OK...personal sensory apparatus has stabilised sufficiently to enable submission of a report log of encounter with HW mothership landing in London's Astoria last night...
Dreamworker Rob and I set off for London late afternoon... Following some issues with parking etc. we head off to the Angel pub near the Astoria to hook up with some fellow 'wind heads ( AL, AT, Dave Law, Chris Purdown, Steve, Bernhard and Andreas). Bernhard and Andreas left shortly after our arrival to score some Chinese food somewhere. We had a few beers and some interesting chats. Dave Law recommended checking out the new Primal Scream album (apparently quite HW influenced). Also, there was a strong feeling that "Hurry On Sundown" would make a great single, perhaps more so than Spirit of the Age...
From the Angel pub we hit the Astoria, bit of a search at the entrance but nothing too heavy and it was quite cool in the venue too. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to check out the support band but they sounded good. We went to the bar and met up with some more friends - Pete T, Mikey, Mr and Mrs Paul Gollidge. Rob introduced me to webmaster Rik and Val. Really nice friendly couple. Also chatted briefly with a guy with full Prisoner gear on and a top hat. Then into the gig... I always find the time just before the band hit the stage to be one of the real exciting points in the evening. Tonight is no exception. Personally it's been a year since my last encounter with the mothership so I'm pretty damn excited. Rob and I head upstairs to prepare for the journey ahead. Looking around, the gig must be a sell out or nearly so: it's packed. We spot a certain Mr M Griffin in the audience, too.
Then at about 8.55pm, the band hit the stage... The lights go down and after a drone-y intro they launch into a cracking version of Arrival in Utopia. By now the line up can be discerned. On the right behind the groovy bedspread covered thing, is the Captain, looking on good form and resplendent in a white lab coat. Centre stage is Alan Davey and Richard is of course on the drums behind (slightly elevated). To the left and standing back a bit is Keith Barton. The band are on great form tonight, in no particular order, the set-list included an Intro, Arrival in Utopia, Assault & Battery segueing into The Golden Void, Angela Android, Spirit of the Age, Brainbox Pollution, Master of the Universe, Where Are They Now, various spacey interludes, Hurry On Sundown (fab version!), The Right Stuff, Ejection, Assassins of Allah, Heads, Wings, a Paranoia excerpt and other bits.
The standard of playing is brilliant and as usual many of the songs are rendered differently but to good effect. All tracks were delivered on six cylinders. Good to hear some old faves like Heads. There are
End of the gig, the lights go up and then it's time to weave our way home. Great to see the band and Huwie on such good form. Looking forward to seeing them again next year.
Absolutely astounding gig. All musicians on top form. From both the balcony and towards the back downstairs the sound was superb. We could hear all of them really clearly.
The core trio were joined by Keith Barton on guitar who came over exceptionally well last night. Couldn't see round the corner from where we were but it sounded like Keith Kniveton was also there, hidden away to the right of the stage (as you look at it from the audience). Lene Lovich took the stage for lead vocals on one song and backing vocals on a few others - which will have divided opinion I'm sure. I thought she was great and really fitted in (more subtly than Arthur) and most people I spoke to felt the same, but at least one was not happy. [Note: Keith Kniveton was not there. All the synthesizer was provided by Dave and Alan.]
Hopefully someone will post a full tracklist soon, but they opened with Arrival in Utopia and finished with Spirit of the Age (with the Welcome epilogue) which were both stunners. Other highlights
There was a limited edition (500) CD of part of the Walthamstow 2002 gig on sale last night - it's nearly 75 mins and the quality is as good as Canterbury '01 from what I've heard so far. Tracklist for that is: Earth Calling; Aerospaceage Inferno; Angels of Death; Out of the Shadows; Time Captives; Master of the Universe; The Gremlin Song; Time and Confusion; Hurry on Sundown; Lighthouse; The Watcher; Assassins of Allah; Do That; Earth Calling. This one will not be sold in shops nor through distributors - the fact that it's not barcoded is apparently significant. *** I've listened to nearly all of it now - it's great to hear the banter so clearly as well as Arthur's amusing poem at the start of Time and Confusion (which is definitely not one to play to the kids).
I didn't spot Kris last night. She wasn't on the merch stall nor on stage. Hope she's well. Dave sounded like he was a bit blocked up at one point...
