The first of a series of composite pages I'll be adding to the site, made up of a few related articles cobbled together with bits of string, glue and sticky tape
More details of Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" tour - plans for which were exclusively front-paged by NME last week - were announced this week by tour manager John Debog. One of the features of the tour will be the new-custom-built equipment designed by Barney Bubbles, who was responsible for the cover and booklet for the group's, "In Search Of Space" album. The equipment will be housed in six-sided cabinets, emblazoned with Hawkwind emblems, which will then build into six-pointed stars in keeping with the overall concept of the Space Ritual.
The music featured in the show has been written over the last year, mainly by Dave Brock, and is linked by commentary and poetry by Bob Calvert - space poet and co-writer of the band's "Silver Machine" hit. The music and choreography are based around the astronomical system of the nine planets. Specially designed Space Ritual badges, stickers and programmes will be included in the price of tickets.
As reported last week, the tour opens at Dunstable on November 9. A London venue has still to be announced, but Preston Guildhall (December 21) has had to be cancelled as construction work on the hall will not have been completed. It is hoped to record the space opera live on tour, with a view to releasing a double album next year.
Live Goods from the Sonic Assassins (album review from the New Musical Express, 19/5/73)
Hawkwind: "Space Ritual Alive At Liverpool Stadium And Brixton Sundown" (United Artists). Well, these cosmic tacos ain't about to make you wet yourself, but it's still a fact that, contained on these four sides, are the very best examples of H. Wind's ability to titillate the old earlobes with their inimitable sledgehammer finesse.
I could go straight on to say that this is Hawkwind's equivalent to "Live Dead", only no-one listens to the latter any more except hippies and this album is geared to a strong Mandrax market. For a start, the tracks were recorded in Liverpool and Brixton, two accepted murk-pits of England's green and pleasant laud, which gives a strong indication of the sounds at hand. The two-album set covers the extension of the "Space Ritual" multi-media experiment the lads took around the country very successfully.
If you purchased the "Greasy Truckers Party" album you won't need me to tell you that the band function best on black vinyl when recorded live. In fact, that fourth side of the aforementioned record was a masterpiece of British heavy metal music, cutting the likes of Black Sabbath down to a frazzle.
Throughout their career, Hawkwind have established themselves as prime movers of the heavy-metal brigade, surpassing Pink Ftoyd and their artsy-fartsy, totally superficial cosmic wallpaper moods, while never embracing the ritualistic Twilight Zone scenarios conjured up by the German bands.
This live album is a distillation of their finest characteristics - Brock's riffs repeated and surrounded by amateur but effective electronics. The first number is "Born to Go", recorded only on the "G.T.O." album and here cleaned up considerably. The sound throughout this album is superior to previous efforts, particularly the "Doremi" album which suffered from a muddy, bleak overall feel. So much so, in fact, that the numbers used from that last album are rejuvenated by the complete improvement in texture.
The album's real bonus, however, is the extensive appearance of the band's sometime poet/lyricist Robert Calvcrt, as well as help from Hawkwind enthusiast Michael Moorcock. The last time I saw Mike he was playing Woody Guthrie songs on the banjo and talking about forming a Country 'n Western band, but his two poems "The Black Corridor" and "Sonic Attack", are both performed here by Calvert. There are also several new numbers performed here, including Calvert's excellent "Orgone Accumulator".
On this album, Hawkwind have achieved the feeling of space, of creating a total environment which has been their vision from the beginning. They're still Britain's best psychedelic band and a great combo to take cerebral depressants to.
Hold back the money you were going to squander on that horrendous Yes triple and get this goodie. For a start, it's infinitely cheaper and will give you almost enough to purchase Iggy and the Stooges' "Raw Power" or "Blue Oyster Cult" and remember, after "Space Ritual", everything else is just horse tranquilliser.
-Nick Kent
Hawkwind in Earth Orbit (from Sounds, 26/5/73 – though I’ve previously regurgitated an excerpt of this article, as republished in Knave magazine – which I assumed at the time was the original source, and the reason why this piece contained some smutty comments)
Ride the Hawkwind! That’s the message from our music critic. Sounds goods, according to him.
Time was when Hawkwind were called, with some justification, 'The poor man's Pink Floyd'. A band in search of identity - a group questing for a musical oasis they could colonise and call their own - that' was Hawkwind. Times, fortunately, change. And Hawkwind have changed with them and emerged as their own men (and one woman).
Their latest album, Space Ritual (United Artists UAD 60037/8) is a double set recorded live in concert at Liverpool Stadium and The Sundown, Brixton, and is a fine concentration of proof that Hawkwind have gelled into a superior musical team and an important performing one. The two don't naturally go together - many fine writers shrivel and die before audiences, and many a great performer has emerged ball-less from recording studios with no buzz from an ecstatic audience to pull the adrenalin from him.
Hawkwind's recordings to date have suffered from that latter complaint. They've been filling British and European halls for a couple of years now, and if those halls haven't literally gone into orbit, thousands of Levi'd bums have lifted from seats by the end of earth-shattering sets. These two albums show why.
As the title suggests, Hawkwind are heavily into things astral. Correction: things astral/scientific. Friendship with best-selling sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock (who gets composing credits for two songs) has added weight to their writing and maybe even his. Moorcock's classic Jerry Cornelius books have a heavy pop influence which could be credited to Hawkwind.
No matter, that's an argument for academics. What of the music? If I may be forgiven comparisons in order to help you judge before hearing, and continue the Pink Floyd parallel, Hawkwind emerge as a Floyd-plus. Plus overdrive, maybe? They certainly speed through their particular region of space, pausing only from time to time to deliver commentary / illumination / instruction. This is certainly not easy listening time, by any stretch of the imagination. But if you can stretch your imagination, you're in for a helluva ride across the universe.
Line-up of the band, which has been together now in its present form for some two-and-a-bit years, is Bob Calvert (poet & swazzle), Dave Brock (guitar, vocals), Lemmy (bass, (vocals), Nik Turner (sax, flute, vocals), DikMik (audio generator, electronics), Del Dettmar (synthesizer) and Simon King (drums). Not to forget, lest you don't know and they come your way and you are. thinking maybe of seeing them, the delectable Stacia. She's their dancer and the owner, if unabashed male chauvinism may be excused, of the most incredible pair of boobs since Jayne Mansfield. Cross my heart (which is more than she can, probably!)
Space Ritual is contained in a great poster / cover assembled by Ladbroke Grove's own Barney Bubbles in which, I suppose, you can enclose the records, or stick up on that blank space on the wall. Having made up the cigar box out of Jefferson Airplane's Long John Silver cover and subsequently had no sleeve for that album, this one stays wrapped round the LP. Brilliant graphics which encapsulate both the mood of the album and the philosophy of Hawkwind. If the word "philosophy" immediately puts you off, don't worry. At root Hawkwind rock like hell, and as it takes some time to unravel the lyrics, you can quite cheerfully boogie with them and discern words when you feel like it. They've done a superb job of capturing most of what has made Hawkwind one of Britain's top groups. So even if you don't see Stacia flaunting those mammaries, or the fascinating light show which is an integral part of the Hawkwind attraction, the essence is there. You could do much worse than fork out the special low sum of £3.10 for this double set.
It could be worth your while, if only for Sonic Attack. One of the Moorcock numbers, it's an instruction manual on what to do in case of such a bombardment. "If you are making love, orgasm in unison is imperative" intones the voice. Right. It's pretty good that way anyhow, sonic attacks or not.
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