SIMON (MUSEUM CO-CURATOR)

SAME TOUR, DIFFERENT GIG

I had been searching for a particular sound ,I could hear it in my head ,I knew what it should sound like ,I just could'nt’t find it .I went through lots of bands ,genesis, yes, marillion, I thought I had it with pink floyd ,it was nearly there but it wasn't’t quite it, I figured that I was being stupid and that what I wanted didn’t exist yet ,maybe never would ,then I kept hearing this name hawkwind it sounded weird but the more I thought about it the more I liked it, hawkwind, it just sounded right ,I would have to check ‘em out ,I couldn’t find out much about them at first , then a friend of mine happen to mention he had a couple of there albums so we sat in his bedroom I listened …mmm, it was mmm, I wasn’t sure ,I realised that again it wasn’t it . Feeling rather frustrated I decided that it can’t have been hawkwind that I was searching for, but that name kept swirling round in my head .

Now this particular morning I had been in our local second hand record shop A place that we spent a lot of time (and pocket money) I noticed that they had a copy of a hawkwind album, having no cash at the time I went home and struck a deal with my mum that if I mowed the lawns and did a couple of other chores she would give me the £3 for the album , so I did the said jobs, got the cash and sped off on my pushbike , I got to the shop, I was in luck, it was still there, bought the album and began the 6 mile bike ride home (yeah ,ok it wasn’t very local, but it was the cheapest in the area and he had loads of stuff we hadn’t heard of) All the way home I kept thinking about the title of the album "levitation" what a strange title, but it sounded very cool .

As I put the needle on the blue vinyl and read the track listing , I thought that it sounded just what I was looking for and after playing the whole album I could safely say that it was the sound that I had heard in my head, exactly ,my search was over ,as that search had ended another had begun ,trying to find all the other albums by this band ,finding out information about them(fat chance in those days ,it was Brian Tawn or one interview in sounds or kerrang every 10 years or so) I managed to dig up the albums quite quickly considering my Saturday job only paid me a fiver for the day,I managed to find the gatefold sleeves, the albums with posters, the holygrail at that time was "In search of space"with the log book which I managed to find in mint condition for £3 and so an obsession was born

Just three weeks after my 17^{th birthday hawkwind came to Southend on sea to play at the Cliffs Pavilion ,I had seen quite a few bands by this time but the hawks were my band and I was gonna get to see ‘em , when they were playing I couldn’t help but marvel at the light show ,now I know that people always say about the light show but I had never seen a band present themselves as hawkwind did on that night ,as far as I can remember (I have a real bad memory)they had a backdrop depicting the inside of a spaceship upon which they projected old cartoons and planetscapes ,the other thing that stands out from that night was Nik Turner dressed in full bodystocking(no man should wear a bodystocking in public) and old cortina hub cap that had flashing lights on it , his hair, one bright red spike, it really was culture shock for me ,but I loved every minute of it ,I have a feeling that he had rollerskates on at one point which must have been difficult, the cliffs stage has a very steep rake on it (not for the faint hearted) don’t ask me what they played coz I don’t remember as I said I have a really bad memory ,but the over all impression was to last to this very day and the obsession continues……….}

^{DAVE DIGNUM}

Here's my memories of my first Hawkwind concert.
It was at the Liverpool Stadium, sadly I'm unable to confirm at the moment if
it was the 20.3.71 show or the 1.4.72 show. I will contact the Stadium
website & see if I can get a date on another concert I went to & this should help
me verify the date & you can alter the year if you choose to include my
memories.
I was 14 / 15 yrs at the time & myself & 3 mates all from Liverpool went
along to the concert.
I had the In Search of Space album (bought from a chemists shop of all
places) we had listened to several minutes of You Shouldn't Do That, before we
realised we were playing it on the wrong speed. Anyway with my appetite wetted
for more of this amazing music, I persuaded the other three to buy tickets price
around 70 pence at the time. We usually got the money from selling lead to
the scrap yard, that we had stripped out of the walls (old gas pipes) from
condemned houses awaiting demolition.
So on the day of the concert two of us got to the Stadium early afternoon,
sat on the steps by the entrance doors and waited for the other two to arrive,
one had to do his paper round (his second ever concert, the other being T-Rex)
The other lad had to sneak out (his step father was rather strict) It was to
be his first concert.
We eventually met up and when the doors opened rushed in to get a good speck.
Sadly and I'm sorry to any fans who get to read this, I can not remember very
much at all of what the band played etc. Except to say that without a drink
or anything else I was totally taken by this live performance, the volume and
shear level of sounds coming from the stage along with the light show took me on
a trip that I still haven't got over and still to this day almost exclusively
only listen to Hawkwind.
I can remember Stacia dancing that night (what lad of that age wouldn't) but
didn't fully appreciate her artistic talents till a couple of years later.
Only two out of the four stayed for the complete show, the paperboy had to go
home to be in by a certain time and the lad who's first concert it was had to
go out because he had a terrible headache because of the noise & lights.
I knew I'd seen something special that night and from that night on was
totally committed to seeing Hawkwind whenever they came to Liverpool.
Pretty soon it was to be the Concert of my life, The Space Ritual, what an
experience. Hairs still stand up on the back of my neck when the opening sounds
of this show come on. But my review of this was promised to Starfarer and he
has it on his site, I'm sure most of your visitors have seen it by now.
The Stadium is sadly no more, it was a very special place, an old venue used
for boxing & wrestling, terrible acoustically and played havoc with instrument
tuning I believe. But it had a unique atmosphere, sadly missing from many of
today's theatres.

