Hawkwind 40th Anniversary - Porchester Hall 29/08/2009

Hawkwind 40th Anniversary - Porchester Hall 29/08/2009

The day started with an encounter at Notting Hill Gate tube station, where I fell in with Simon, a bloke wearing a Hawkwind Forum t-shirt, obviously headed for Jimski’s Hawkwalk, as I was. The two of us got there too early and stood chatting on the corner of Notting Hill Gate and Pembridge Gardens, gradually accreting a gathering of about 25 fans before Jimski himself came along at about 11.15am, and we all started the walk. I had been anticipating this a great deal, not having done more than scratch the surface of Hawkwind’s birthplace on previous forays through the area. I’d read Jimski’s excellent notes beforehand, and had a looseleaf copy in hand ready to consult as we proceeded. But Jimski had very kindly prepared a bound copy for me, and off we went. I can’t remember everyone who was along but besides me, Simon and Jimski, Dazzy B and his lady were there, as was SidBish, Alan, Jim (who grew up in the area) and Kim, Pete, Andreas from Germany, with his wife and her friend, the estimable Steve Swann, Rod, Mike Holmes, Jill Strobridge, Ashman and his wife, PedalBin, Huw and Mundo…(apologies to whoever else I’ve forgotten…I’ve left it too long to write this…)

Scenes from the Hawkwalk. Above is All Saints Church in Powis Square, and Huw (right) showed his devotion by kissing the sacred spot. (No he isn't bending over to throw up...) Although the sacred spot is actually a few yards to his right, where the railings and foliage are in the photo, as that is where the now demolished All Saints Church Hall actually stood. It was knocked down in 1972. Booooo!!!!!

A lot has already been said about the Hawkwalk, and rightly so as it more than lived up to expectations. I knew a handful of the people along for it, but as always it was great to meet some new faces and we all connected instantly. I was privately amused that as soon as Jimski arrived, we all looked at him with an air of expectation and mutely compelled him to lead us around and do the tour guide bit. A fantastic job he did of it too, really bringing the notes to life. Huge thanks and appreciation to Jimski for all his hard work in not only putting the notes together but also taking on the burden of leading us all around the area. The weather was about perfect (dry, sunny, not too hot) and we were even joined by curious tourists along the way, who would follow the tour down a crowded Portobello Road, becoming steadily more confused as we proceeded, before drifting away in their twos and threes… Thankfully the crowds thinned out a bit as we got to the business end of said thoroughfare, and stood gawping at the Westway and the site of the Mountain Grill. Best of all, for my money, was the turn into Powis Square to see (at last!) All Saints Church, which still stands, although the adjacent church hall that was the location of the first ever Hawkwind gig is long gone, the site now occupied by a block of flats. Another interesting sight along the way was the vista provided of Trelleck Tower, a foul piece of 60’s new brutalist architecture that Jimski identified as part of the inspiration for “High Rise” (Ballard’s book as well as the song). It’s since occurred to me that the verse in Psychedelic Warlords, which references “…concete jungles / that just block up the view” probably has the same provenance….for what that’s worth!

So we all trotted along to the Porchester Hall, and that was the next pleasant surprise. The venue itself is within an august building that also houses a public library…an unexpected air of gentility pervaded the surroundings, and this extended to the incredibly nice security staff, who were friendly, accommodating and courteous to

everyone, all day long from midday (we got there at 1pm) until the completion of proceedings some eleven hours later. They were not the only people who worked a long, long day to make this event happen. Margaret (Kris Tait’s mum) and Sophie (Kris’s niece) were among those manning the admin desk just inside the entrance, where we were given our wristbands that let us come in and out of the venue as we needed to, and gave us our goodie bags. This was a lovely touch: in each bag was a raffle ticket printed up to look like an admission ticket for the first ever Group X gig at All Saints Church Hall, 40 years before to the day; a postcard signed by all the band; a free commemorative CD; and a bag of “Fizz Wizz” space rock sweets (candy, yanks!) which I have not scanned because I have since put it to x-rated use which it would be inappropriate to discuss here :-) But I am very grateful to the band for that!

There was also a T-shirt desk opposite the admin desk, and Nick Lee was amongst those doing sterling service there, selling 40th anniversary T’s bearing the same design as was on the goodie bag itself. I bought (erm…extra large…) T-shirts with a Roadhawks design, the Master Of The Universe UA compilation image, and a splendid reissued Sonic Assassins 1977 graphic. It is wonderful to see these iconic designs being made available once more, and hopefully they generated quite a bit of revenue for the band.

