Hawkwind

I say yes. I think the sound improvement is very noticeable. The 1999 Party is almost as good as Space Ritual, and used copies can be almost as much as the box set.

SOLD. Thanks.

1999 Party is my fave record of theirs

Better than Space Ritual.

nothing is better than space ritual, and that includes any record made by anyone else ever.

If a committe was put together to come up with the worst possible idea for a Hawkwind album, it's hard to imagine they could come up with something as bad as this - https://www.planetrock.com/news/rock-news/hawkwind-announce-orchestral-album-road-to-utopia-featuring-eric-clapton/

committee!

mike FUCKING batt?!?

eric FUCKING clapton?!?

this is def the funniest bad idea Brock has ever had

Sax FUCKING quintet!?

mike FUCKING batt?!?

Womble on the Edge of Time
The Psychedelic Wombles (Disappear in Smoke)
Orinoco Accumulator

... und so weiter

hawkwind ft katie melua

lets face it, I'm going to listen to this at least once and so are all of you

say no to drugs, kids

should've called it Road to Uttoxeter

first two tracks of this are on spotify btw

it’s no space ritual tbh

Better days (nights): some lost "Atomhenge" footage has been posted recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xniSGsBwlG8

need to get up and make something to eat but can't stop listening to Hawkwind At The BBC, send food or at least bleeps and bloops

This could be interesting:
https://www.daysoftheunderground.com/

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/dfe380_b03f3ab0c998475da160983e075f06a4~mv2.jpg

Avatars of the underground, figureheads of the free festival scene and heralds of punk, Hawkwind were one of the bands that defined the 1970s. At the height of their artistic and commercial powers, Hawkwind channelled and amplified the era’s psychic tenor via a science fiction sensibility, mind-blowing visuals, and their unique brand of deep space psychedelia.

As well as being an in-depth primer to the music of their classic years, Days Of The Underground explores the ideas and concepts that fuelled Hawkwind during this period, and speaks to the crew that manned the ship.

The book’s cover is illustrated by Hawkwind artist John Coulthart.

The Special Edition of the book will be in hardback, limited to 500 copies, signed by the author, and include the following additional items:

​Sideways Through Time: An Oral History Of Hawkwind In The 1970s – a 200 page companion volume of interviews, including DikMik, Nik Turner, Michael Moorcock, Stacia Blake, Alan Powell, Paul Rudolph, Adrian Shaw, Harvey Bainbridge, Andrew Lauder, Doug Smith, Jeff Dexter, Jonathan Smeeton and many more

A print of Michael Moorcock & Jim Cawthorn’s ‘Sonic Assassins’ comic strip from Frendz

Postcards featuring unseen pictures from the ‘Space Ritual’ photo shoot by Laurie Lewis

indeed! thanks for the heads up.

Whoa! That looks great.

since my hawkwind background is mostly me going "man i don't have time to be interested in _that stuff_" and then getting really absorbed in it, i'm just gonna start with "i'm interested in this stuff."

I guess this is the same Joe Banks who was behind the Disinformation project, given that the book's published by Strange Attractor who are into that kind of thing.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/34627-Disinformation

I'm not a huge fan of Hawkwind but I've read and greatly enjoyed two big books about them, they're an interesting cultural force.

I feel like this could be a really interesting book - I remember Lemmy talking about Hawkwind locking people inside the venue while they played, and I can imagine that being quite terrifying if you were on the wrong drugs. But the tiny excerpt on the website isn't that enticing. I'll wait for some reviews to find out if it's more focused on band history/social history (which I'd love), or on fevered description of the records (which I already own, thanks).

This was recently posted on Aging rock act on new album: This time we wanted to go back to the basics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBweqmLk6dU

Nope, I still hate Silver Machine.

Still?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF2ODWluPlY

i think that is maybe the most tolerable version. i always think it's a little sad that their best known song is one of their worst.

the best version of silver machine is always the one played by a busker you happen to be walking past

the most amazing thing to me is that last week i first learned who james last was, i listened to voodoo party thingy (meh+), and then fell into a vortex and heard a few horrible seconds of his silver machine/children of the revolution/schools out medley. and now it's back in my space. these are dark, incredibly weird times.

that is incredible that you had managed to go so long without having heard of james last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X2xr2Xbdaw

Cool little article, looks like that same author that wrote that book:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/19/why-hawkwind-were-the-great-radicals-of-1970s-rock

very cool and so true. long may the hawkwind reappraisal continue!

his book is excellent too.

