Winter 2009 Tour

Winter 2009 Tour

Fellow Hairy-Arsed Hawkwind Fans' gig reviews and photos - contributions gladly accepted! Please email me here to add to the page. Many thanks to all whose reviews and / or photos appear here...

Southampton Brook, Wednesday 09/12/2009 [above pic by GarethDorset]

Well what a night that was.

Firstly as I entered The Brook I saw Kris and quickly found out that Huw was going to be playing which was great news so the rush was then to the merchandise stand.

Alas, no CD's. The new Hoodie was there, which is a fruit of the Loom affair. Neat embroidered logo on the left breast with the tour dates printed on the back. Cost Ł25. Quality ok for the money. It's not Berghaus but it's affordable. I'll say no more as we all have different standards. I bought one. There was also a selection of tee shirts as per Porchester plus the 40th Anniversary naked lady on a black shirt with the tour dates on the back and the British Tribal Music shirt with the same in blue, for Ł15. For those with cold heads you could even get a Hawkwind beanie hat for Ł10.

Ok, onto Huw. He came on and did a few numbers solo. I don't know his solo work that well but he started with Outside the Law, also included Rocky Paths, played a few more and was then joined on stage by DB and RC. They played a blues number, Rolling and Tumbling, with DB on harmonica. The rest of the band came on and they went straight into Hurry On Sundown.

After this Huw left the stage leaving the rest on stage. They went almost straight into Lighthouse. . This was followed by Fahrenheit 451, Sentinel, Space, Angels of Death, Silver Machine. At this point I was just lost in the groove of the gig. The projections started off really well and included the awesome bike during Silver Machine. Unfortunately The Brook is a sweat lodge when the energy flows and it appears that the projector overheated again. So after this we had intermittent projections. They should be great as usual and should work in a larger venue.

They continued without the usual walk off stage hide around the corner and come back for an encore due to the restrictions of the stage. I remember them playing You'd Better Believe It at some point. The final two if I remember right, which would have formed the encore, were Levitation and Assassins of Allah. In actual fact, the set list was:

1- Hurry on Sundown (with Huw and all the band except Niall as an intro song)
2- Lighthouse
3- Fahrenheit 451
4- Sentinel
5- Space is Deep (read by Dave)
6- Angels of Death
7- Silver Machine
8- Green Machine (an instrumental)
9- Wraith
10- Prometheus
11- Magnu
12- Tide of the Century (it's a Tim Blake number)
13- You'd Better Believe It
14- Levitation
15- Assassins of Allah

The band were in a jovial mood and quite chatty with DB talking about what the dancers would be doing during the twiddly bits between tracks as they couldn't use them here. Sound was good. Niall and Dibsy on bass together was awesome. Backed with DB'S driving rhythm it really drifted towards the blanga moments from the past.

I hung around after wanting to meet them and get my Porchester bag signed but only met Huw and Richard. Richard confirmed that our lack of encore was due to the stage set up which is fair. No update on Hawkfest unfortunately. I didn't meet the rest as they appeared to be on the lash upstairs and settled in for the night. Guess I'll just have to see them again and try.

Some guy, who looked a bit off his head if I may so, had come in with a bag full of shredded paper. As he was dancing he would throw this around. He was spoken to by security about it. After this he moved towards where Dibsy was playing and at one point he was passing the stuff onto stage for him which Dibsy kindly threw out into the crowd. After the place thinned out I was hanging around to see if the band would come out for a beer which often happens here. The guy had been kept in the building , given a sweeping brush and was made to sweep the floor of all the crap he had been throwing out. I spoke to the security guy who said he offered him the option of being thrown out when he first started as he was annoying people or stay behind after and clean up. Obviously he chose the latter. Made me chuckle and maybe you had to be there.

Those who will be seeing them over the next couple of weeks are in for a real treat. I'll just have to wait till next year. I just hope they are recording off the sound board with the intention of putting out a set of CD's covering the gigs from this tour. If the remainder are as good as this was the rest will be blinding.

