This is from the American 'Kadu Flyer' newsletter, published for many years by Chris and Mary Bruce at no small expense to themselves. I believe they wrote this piece...
First up, though, is a piece from a Kadu Flyer-related publication, a fanzine called West Wind
At the Hayden, as the story goes, everyone showed up to meet the band after their first big New York show. With only the star projections on the ceiling to see by, however, it was some time before they all realized that Hawkwind was off somewhere else. Since then it seems that despite continued success in Europe, the band has had a hard time getting many of us to come back. 'America' appears never to have 'gotten' the Hawkwind message.
Thus it was virtually unnoticed amidst the reunion / anniversary tour laden year of 1989 that these inveterate space rockers from England celebrated their 20th anniversary with a guerrilla-style tour of the United States. It was a homecoming of sorts as the band had not toured here since 1978, a tour which ended with leader Dave Brock selling his guitar to a fan at the final gig out of frustration with the band's direction.
Time heals all, it's said, and Hawkwind is poised to follow up last year's successful tour with a two month long odyssey set to begin this December. Why should we care? In a nutshell because from the moment of its inception the band has been ahead of its time, and the home-grown over the top psychedelia they deliver is just about perfect for the times we live in.
Way ahead you say? Prove it. Hawkwind shows were multimedia events before the yuppie who coined the phrase was into puberty. Stacia, the band's one-time dancer, created the painted face character that Gene Simmons of Kiss must have stolen. Hawkwind members were once arrested for distributing condoms in public while performing on the streets of London.
With the advent of hypermedia in home entertainment, heavy metal bands like Kiss now big business, and 'safe sex' still a buzz-phrase, this is visionary stuff indeed.
Coalescing originally in 1969, Hawkwind was around for the heyday of the original psychedelic era of London. The only member from those days still in the band is Dave Brock - the only member, in fact, to be involved with each and every phase of the band. Yet this is nothing like the story of "the English band playing its hits with an original member or two and a group of stand ins" that we have come to know and loathe.
Keyboard player Harvey Bainbridge, bassist Alan Davey, drummer Richard Chadwick, and new member vocalist Bridgett Wishart are all integral members of the band and this tour is supporting an honest to goodness new release called "Space Bandits" on Roadracer Records.
The "Space Bandits" album is the strongest in years, and seems to mark the opening of yet another chapter in the band's long history. It is more commercially conscious (a matter of degrees perhaps with this band) while still showcasing traditional Hawkwind values. There are cascading heavy metal screamers, patented electronic techno-space jams, a transcendent piece featuring native American mystagogy, and an ecology-minded tune from which a percentage of royalties is donated to a UK group.
Hawkwind on stage today hearkens back musically to the heady days of its early 70’s nadir (I think he means zenith) and the epic "Space Ritual". Without then frontpersons Bob Calvert, Mik Turner, and Stacia as well as bassist Lemmy (yes, of Motorhead) the present day show is less frenetic, more electronic, and still features the snaking tribal undercurrent which has long been a trademark.
Just because this band has been around since 1969 and you still don't know much about them, or just because they aren't on MTV every day doesn't mean they don't deserve your attention. Their music has always been laced with a healthy dose of forward thinking. That, along with an irresistible primal groove makes their music ideal for our future-now society.
Once again Hawkwind is sending out invitations to their party. This time they promise to be there.
-Christopher Green
The set lists for the tour were basically the same, with the occasional addition of "Brainstorm" out of the end jam in "Ejection", or the substitution of "Needle Gun" for "Angels...", and a piece sung by Bridget of unknown title (the refrain "your secret's safe with me") on some nights during the reggae-ish jams they get into in some songs.
The Ambler was a tiny hole in suburban Philadelphia, not a proper place for HW really, but they made the best of it, although Ian, their drum roadie, spent the show crammed into an impossibly small place behind the stage and it took him a day to unfold himself back into shape!
Washington and Toronto were the only two clubs that HW played in both '89 and '90, the 9:30 Club and the Diamond. Cleveland's Empire was by all accounts the best venue, the best crowd (runners up: Denver, LA, and S.F.), and the best performance. Two nights of paradise. The band jammed on "You Know You're Only Dreaming" and "Master of the Universe" among other bits during the extended soundchecks before the doors were opened each night. The Captain bought a new guitar, an Epiphone, in a local shop. The support acts were very good, more on them later...