Upstairs and into the hall itself. Wow! This early in the day there weren’t many people inside as yet, so we could get a good look at the venerable architecture of the place, and queue civilly for the bar which had real ale, lager, cider and Guinness on tap, at very reasonable prices. There was also home-cooked food available, and this was a cut above the normal junky dross that rock venues provide, if you’re lucky enough to get anything at all. I think one bloke was handling all the orders and retrieval of the food, and he worked hard to keep everyone happy. I don’t know his name, but well done to you, mate :-) It was little touches like this that brought to life the promise that this was going to be an indoor festival rather than just another gig. A difficult thing to deliver, but they pulled it off. Of course, it being an all-day event helped too, and the first event was a Hawkwind performance in all but name, being billed as The Elves Of Silbury Hill, though it did include a fair bit of Tim Blake material too. There was some suggestion of this being an acoustic set, but really it wasn’t. The highlight had to be Dave Brock playing harmonica to Mirror Of Illusion, which was preceded by two Tim Blake songs, then Digital Nation, Green Finned Demon and (a treat!) The Only Ones.

Next up were the Technicians Of Spaceship Hawkwind, and I am afraid they lived up to their acronym on this occasion. The sound, never great, was at its poorest for their set, which consisted of long jamming versions of Born To Go, Master Of The Universe (with a snatch of Waiting For Tomorrow embedded in it, I think) and Ejection. The drums were particularly unhelpful – the combination of a relentless and unvarying Simon King-style 2/2 thrash and the muddy acoustics completely took the gloss off proceedings. To continue in this

subjective vein, I was also underwhelmed by the Question Time session, which was chaired by Matthew Wright and featured all members of the band (including Tim Blake) plus Kris and Huw Lloyd-Langton. The most interesting questions asked were for Kris to answer, but she is so softly spoken that it was almost impossible to hear what she was saying. Richard Chadwick’s badger hand puppet (mystifyingly not called Brock) was also, uh, featured, but I think that joke ran its course the first time he appeared at Hawkfest 2008.

In between times there were projections on the walls and ceilings of the hall and Toby (Banco De Gaia) was doing DJ sets at the back of the hall which were low volume enough to make for some pleasant audio ambience without distracting from anything else, such as the various conversations I had with loony Hawkfans from (predominantly) continental Europe. (The life of a D-list Hawkwind celebrity!) But everything stayed very mellow, and I thought the no smoking in the hall (you could slip outside for a puff of whatever) combined with the well-stocked bar gave the occasion a subtly different atmosphere to the usual herbally-tinged flavour of a Hawkwind “happening”. Instead there seemed to be a gentle alcoholic haze settling over the event, but without any overtones of violence whatsoever…very pleasant! And this was the perfect accompaniment to Tarantism’s set – harder-edged than I’ve heard them before, thanks to some distortion on the acoustic guitar which make it all a bit more ‘rock’. I thought they fitted in well, as a reminder of the festival influence that is part of the Hawkwind mythos, and their frontwoman Mel also did her usual spot-on job of working as stage manager for the whole thing. It was notable how everything happened in the sequence that was posted up on sheets of paper around the hall, and at something close to the prescribed time. Well done.

Huw Lloyd-Langton - lacked focus

Huw Lloyd-Langton’s acoustic set followed, and this was what we’ve come to expect from him. The first number was a blues standard that I didn’t recognise and it was the highlight of Huw’s appearance because a Mr. Dave Brock came out and accompanied him on harmonica for it. (The second time on the day that he had resorted to the old harp.) After that Huw ran through Rocky Paths and a medley that included the acoustic intro to 5th Second of Forever, and then he tried to leave the stage! But his wife Marion persuaded him to stay on and do some more, so we got Hurry On Sundown, in which Huw kept looking off to stage left, saying that Dave was meant to come back out and play on it. That didn’t happen, but Tim Blake stepped in on the harmonica and Marion danced, as she does. Someone called it the “Tales Of The Unexpected” move, if you remember the opening sequence / closing credits of the ancient TV show of that name, featuring Roald Dahl’s completely predictable stories, ha ha ha. Well, it’s the same thing with Huw's

solo acoustic appearances, actually. He closed out with a couple more blues numbers (Richard Chadwick participating on the penultimate one) and then we were in for Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band. Or did that come before Huw? I can’t remember. Anyway, I thought it was appalling – the band consists of four old gents who are all excellent musicians, but play “comedic” Dixieland jazz, complete with allegedly funny outfits and props. The humour is particularly leaden, and it was galling to realize that StevePXR5 was right when he pointed out that I was smiling while watching them. I retrospectively decided that this was a fixed rictus grin of bafflement and abhorrence. Honest.