-Witchwood [below pic by GarethDorset]

Cambridge Junction, Thursday 10/12/20099

Full house last night at the Junction gave the gig an intensity and excitement I haven't seen since the 80's the last couple of Hawkwind gigs in my home town of Norwich were sparsely attended and dull in comparison. Dave Brock seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself, the inclusion of classic songs I personally had never seen live before, i.e.; Levitation, Magnu and You'd better believe it, all added to the sense of occasion. Also, the spoken word segments segued into various songs worked to enhance the overall spectacle, sadly, not always the case. The lightshow, of course, with its customary synapse snapping sensory overload, may also have something to do with it. The only downside was missing the encore due to having to get the train back to Norwich. If the encore was Master of the Universe, an all time favourite, and one I haven't heard for many a year live, well, I may be just a tad cross. [I've got bad news for you, Sandro...]

-Sandro Cecchini [pics by GarethDorset]

It’s almost traditional; rounding the year off with a Hawkwind gig. I must say firstly thanks to the Hawks for coming a little further east this time around. Had someone read my moans on an earlier review?! The Junction is a venue I think is especially suited to a band like Hawkwind. It has a good feel to it and, as it is not huge, everyone gets a good view but the place still has the headroom to put in a good size backdrop and projection show.

Support from Arthur Brown was suitably crazy and certainly entertaining. I was particularly impressed with young Steve, his organist.

The Hawks kind of drifted on stage. There seemed to be a little uncertainty as to whether the gig had actually started, I felt. The synth intro to Lighthouse seemed to last for a fair amount of time as Dave and Niall, seemingly unhappy with something, came and went from the stage and signalled to each other and the stage crew until eventually they too joined in with the song playing thier respective instruments. Not sure what that was all about! By putting Lighthouse first it felt as though the starship Hawkwind was just easing out of dock before setting off on it’s trip into deep space by upping the tempo with Fahrenheit 451.

The sound was a bit mushy early on but was improved upon as the band went into Sentinel. This has evolved into a strong song now and was most enjoyable. Angels of Death was excellent and was the first time the band really started to fly, although, I still can’t see the point of the two bass guitars; it doesn’t add anything dynamically to the sound. I must admit, and no disrespect meant towards Niall, I’m still trying to figure out Mr Hone's job within the musical structure of the band; two basses is pointless and he doesn’t play lead guitar or it can’t be heard anyway which I realise wouldn't be his fault. If he was there to play rhythm guitar while Dave played lead parts, it would make more sense, but this doesn’t seem to happen.

The next high point of the night for me was Prometheus which had an Indian / trance sort of vibe to it. The band had played this at St Albans in May but I must admit it had just seemed OK then. Now it was superb, especially with the addition of violin from the Levellers Jon Sevink who was along as guest for the tour. Again, I’m not sure what was going on between Dave, Dibs and Niall, but Dave certainly seemed unhappy at the length of the improvisation during Prometheus, and stopped playing, folding his hands behind his back and waiting until the the song moved back towards the last verse before starting to play his guitar again. The latter half of the show really took off, [below: pic by GarethDorset]

however; Magnu, You’d Better Believe It, Levitation and Hassan-I-Sahba particularly hitting the spot, again with soaring violin from Jon taking it all to another level. On the whole then, a good show which I felt reinforced the argument for a proper lead player; Jon Sevnik added so much more interest and dynamics with his violin playing which Hawkwind lack unless Dave takes on lead guitar duties a bit more prominently. Can’t wait to hear the new songs finally recorded as well.

-Tim Chipping

Manchester Academy, Friday 11/12/2009

Just got up and nearly recovered from last night… I was a bit worried as what the gig would be like, having seen the set list was very similar to the past year’s gig without Right to Decide and Who’s Gonna Win the War, but was impressed with some new jams in between songs: and Jon on violin made a massive difference. You’d Better Believe It was 10/10.

The dancers were professional and the projections nice and clear. We got Spirit of the Age and Assassins for the encore with a great dancey middle section again.

Saw a few forum members and plenty of Porchester t-shirts on show, even ended up next to the people I swapped prezzies with at Porchester, how strange! But highlight of the night was spending time with the lovely Julia! And getting to hear a violin live again...

All in all a good gig and look forward to it again on Sunday.