JACK CLEAVER

When I was 13, I was sent to Marlborough College as a boarder. That was
in 1969. Once a year, they let one of the prefects book a rock-band. In
the second term of my second year there (I would have been 15) the
prefect who booked entertainment's was evidently rather hip; he booked
Hawkwind. That was 1971. They played in the main school hall, which was
a semi-circular stepped auditorium with room for about 900.

We all shuffled into the auditorium, to find copies of various issues of
Frendz magazine distributed around the hall, replete with pornographic
cartoon-strips, instructions on drug-abuse, as well as more
directly-political agit-prop. I'm quite certain that this was not done
with the approval of the school staff...

Then the lights went out (not down!), and the band came on.

They were incredibly loud. I'd heard rock-bands live before, once or
twice, but I suspect you could have heard this concert in Swindon. I've
since learned that the "deafening" effect of loud music is usually the
result of crappy PA, and that loads of watts through kick-ass modern PA
doesn't sound loud, it just sounds clear.

The light-show consisted essentially of two powerful strobes, one on
either side of the stage, pointing at the audience, and a few
blacklights. This barrage of sound and light went on for an
hour-and-a-half. I haven't a clue what tunes they were playing (except
that I'm quite certain they played "You Shouldn't Do That"). The effect
was essentially physical - a bit like being beaten up.

Then they stopped, and the lights came up. The drummer (Terry Ollis, I
presume) had got rid of all his clothes while they'd been playing, and
walked off dressed in nothing but a white towel, round his waist. I'd
been watching him through the strobes, but all I'd seen was a sort of
fog of sticks - he certainly worked hard. Then We all trooped off to
bed. The next day, I learned that that had been the interval - the band
had been expecting to give us another bruising 90 minutes of overloaded
everything later.

Loads of people at the school promptly acquired In Search Of Space,
which had just been released; me included. I liked it "quite a lot", but
I hadn't a clue...

Two years after that, I discovered acid. ISOS was one of the albums I
listened to during my first trip. It totally blew me away; it seemed
deliberately engineered to connect with trippers. Another year later I
ran away from school to London, and spent the next two years as a hippie
bum, squatting in places like Westbourne Park, and going to any free
concert or festival that was on. I saw Hawkwind at the last Windsor Free
Festival - definitely the best party I've ever been to! I also saw them
at Watchfield the following year. That was the "hot, hot, hot" summer of
1976, and after Watchfield we moved on to Rhyader in Wales. No bands,
but that was my first encounter with the Teepee People.

I also saw Hawkwind at the Liverpool Stadium several times. I guess at
least one of those occasions might have been the Space Ritual tour.
Around this time I was also deeply into Gong, who did the same kind of
venues and events. Gong's light-show was consistently better. Ummm, a
lot of my memories from that time blend together - I was taking a lot of
drugs, particularly acid, and many things are unclear (like how I lost
my trousers at Watchfield, and what I was wearing when I left the site).

When I was 20, I went to University. After that, I got a job, married a
girl, had kids, and never saw Hawkwind again until the Bristol gig a
couple of weeks ago. My 16-year-old son is into Hawkwind, so I took him
along. He loved it, and so did I (and the Academy is a *really* nice
venue). I always liked the band on the early records, but I had assumed
that they'd turned into a fossil after punk came along. How wrong can
you get?

CHRIS PURDON

Newcastle City Hall, autumn 1977. Went in sober and came out absolutely wrecked and exhausted, dripping with sweat. Not through drink or drugs, just through 2 hours of having all my senses assaulted by Hawkwind. Still clearly remember Bob Calvert doing Uncle Sam to this day, waving a sword and the American flag around. Absolutely mindblowing! Support were a new-wave group called Bethnal, I seem to remember.

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