But finally Hawkwind came on and played an accomplished set lasting an hour and forty-five minutes with a very few special guests – many people had assumed in advance this meant ex-members, but that wasn’t what occurred. The biggest surprise was probably seeing Captain Rizz pop up for a couple of numbers – he was OK on Spirit Of The Age (which also featured Matthew Wright), and positively good on the middle section of Hassan-i-Sahba, where his toasting and movement around the stage really added to the rave-like interregnum that this song always seems to have. Other positive additions to the overall show where two very attractive and accomplished female dancers, a new lightshow, and what looked like a couple of giant inflatable bananas off to each side of the stage. There was quite a bit of ambient light in the hall, coming from the

upstairs gallery and the curtained niches at each side, so we didn’t get the full effect of the light show, but it was brilliant to see some classic Hawkwind montages on the backdrop, such as David Hardy’s Hall Of The Mountain Grill back cover painting, with flying saucers drifting across it :-) And just so that I don’t totally diss Bob Kerr, he came out and played a solo on a tiny trumpet during Lighthouse, which also added to the song rather than detracted from it.

The band themselves seem to have found their groove as a unit. Mr.Dibs’ punky pummellings of the bass work well alongside Niall’s second guitar duties, and Tim Blake showed us more on the keytar (as virtual lead guitarist) and did less theremin this time around. The captain played his Les Paul which seemed to thicken up his tone a bit, and there were a few unusual treatments along the way, such as Space Is Deep being performed as a spoken narration. Angels Of Death was punishingly heavy with two basses (Dibs and Niall) and one of the newer numbers, Wraith, really stood up well as a fast rocker.

There were plenty of retro notes struck, with Lord Of Light and You’d Better Believe It being welcome inclusions – and Right To Decide (with the lyrics being flashed up on the backdrop in the choruses) was good too. Another slightly unexpected touch was to throw Silver Machine in mid-set, rather than at the end, and it included something really rare at a Hawkwind gig – a couple of stage invasions by fans. I think the alcoholic flavour of the evening was responsible for this, but it all stayed good- humoured, if slightly disappointing that the tasty young blonde who jumped up on stage only got topless as far as taking her shirt off…the mauve bra stayed on…

There was also something called the gift exchange that took place towards the end of Hawkwind’s set, and I was embarrassed to be given a lovely engraved Zippo lighter by Steve Swann, when I hadn’t brought anything with which to participate in this event. It was one of those things that I had discounted in advance as being unlikely to actually transpire, but I gather quite a few people had put themselves more thoroughly into the spirit of the day than curmudgeonly ingrates such as I. So thank you, Steve. You’re a better man than I :-)

The final number of the encore was, unexpectedly, Fahrenheit 451, and I can’t recall having heard this live before – so that was good, but it wasn’t what I would call a storming version. Other fans I talked to afterwards (hello Nick and Dennis!) were blown away by Hawkwind’s set and thought it as potent as any they’d ever seen, but for me it was good without being great. This isn’t intended as a criticism, because these things are always subjective, and the day as a whole was thoroughly

enjoyable, and amazing value for the £25 that the ticket cost. I remain totally appreciative of everyone who worked so hard to make this happen and keep it running smoothly, and I would have been bitterly disappointed not to have been able to go… As an occasion I felt it surpassed the actual gig part, and how fantastic it is that this band does this kind of thing for its fans. Thanks to everyone who played, worked, walked, talked and attended. See you all next year!

You will all doubtless be glad to hear that Starfarer's Hawkwind Page is shortly to invest in a new digital camera - one which does not have to be held together with a pony tail holder!

The succeeding text and photos were kindly supplied by regular contributor Graham P - cheers old bean!