*** Apparently this is not quite accurate. The CD is called "Spaced Out In London" and will be available through normal distribution channels and on the merchandise stall at future gigs. The barcodeless version sold at the Astoria was a limited pre-release edition of 500 that only arrived that day (hence the lack of pre-publicity). It also has a couple of typo's on the CD insert, such as 'Spcaced Out In London' on the spine, which will be corrected. The CD tray is opaque and will be replaced with a transparent version allowing the artwork on the CD insert inner to be seen...
I hadn’t really been looking forward to the gig. Hadn’t seen Hawkwind for over a year (Brighton in November 2002 was my last gig prior to this), having spent most of the year in the US and thus missed the Spring tour and the Hawkfest. Reading about these gigs on boc-l had left me with the feeling that things were on the slide - continued delay to the new album, still only 2 or 3 new songs in the sets, lukewarm gig reviews from normally devout fans, little or no involvement from Simon or Huw, both of whom had been so important in recent times, and much as I like Arthur Brown, I felt his presence in the ranks just made HW even more of a 70s nostalgia act, rather than a living, breathing band. All in all, I was braced for a disappointment when I set off for the Astoria last night.
But now I can say that my faith has been restored. What a performance! Everyone played a blinder - Dave, Alan and Richard can rarely have meshed so well, and Keith Barton does an excellent job - unobtrusive, rounding out the sound, and playing the odd searing solo, including a particularly fine effort on Brainbox Pollution. Credit to the soundman too - the power, clarity, and mix of the sound was easily the best I’ve heard at a Hawkwind show.
I don’t think I’ve ever before seen the band play with the power or intensity they achieved during The Right Stuff, or Master of the Universe (which was just fantastic in its revamped form, gaining a completely new lease of life), or the closing section of Hassan-i-Sahba. Also there are signs that there really is more new material in the works - a new song from Alan, a fast rocky catchy effort that sounded pretty good on first hearing, and a new instrumental (I think? Maybe some vocals towards the end), or possibly it was two new numbers stitched together: a few minutes of ambient synth washes followed by a rather cheesy slice of techno-funk…er, well it was something different… OK, let’s face it, that bit wasn’t up to much. But it really didn’t matter when the rest of the gig was so synapse-shredding. Quite a few numbers had unfamiliar-sounding middle passages or endings: some nice clockwork electronica in the middle of Utopia, while Heads was rounded off with some fine twin lead playing from Dave and Keith (when have HW ever used twin leads before?)
Lene Lovich – powerful voice, somewhat incongruous stage presence- came on for Angela Android, which I’d never heard before- turns out it’s basically a novelty song, which is not usually a good thing, but hey, it was Christmas, and they gave it plenty of welly, and got away with it, although it seemed odd to play it so early in the set. Lene later re-appeared to do a spoken word piece (maybe this is also
Good lightshow - very effective barrage of strobes in places - I mean, you need a good barrage of strobes at a Hawkwind gig, to just give it that extra little mind-altering something. I also liked the “Reefer Madness”-style film clips during Brainbox Pollution. The dancers - well, they were both very pretty, whether they’re meant to add anything beyond that I’m not sure, but like I said, it was Christmas, so what the hell.
I have to stress how completely pulverising The Right Stuff was, Alan and Richard were absolutely hammering out the rhythm, it was jaw-droppingly good. In fact the band were really going for it tonight- both Dave and Alan were putting a lot more passion into their vocals than the last few times I’d seen them.
Intro / Arrival In Utopia
Angela Android
Assault and Battery / Golden Void
Where Are They Now
Out There We Are (new instrumental number)
The Right Stuff
Paranoia
Hurry On Sundown
Interlude: Huw comes out looking fit and well and plays stunning renditions of:
Fifth Second of Forever
Solitary Mind Games
Waiting for Tomorrow
Some absolutely gorgeous high-speed picking and strumming here, very adventurous arrangements, better than the originals! Great to see Huw back on form. Then HW return and it goes something like this:
Wings
Ejection
I, Robot (if that’s what it’s called) ***
Heads
Sun Ray
Brainbox Pollution
Hassan-i-Sahba (with the 'Space is their Palestine' middle section)
Encores:
Spirit of the Age
Master of the Universe
Welcome to the Future
Merry xmas to one and all
Nick
*** Aparently Lene just recited part of the lyrics to 'Robot' over a slowish coda tacked onto the end
of Ejection, so this isn't actually a separate track
Not having seen the band since Walthamstow (and not having thought much of that gig - no Huw, no Simon), knowing that various members/ex-members were presently missing in action, and having read the somewhat cool review of the Exeter gig I wasn't expecting too much this time round.