-Alan [Below: pics by Wayne Rodwell]

London Shepherds Bush Empire, Sunday 13/12/2009

Not long back from my 2nd fix of Hawkwind at the Empire. I went to Manchester and I thought they were both really good gigs. I like Captain Rizz and he seemed to go down well where we were standing, Assassins did seem a bit more energetic with him on stage with the dancers…the middle of the crowd at the front turned into a mosh / dance pit so he must have done something right. (Assassins is an excellent encore, especially with the dancey part…)

The heavy bass sound was very welcome - did anybody notice that Niall played bass on at least three numbers as well as Dibs? (MAYBE THAT’S WHY IT SOUNDED LOUD, JIMSKI!!) Dibs did seem to be a bit throaty, his singing was a little lower in pitch but Sentinel and Prometheus have come a long way since August and I had those two tunes in my head all the way home.

It was a similar set to Manchester but with Spirit of the Age and Right to Decide added, so that was good not seeing the two same sets. To comment on the track listing – yes, it has been similar all year but some of the jams in between songs were top notch and sounded very fresh and Niall seemed to be a lot more melodic instead of playing just rhythm. Minor complaint: Silver Machine could have been spoken instead of Space Is Deep and where did the dancers’ dreadlocks go? Still fit though!!! [Dirty boy]

The venue was better set up than the Astoria but I thought once again there must be bigger venues to play with the crowd they can still draw. I also noticed the merchandise was flying out the door again - there’s a lesson to be learned, put some new stuff up and the fans will buy it. And lastly, another mention to the great support, they went down really well again
.
So that’s halfway through the tour and the end of a very good year for my seeing Hawkwind. Let’s hope there are plenty of gigs in 2010.

-Alan [Below: pics by Wayne Rodwell]

I was quite snippy about last year's Christmas show at the Astoria but in retrospect I think that was because I hadn't seen them live for much longer than I had thought and had missed the progressive changes to the live experience. Now I have caught up with them and with every Hawkwind album and reissue available, I feel that I can review it better. Unfortunately I left it a couple of days and the titles of the songs I loved most have faded from memory… [the next batch of 11 photos by Andrew]

Anyway, it started off with Lighthouse and went into a more upbeat song [Fahrenheit 451] after a few minutes. I was initially on the right hand side as it was very full by the time we had extricated my car from the execrable Westfield car park which I was convinced would trap my car overnight and moved it into the free on-road after 8pm parking. (This was the last night of that, as from the day after it is resident’s code G permit only FOREVER!) We got in at about 8:40, missing Arthur Brown and just in time for the 8:45 start that the Spurs fans in the excellent Patio Polish Restaurant had promised us. Anyway, the sound the was a terrible muddy bass throb (which I quite liked actually) but as the gig progressed I moved over towards the middle taking the opportunity to hop into every space left by someone going to the bar until after 20 minutes or so I was pretty central (as you can see from the photos). For some reason the crowd also became less dense through the gig but as it was crammed I have no idea where anyone could have gone! As soon as I moved out of the shadow of the bass stack I came into range of the treble speakers and the sound became truly excellent. I was just far enough back to be out of the six row mosh pit which started for the encore. I'm too old for that these days (except at Gogol Bordello, oddly)

So, the gig in summary. The dancers came on several times. They were pretty good, and from the couple of times they were unmasked, very pretty. I think there was a bit of flu around from a Mr. Dibs comment and a mutter from Mr. Brock about Mr. Dibs being able to sing. Dave laughed quite a few times (although he didn't sing much) and commented upon life and the gig quite chattily. Dibs did eventually sing some later songs reasonably well as did the drummer (I don't even know who he was). There was a second geezer (the only word for him) on the right who played a second bass, sometimes guitar and manned the laptop. He seemed pretty happy too (although not as happy as Al Barrow, the perma-grinning Magnum Bassist). Tim wailed a bit and Dave sang some choruses. The Violinist (who was introduced) was wicked and you could hear really well, especially on the Hassan-i-Sahba intro. The sound was great and I would buy an album of the gig in a flash. The only downside was Captain Rizz who came on and shouted through Spirit of the Age and Hassan-i-Sahba in the encore. Can't see the point of him at all, sorry. Just before the end of the main set, they got into the best groove ever playing It's So Easy or something (I am crap on song names - there are so damn many) [it was You'd Better Believe It] that went on for possibly ten minutes and was AWESOME (a nice popular North American word for you to feel at home with, Vegas Boy). [I come from South London, you cheeky git]