Reading the book right now. It's very good, but as with their discography, I'm having a difficult time caring about anything after Lemmy's kicked out.

Hmm, how do you feel about post-Morrison Doors?

i love, nay adore everything up until '79 so the book covering just the whole of the first decade is perfect for me.

fair enough not being into anything they did post lemmy but there is a lot of gold in the next three or four years.

I tried Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music earlier this evening and couldn't get into it at all. Most of the problem was Calvert's vocals — he sounds a lot like early Bryan Ferry, which is a Very Bad Thing.

ok, if you don't like calvert then no point listening to that era.

i can't hear any similarity to ferry at all. he is simply the greatest.

I guess this is the same Joe Banks who was behind the Disinformation project, given that the book's published by Strange Attractor who are into that kind of thing.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/34627-Disinformation

― funnel spider ESA (Matt #2), Saturday, 21 September 2019 19:57

No - and THANK GOD - it is not the same guy. A music journalist with the same name. Phew!

It's very good, but as with their discography, I'm having a difficult time caring about anything after Lemmy's kicked out.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 00:35

Also, this is absolutely crazy talk - and speaking as someone who formerly didn't go beyond Warrior AND LEARNED THE ERROR OF MY WAYS - it really is worth pushing further and exploring. I ended up buying a really cheap compilation album of their latter period, which was super-helpful in learning to navigate the later era.

Stuff like PXR5 is easily as good as anything from their early years - the whole sci-fi trilogy of that plus Quark Strangeness and Charm and Astounding Sounds is utteraly classic.

Also, I was in a cemetery in West London where I found a grave which had the complete verse from "Lives of great men all remind us, we may make our lives sublime..." carved on it and I was so so super-excited to find the grave of a Hawkwind fan - only to discover it was never Hawkwind at all, it's from a quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Chiz!

I ended up buying a really cheap compilation album of their latter period, which was super-helpful in learning to navigate the later era.

What compilation was that? Do you have specific compilations to recommend for their early period as well? I've tried to get into Hawkwind several times without success, still hoping/expecting them to click since they're something that I should love on paper.

shout-out to that Hawklords album that completed their 70s run, it's really fantastic and very new wave influenced, might be an easy "in" for that period of the band

Look, this is not a reccommendation, because it really was a super-cheap bargain basement cash-in that was £2.99 at HMV:

https://www.discogs.com/Hawkwind-Master-Of-The-Universe/release/1455113

There are like dozens of Hawkwind compilations! I just found a series on Spotify called Hawkwind Decades. The 70s one is good for the post-Lemmy era even though it starts with Motorhead (the song) which is Lemmy.

It might help if you describe *what* about them, you think might appeal to you? Like, do you want more 60s psych (the first S/T), more 70s sci-fi-synth (In Search Of Space), the more Krautrocky/Kosmische edge (Warrior At The Edge of Time), raw punky garage rock (Doremi Fasol Latido)?

Or, what did you try that didn't work? Like, for a lot of people, including myself, Space Ritual was the first thing I heard, and it was... just so much. Almost too much, as a double live album. But picking out the songs I really liked from that, was a good way to work out which of the early albums to investigate further.

sorry! I am so bad at reccommending specific things.

Amazing sleeve.

Astounding Sounds, Amazing Sleeve

this, different to the one mentioned above, Masters Of The Universe comp - https://www.discogs.com/Hawkwind-Masters-Of-The-Universe/master/28026

and Roadhawks - https://www.discogs.com/Hawkwind-Roadhawks/master/47791

are good entry points into early Hawkwind, up to '75.

I can still remember when i bought "Space Ritual" the guy in the record shop saying how jealous he was that I was going to be hearing it for the first time and what a treat I was in for. That's exactly how I feel about anyone listening to it for the first time now.

and Neil S, 100% agree, the Hawklords album is so good. in my Hawkwind top 5.

LOL, I've got that one, too. But that one is "Masters" and my mostly post-75 comp is "Master" (clearly, after Lemmy left, Hawkwind only had one Master)