Lunchtime on Saturday 29th August and it is a sunny day in Notting Hill. Inside, the Porchester Hall is a slightly incongruous venue, a hall with chandeliers overhead and a makeshift stage. Almost immediately after I arrived and gathered my goody bag, the Hawks were on stage as “The Elves of Silbury Hill” – basically them in semi-acoustic mode, doing some of Tim’s solo material and rarely played Hawk songs like “Green Finned Demon”, “Digital Nation” (sung by Richard) and “Mirror of Illusion”. The unworthy suspicion is that the Hawks couldn’t attract any support bands (although let me say that the two who appeared went down a treat). At this stage the crowd was still sparse and the following DJ set was my cue to check out the catering arrangements.

The subsequent TOSH set was initially disappointing, kicking off with a bludgeoning “Born To Go”, way too

loud, followed by a Calvert number. Dibs bowed out and “Master of the Universe” followed. Keith’s vocals were uninspiring but Huw appeared on-stage and, once his guitar was audible, he did a decent enough job – notably on his own “Waiting for Tomorrow” – OK his semi-spoken vocals weren’t great but the lead guitar was sounding good. The question time session was good fun, Matthew Wright as question-master, Huw sitting in, Tim arriving late and Dave passing most of his questions to Kris to answer (various new and old product seems to be on the way, courtesy of the apparently patched-up relationship with Voiceprint). Star of the show was Richard and his glove puppet “Badger”.

Above, L-R: that f***ing badger, Eichard, Huw, Dibs, Matthew Wright Below: The Watcher

I went out for some fresh air but came back in time for the second half of Tarantism’s set – they were as lively and excellent as expected (keeping things in-house, of course, their lead singer Mel does all the stage announcements throughout the day.) A break is followed by Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band (“I’d rather listen to Uncle Rotter” said your webmaster and went out for a smoke). It must be said that the Whoopee men’s set was basically identical to the set they played at the 2007 Hawkfest (same joke about “unused instrument”, same keyboard solo, same virtuoso drum impressions from the Professor, all the same props) but, hey, they did it well and they seemed to be well appreciated. Dave Brock came out to watch.

Next up, “pass the parcel”, and later on Matthew Wright and Dave from the Hawkwind Museum with a raffle. Back to the music: I couldn’t in all honesty say I expected much from Huw’s set but, although he (over)

did his shuffling bumbling stage persona and the set featured some of the same old chestnuts (Wind of Change, Rocky Paths, Cardboard City), his guitar playing this year was assured and forceful and the other Hawks showed some solidarity – Dave joined for the first number (on harmonica), Tim contributed piano - and then contributed impressively accomplished harmonica on “Hurry on Sundown” when Dave failed to show. Richard played drums on a really good “Smokestack Lightning”.

The Hawks played fast and very loud, a set full of classics and little filler: the opening “Assault and Battery / Golden Void / Where Are They Now?”, “Lighthouse”, “Angels of Death”, “Magnu”, “Spirit of the Age” and “Silver Machine”, “Lord of Light”, “You’d Better Believe It”, “Right to Decide” and the inevitable “Assassins” as encore. I had to leave to catch a train so missed the second encore. A couple of poems (Dave recited “Space is Deep”), a couple of Dibs numbers (“Wraith”, “Sentinel”), an instrumental with tasteful guitar fills from Niall (“Green Machine”?), some really good costumes on the two dancers and the inevitable guest spots. The first one was unexpected: Bob Kerr playing mini-trumpet, I think on Lighthouse, and very good he was too. Captain Rizz came out for Spirit of the Age (he looks ridiculous but did a good job of livening things up), an extra guitarist at the back (who? [Toby Marks of Banco de Gaia]) for Silver Machine - and Matthew Wright also joined in singing the chorus.

What else to add? The tee-shirt and bag design was, what can I say, thoroughly in the spirit of the 60s (straight out of a Robert Crumb cartoon – big breasted naked woman and a reefer) and there was a nice souvenir CD – very much a Voiceprint special: some new stuff, some recycled material and a complete lack of information on where the tracks come from! After the awe-inspiring spectacle of the 30th anniversary gig, with its cast of thousands (and subsequent fractious falling out), the 40th anniversary was unashamedly small-scale and good-humoured. Hawkwind are a cottage industry rather than rock giants these days but I doubt that any of the fans in Porchester Hall would complain. The Hawks and supporting cast and crew did a fantastic job.