So, that's it until I see the set listing by which time I will have forgotten I said I would do anything. I absolutely loved the gig and it makes up a teeny bit for being on holiday for Ladbroke Grove back in August. I also bought a tee-shirt as they were only Ł15 which is a steal at gigs these days - other bands take note! And Having read the “sweat lodge” remark from Southampton I should also note that there was a cooling breeze coming down the front all the way through the Shepherd’s Bush gig. Very pleasant.

-Andrew

Bristol Academy, Monday 14/12/2009

No gig review as yet but this selection of photos from Bristol was kindly provided by GarethDorset...

...with one exception. The Hawkwind backdrop photo (above) was taken by Wayne Rodwell at Southampton Brook on 9/12/2009. Cheers Wayne!

(Anyone who'd like to write a review, please email it to me here - I thank yew!)

Glasgow ABC, Friday 18/12/2009 Photo below (c) Ron Wright 2009 - thx Ron!

Hawkwind come back to Scotland at the end of a tour for a change and we get the band really cooking, with the show down to perfection. First time at the ABC and it is a good venue with plenty of room and more importantly the sound was spot on.

Some people have felt the Lighthouse is a poor opener but it was played really well, building slowly and reaching a peak. Great opener and more importantly the band are spot on as are the dancers and projections. Set list is the same so I will not bore people by going over it again. Stand out tracks were Angels of Death, Magnu, Silver Machine. Spirit of the Age and Tide of the Century. The new tracks continue to grow on me, in particular Prometheus which sounds a bit like late 60's Traffic with jangly style guitars and hopefully we will have them on a new CDshortly.

Show stopper was You'd Better Believe It. Cannot believe I first heard this 35 years ago and it is still an outstanding track, what a great number to finish the set with. We only got Assassins as an encore due to time restrictions, which was a pity as I was looking forward to Levitation.

Great show, fourth time in a year I have seem them and they keep getting better. Hoping for a quick return.

-Ron Wright

These 3 photos were taken by Ron Wright

The following gig review and photos kindly supplied by Graham P, thx!

Support is Arthur Brown who plays a short but well-received set accompanied by a guitarist, keyboard player and synthetic rhythm tracks. He still has a fabulous voice, still appears to be stark raving mad in the nicest possible way and he has a fine sense of drama – indeed he’s a bit over-fond of the dressing up bit and performs as many costume changes as songs. The set started with “Hard Rain” (apparently modelled more on Bryan Ferry’s version than the original), including “I Put a Spell on You”, and closing prematurely with “Fire” (due to an acoustic set downstairs apparently, this being two venues in one, Hawkwind billed against local heroes Hue & Cry). No sooner had Arthur left the stage than Keith and crew start arranging things for the Hawks – Tim’s rig is on the right this time and Niall’s computer on the left, and a large projection screen above Richard’s kit.

The set kicks off with “Lighthouse”– the sound is

is bottom heavy with little of Dave, Niall or Tim’s playing audible from where I’m standing and it takes a while before things improve. “Fahrenheit 451” comes next: Dibs sings lead and completely changes the original vocal melody (such as it was) to not very great effect. In fact the first half of the set (also featuring “Angels of Death” (the two bass version), “Silver Machine” and three Dibs numbers, of which only “Prometheus” really impresses) is rather perfunctory and it’s only once Leveller Jon Sevink takes centre stage on violin that the performance begins to catch fire – and the band start to move around instead of all remaining rooted to the spot. In fact, until this point, Dave has generally looked rather bored but he gives an excellent performance on “Spirit of the Age”.

Next up the band conjure up the authentic sound of Warrior-era Hawkwind while Dibs reads some of Moorcock’s words. The band then blast into a rousing “Magnu” (delivered as a medley with something

else I can’t quite place) [I’ve heard it’s a snatch of Brainbox Pollution] – really excellent. “Tide of the Century” provides some light relief (Niall plays bass on this one while Dibs steps off stage) after which the faithfully recreated violin intro adds a touch of authenticity to a storming “You’d Better Believe It”. The encore is the inevitable “Assassins”, much improved by a genuine violin intro.

