griffiths (also with Nik’s current new band, Outriders of the Apocalypse, who apparently also feature Mick Slattery) acquitted himself well. The lights and slide show were okay, if nothing to write home about, and there were no dancers. There was also little sense of pacing about the set and some of the arrangements were uninspired – both “Robot” and “Steppenwolf” seemed to last about a year, “Children of the Sun” was rocked up too much, “25 Years” was (although unexpected and welcome) a bit perfunctory and “Dreamworker” was just unwelcome. Perhaps the key problem though was that Nik had ceded front-man duties to Ron and Ron was just a little bit over-refreshed. Ron got to make most of the between song announcements and Nik sang lead only on the older stuff (“You Shouldn’t Do That”, “Children of the Sun”, “Master of the Universe” and “Brainstorm”). Ron on form is a good front man (see the 1995 tour). His performance this time was fine most of the time (just the occasional fluffed line), and it was certainly good to see him much more confident than in 2009, but increasingly he went off on between song rants, including several attempts to sell his home-made Viking helmet (1/3 of proceeds to charity). They should have let Steve take lead vocals on “Shot Down in the Night”. In the end Nik had to interrupt Ron to make the final announcements, including calling the participants in the undersubscribed fancy dress competition up on stage and introducing the band and crew.

They encored with “Brainstorm”, kicking off with the fancy dress competitors still on stage and only about 5 minutes left on the clock before curfew time (a ridiculously early 10 pm), at which point we left – at this stage it sounded as shambolic as it looked. Although the Hawklords have in some respects upped their game, the novelty has also worn off and they look as though they may be going the way of Space Ritual, with a mutual love of Robert Calvert songs and a mutual loathing of Dave Brock (allegedly) no longer being enough to hold them together. I hope I’m wrong but, overall, I was a bit disappointed. This was also the first Hawks-related gig I managed to persuade my partner to attend. She thought Gunslinger was easily the best band on the night and that the Hawklords were, well, a bit of a shambles.

Above & below: Jerry Richards and curiously helmeted norse demigod. Nik & Adey Shaw, right
Right, Ron serves in the frontlines