The Great Lakes region has always been a stronghold for Hawkwind, and Chicago was no letdown. Cubby Bear, across from Wrigley Field, was a big place and was without a doubt the loudest Hawkwind show on the tour of 1990. The Hawks played a solid set; a friend who had missed them in '89 enjoyed them so much she went the next night to the Thirsty Whale, which was a good show but the club was a dive and the PA a dinosaur.
Security at both Chicago shows was overly tight. There was one unpleasent incident that pitted an overly enthusiastic fan against an equally overzealous bouncer that landed the poor soul in the hospital. Hawkwind are not involved with the security people at the venues, but they usually have a very mellow crowd and they were quite disturbed at the time that it happened. The band and crew were hassled in the buses by police at four in the morning at Cubby's, so the pressure was on everyone at that show...
Glam Slam in Minneapolis was a great place to play for Hawkwind. Built by Prince as his personal nightclub, it has state-of-the-art-everything! A mind-blowing light show to supplement the band's, a crystalline sound system, and all the amenities to make the band and audience comfortable. Exploding Head Trick supported the bill; any band that does a Henry Cow tune for sound check is ok in my book!
On to Denver, and one of the friendliest bunch of people it has ever been our pleasure to meet;. The Dead were in town as well, so there was a festival atmosphere (in more ways than one!), and Mme. Quantum and the light crew took Richard to see the PAISLEY sights of a Grateful Dead parking lot party. He was duly impressed...
Lemmy was spotted at the bar in L.A. at the Club Lingerie, as was Mick Farren, a longtime friend
The Bay Area shows were, in this writer's opinion, the best of the tour. The band seemed more relaxed than in Cleveland, and they stretched out more, though without as hard an edge. The band spent most of the day shopping and sightseeing in San Francisco. The crew expanded to take on Doug Buckley, who rode to Portland, and Jeff Carney, who pitched in at the Bay shows. Doug, for all our new readers, wrote the lyrics to "Out of the Shadows", Jeff is an electronic music composer / performer who lives in Oakland.
On the road to Portland, we encountered the worst Arctic storm since 1947. The crew bus slid off the highway and had to wait for the Highway Patrol to get out the one snowplow they had to extricate the bus. As a result, Hawkwind unloaded the truck and set up the stage themselves! The crowd was small due to the weather, and there was no real PA in the club. To the band's credit it was a great show and a chance to unwind. The next show in Vancouver was cancelled due to the ice storm.
Everyone was psyched for the sun in Long Beach; instead we got 22 degrees at noon. Oh well. Sound checked "Master of the Universe" in full voice, and did the "Needle Gun" opener instead of "Angels...". There was a good crowd on hand to say goodbye to the band at the end of the tour and were rewarded with a fun show. Once again the cable TV crew was on hand. In a recent conversation Dave Brock said he felt Cleveland was the best city on the tour. "Cleveland has always been a special place for Hawkwind. We've always had good crowds there, since the shows in the seventies..." Last year's gig at the Phantasy in Cleveland ranked high on the list from the '89 tour for Dave, "I bought a guitar last time I was there, there's some good shops." Asked whether he had any words for American Hawkfans he said "Thanks for coming out to see us, we had a lot of fun playing in America. We'd like to stay longer next time, perhaps even move here for two years and do more touring. There's lots of places we'd like to see". Looks like Dave might have his wish, at press time it looks like there will be another tour starting on the 8th of May. As we get more info we'll pass it along; meanwhile if you or someone you know is interested in booking Hawkwind you can contact the appropriate agents through the Kadu Flyer at 617-547-9633. We are looking for rooms that hold 600 - 1200 people, preferably theaters and colleges, that either have a high quality sound system or one provided by the promoter of the gig, with enough power for the lights. All-ages shows are preferred as well, since many fans were bitterly disappointed at not being able to see Hawkwind because they were playing in a bar and the fans were not of age. This was especially a bad problem in Chicago at the Thirsty Whale, where one of the support acts had, in violation of HW's contract, advertised that there would be two shows, one of them all-ages, one not. Their advertising led fans to believe HW were to play two shows when actually the support act was doing both shows, but Hawkwind were booked only for the late, over-21 show. Says Dave "We really want to play for the younger audiences, like we do in England." He added that they will make every effort possible to have all-ages shows.
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