I arrived around 6.30 and the queue was surprisingly short - not only that, the doors opened on time so I was able to get a good seat at the front of the balcony with an excellent view of the stage.
The support band was Tarantism, who I'd never heard of. The venue was still only a third full when they started playing their extending folky jams and, to begin with, I felt like I'd wandered into the wrong concert and the headliners would turn out to be Pentangle or some such. Songs about dodgy tour vans ("Wing mirror") and the like got little reaction. However, towards the end of the set they started to get into a groove and eventually received a really positive response from the crowd.
Tarantism's gear was shifted and Mr Dibs and Co set up the mikes. The stage was looking a bit bare, emphasised by the plain white sheet hanging behind the stage and this still wasn't looking or feeling like a Hawkwind concert. The venue had filled up though and there was now some atmosphere...
There were three sets of keyboards, including the one on the right that was obviously Dave Brock's and two unfamiliar sets. Clearly then we weren't going to get Tim Blake, Simon House, Keith Kniveton or Harvey Bainbridge doing one of their regular/occasional guest spots. Three mics at the front of the stage - two on the far left (with a chair next to them), one in the middle. No Arthur Brown so the centre stage mic was obviously Alan's. Presumably the other were for Lene Lovich and Huw (the chair also?).
Around 9.00 the lights finally dimmed and Hawkwind took the stage - Dave stage right behind his keyboards/synths, Richard behind on the drum kit, Alan stage centre with a small keyboard - plus a short-haired guitarist, positioned stage left behind the third keyboard setup, who I take to be Keith Barton.
They kicked off with Arrival in Utopia, Dave and Alan sharing vocals. From the left of the balcony the sound was a bit muddy - and definitely too quiet. Just as they got going the song slowed right down for an instrumental passage. They've always done this but at barely two minutes into the concert, it simply dissipates any momentum. In fact the main problem when the band play without a dedicated keyboard player is that they increasingly seem to rely on pre-recorded synth sequences. Synth sounds were emerging from stage right but Dave was clearly fiddling around with his torch and clipboard rather than actually playing - and the sound which emerged was distinctly cheesy. Things picked up again when the main guitar riff came back in.
I couldn't distinguish Keith Barton's input to begin with but he certainly contributed some good lead guitar later on in the set and generally toughened up the sound. The light/slide show was good throughout and two female dancers added more visual interest to several songs.
Next up, "Angela Android", with Richard taking lead vocals. I actually liked his take on "Gimme Shelter" but he convinced me during this set that the singing should be left to Dave and Alan! Lene Lovich appeared, looking and sounding exactly like she did 20+ years ago on Top of the Pops singing "Lucky Number" - and if the synths ever fail she can certainly do the space noises. She contributed some slightly more conventional vocals later on in the song - but it is not a highlight of the set.
Another pre-recorded synth sequence heralded "Assault and Battery" - Dave's vocals were excellent but for me this song, and especially "Golden Void" which followed, needs Simon House's input. Next up was "Where are they now" - a welcome addition to the set but worth developing into an extended version.
Then a change of pace as Dave introduced Huw. He looked pretty frail and had to be helped to strap on his acoustic guitar but he didn't need the chair and -as other reviewers have commented- his short set was a revelation, really dexterous guitar playing and good vocals. The guitar intro to "5th Second of Forever" led into "Solitary Mind Games" and "Waiting For Tomorrow", finishing with the "5th Second" outro. After this all too brief interlude the band were back on.
robotics before Dave started the synth sequence for "Heads". Never one of my favourite songs but it worked quite well.
Alan then sung a good sounding new song before things really picked up with a storming "Brainbox Pollution" and the inevitable "Assassins of Allah".
They started the encore with Spirit of the Age" ("great to have a singalong" says Dave), a version that started slowly (those pre-recorded synths again) but gained strength as it went on. Dave never follows Bob Calvert's words entirely but he does at least always deliver pretty much the same version! "Master of the Universe" was rearranged, with Richard reciting the first verse over a synth backdrop before Dave's rhythm guitar figure signalled the entry of the rest of the band - excellent version. The set wound up with "Welcome".
In the end, two hours flew by far too quickly. Not quite a classic but well worth the trip. Mind you, conversations overheard on the way out suggested that some people found it all a bit underwhelming ("didn't really get going until the encore", "weak drum sound", etc). On the way out I picked up the
"Spaced out in London" CD - very nice to have another live souvenir (and my memory of Walthamstow is clearly at fault because it sounds excellent) - but please can we get the new studio album soon!
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