The dancers and projections are excellent, the sound and lightshow less so. The two bass arrangement of “Angels of Death” is just horrible and, while I’m having a moan, Richard and Dibs doubling lead vocals (as on “You’d Better Believe It”) is still no substitute for Dave’s singing. Having a violin in the mix again is major plus point and now that Simon House seems to have dropped permanently out of sight the Hawks could do worse than draft Jon into the ranks full-time. All said and done, a thoroughly enjoyable concert.

I saw Hawkwind at Shepherds Bush Empire - a very good gig, when I saw the setlist from previous dates on the tour I feared the worst- a *lot* of new/unfamiliar material, quite a shock after the "golden oldie" sets of recent tours- but they put on a very fine show. Rather a 'different' experience in terms of presentation as well- a fairly restrained lightshow, with far more emphasis on the back-projections, some of which were really excellent, somebody a bit more techno-savvy has obviously got involved there. Dancers were mostly quite good (shock) although the fabled Hawkwind Performance Art Cheesiness Curse was in evidence during one routine which featured the dancers dressed as (ahem) giant silver lobsters (to "Tide Of The Century", which at least turns out to be a much better song than most of Tim's solo efforts- at least they way it was played at Shepherds Bush was pretty good, with the guest violinist really adding a lot). I think there is a pic of this on your site. Other than that it was a very fine show - not quite the primal soul elevation of the very best Hawkwind gigs, but genuine signs of further creative juice in the tank, which I wouldn't have predicted. A bit sad that Dave Brock is limiting his lead vocals so much -he still has by far the best voice in the band IMHO- but then maybe he wouldn't be sounding so good if he was singing three-quarters of the set every night. In terms of older stuff, double whammy of You Better Believe It and Levitation at the end of the main set totally hit the spot. Good stuff.

-Manfred Scholido

I was at the Brook, too, and this was the first time in years that I've not seen a winter tour in one of the larger venues as well as a sweat box like this or Leeds Irish Club. The ambience here is great, but it is a bit pokey, and the stage restricts 'the show', if not the music.

So, the gig. Huw remains a treasure, and god knows we're lucky still to have him. The question has been put here about the Hawks recording at the soundboard - the biggest issue is these sets by Huw, are they getting captured at all. He's been doing this for years in support to Hawk shows, and occasionally gracing the main event with his genius (strong language that, spend 5 mins with your copy of 'Live 79' if you disagree), and it cannot be beyond the possibility of modern technology to be getting these sets recorded onto a hard drive at each event. 'Outside The Law' and 'Rocky Paths' were real gems, and then a really bouncy finish with the two numbers with the band.

The Hawk set, then. No dancers, and the projection pretty mangled, so concentrate on the music, Krusty. I have to say, I struggled with the opening - I didn't dig the 'Lighthouse', and thought the 'Farenheit 451' was dire. Then there was some new stuff, from Mr. Dibs I understand, then a truly thunderous, almost sinister 'Angels' absolutely fantastic, laden with menace. But most intriguingly, Capt. Brock appeared to be enjoying himself. 'Angels' followed by 'Silver Machine' was great fun. Some of the new tunes were pretty good - one from Tim, the name of which evades me, seems to stand out, looking forward to getting this on record. And the segue of 'Magnu' into 'Brainbox Pollution' was tasty too - but I'm a complete sucker for the latter, such a great boogie. Then we finished with I think 'Assassins' and 'Levitation', though it may have been the other way round, so obviously not total awesomeness, but I still enjoyed myself.

I moved to Hampshire this summer, and was delighted that we got a gig on the tour at all, I'm not complaining - and this venue is a major leap in the comfort and friendliness stakes from the Astoria, where I used get my annual London fix. But it was billed as a warm-up gig, and so it was - a bit of polishing needed, and from what I can tell, got done before some of the other shows. Still, I'm not walking out of a Hawkwind show any time soon - unlike Foo Fighters or Ozrics. And please, is someone recording these sets by Huw?

-Krusty the Baker