In 1969 Dave Brock and Mick Slattery, both pictured left had been getting nowhere playing psychedelic music in a band called The Famous Cure. The band had discontinued and Brock resorted to busking for a living. His busking also gave him some modicum of success (busking was popular at the time), contributing a number to a Various Artists busking album and going on tour as part of a busking package.

Brock and Slatterly hooked up with John Harrison, a bass player who had previously been in jazz and dance bands but was now taking an interest in more electronic music. An advert placed in Melody Maker saw the recruitment of 17-year old drummer Terry Ollis and the band began rehearsing. Nik Turner had known Brock from when they were both in Holland in 1967, and, owning a van, he offered to help out. When the band discovered he had a fondness for playing saxophone (in a what he believed to be a 'free-jazz' fashion), they invited him to join the band. Dik Mik Davies was a childhood friend of Brock's, and he too offered to help out with the gear. When the band found out he also liked messing around making electronic sounds, like Turner, he was offered a role in the band contributing to the eariness of the sound.

GROUP X

As a six man band, albeit one with no name (temporarily being refered to as Group X), and a few rehearsals under their belts, the band turned up at The All Saints Hall in Notting Hill on the 29th August and performed a 20 minute jam. In the audience was Doug Smith (of Clearwater management) with Radio 1 DJ John Peel, pictured below . Needing a name, they settled for Hawkwind Zoo (Hawkwind being a nickname for Nik Turner due to his habit of clearing his throat and excessive flatulance), later to be abbreviated to plain Hawkwind.

HURRY ON SUNDOWN

For the remainder of the year, they managed several performances, revisiting The All Saints Hall numerous times. On the recording front, Brock had been given time by Don Poole (of Essex Music) to make use of EMI's Abbey Road studios, which is where they cut demos for , Hurry on sundown eventually being released in 1981 by Flicknife records, see below for the cover.

DOUG SMITH

Future manager Doug Smith is quoted as saying - "At that time Hawkwind were still called Group X. The way we got involved with them was that one night we had at the All Saints Hall with High Tide and Skin Alley. High Tide had just been signed by Apple Publishing so they had all this brand new equipment. Hawkwind turned up: 'Can we play. Use your gear man, it's all nice and new...' and Wayne went 'Well... be careful' and so on and up they went and played and the whole night ended and Peel walked out of the hall, looked at me, and went 'Sign them. Big band.' I walked on, didn't think any more about it, then two months later decided to get involved. Went round to see Peel, dinky toy collection out, playing with it on the floor, and I said 'We got the name John, we got the name. Hawkwind Zoo.' He looked at me: 'Hawkwind Zoo? No. Get rid of the zoo.' And that's how that happened - Douglas Smith"

JOHN PEEL

TERRY OLLIS AND NIK TURNER

ALSO MAKING THE NEWS IN 1969

MAN LANDS ON THE MOON

THE WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL

SPORTS NEWS -

MANCHESTER CITY BEAT LEICESTER 1 - 0 TO CLINCH F.A CUP, SEE BACK PAGE FOR MORE DETAILS