Whether it's a book, a web site or in this case a museum!, the one thing these all have in common is that they are only as good as the material contained in them and it's for this reason that I remain eternally grateful to each and every one of you who have contributed material to make the hawkwind museum what it is today.

However there are some who not only provide me with great material but in doing so go beyond the call of duty, and none moreso than Dr Oz Hardwick. Since the museum's inception he's been a regular source of new material from his archive of photos, many of which have never been seen on the internet before. In lieu of this and the fact that from many of his pictures it's pretty obvious to see that he was "pretty close to the action" I thought it would be a good idea to conduct a little Q+A session with him via e-mail. Being a man of modesty he was unsure as to the validity of the idea but all the same was happy to go along with it. Personally I think it makes for an interesting read and a useful insight into the mind of another Hawkfan and I hope you do to!

Once again, thanks Dr Oz

So tell us how you came to get into Hawkwind and when was this?

Like a lot of people of ‘a certain age’, it was ‘Silver Machine’. As a 12-year-old regular Top of the Pops viewer (big T. Rex fan, so it was good years later when they – or most of them – were on the Marc show) it just blew me away. The music, the lights & just the chaos, really – I was already really into music, but I’d never experienced anything so exciting. It was only last year that I finally saw the TOTP clip again in its entirety… obviously, it now has all manner of nostalgic baggage, but I still reckon it stands up as a classic piece of footage. Filmed in Dunstable which, coincidentally, became my ‘local’ venue for a number of years in the 80s.

What was your first Hawkwind gig and what can you remember of it?

Plymouth Guildhall, 1^{st February 1974, and I can remember probably more than would be of interest to anyone! Crushed against the glass doors, then up the stairs, bought a poster that I still have somewhere, & then found a space on the canvas floor covering (that they used to roll out to avoid damaging the posh floor). Some guy came on with an acoustic guitar, got us all to do a big ‘Om’, made some odd noises, said ‘I’ve got a synthesiser in my mouth’ & bashed out some long-forgotten songs. Then we waited for hours! I found out much later that the bus had been searched & the band had to be bailed out to do the gig. Finally they came on, & there were the then-familiar cries of ‘sit down!’ to the small bunch at the front, so Stacia sorted that one by saying they wouldn’t play until everyone at the front had sat down… & no-one wanted to argue! We’re around the 1999 Party era here, so I guess the set was more or less like that. It certainly began with ‘Brainbox Pollution’ – a great wall of noise, and particular highlights were ‘Brainstorm’, with great oils splodges of random light, ‘The Watcher’, ‘Sonic Attack’ (with police lights) and ‘Paradox’ – then new, of course, but it remains one of my favourites. Being young & naïve, when we were asked what we wanted as an encore, my ‘Down through the Night’ was drowned among the ‘Silver Machine’s, & that’s what we got. Brilliant night.}

Now, you've said to me that, and I quote, "I wouldn’t say I was close to the band - just one of the irritating buggers who hung around a lot". But, all modesty aside, you must have been quite close to the band to take some of the backstage pictures that I'm proud to host here at the museum. So, go on – tell us how you came to be in such close proximity and how you appeared to have had such unlimited access. I mean, I can't think of any other pictures on the net of Dave Brock drinking a cup of tea?

As I recall, I just started taking photographs in the early 80s, sent a few to the band & then rather cheekily asked if I could have a photo pass. Clearly, I wasn’t too irritating, as they were always really welcoming. I still have a really nice (& rather touching, given subsequent events) letter from Bob thanking me for a bunch of photos, saying they were the sort of things he’d one day be showing his grandchildren.

As good as these pictures are, I feel that your real gems are the "live" ones, so what was your secret? I've always felt that Hawkwind are one of the most difficult acts to photograph successfully as the projections that they invariably use do not produce as much light as standard spot lights and hence the stage can often be very dark. So how come you got such well-defined and brightly-lit shots?

Well, when I left school, I’d trained as a photographer, so I know what I’m doing. That being said, I have hundreds (no exaggeration) of really bad ones. With the speed at which the lights change, there’s a lot of trial and error, but it’s all worth it for the really good ones. The ambition was always to get something on an album cover. Les Cox – a brilliant painter who did most of the original Weird Tapes covers – and myself put together a couple of designs & tried to get Dave interested… alas, to no avail. It may be immodest, but I think that both of our ideas were better than a lot that did appear then (I think the next thing was Friends & Relations 2) and subsequently (Distant Horizons, anyone?). So it was good in 2002 when Cleopatra in the States tracked me down & asked to use a couple of my photos for posters to go with the miniature facsimile issues of Zones & Do Not Panic. A bit of an abandoned dream fulfilled, & it also means that, after about 30 years, my parents caught up & now own a couple of Hawkwind posters! I live in hope that maybe a couple will be used in future… maybe even on a new album (just get in touch, guys!).

So anyway back to band matters, what were they like when you were around them. I mean, did Dave make you a cuppa?

Clearly, you’ll be wanting tales of rock & roll excess and decadence, but there weren’t any! Yes, I was offered warm beverages, etc. on numerous occasions. As I said, very welcoming. I know we’re all supposed to be deeply entrenched in our Hawkwind / Spaceritual.net camps, spitting bile & vitriol at each other, but I can’t really slag anyone off. Nik was always a lovely bloke, with time for anyone, Dave used to get hassled more but always had time for a chat… when I turned up at the Leeds gig on the last tour, it was really nice to catch up after a number of years. Harvey, too, was always very sound… I once went down to Barnstaple for the debut gig by the Alman Mulo band. I arrived to find that it had been cancelled, but Norman (what a gent) put me up & we spent a long, long evening listening to demos, talking and generally ‘chilling out’ (as the Young People say). What’s he doing these days?

I think I’m correct in saying that like many of us long-time Hawkfans you had something of a "sabbatical"; or put another way you lost interest in them. Can you remember when this was and what the reason was for this onset of apathy?

A couple of things. In a general life re-think, I gave up my job to go to University in 1989, moving from the south-east to the north, & basically giving up any sort of income for a very long time. This, of course, cut down on gig-going potential. Also, they started going in a direction that I wasn’t. Whilst all sorts of things go to make up Hawkwind, for me the crucial elements are Dave on vocals and guitar (rhythm guitar is maybe the most underrated instrument in rock, & Dave’s probably one of the best exponents of the instrument), and organic, unpredictable electronics. So, less guitar (& vocals) and more programming on Space Bandits and Electric Teepee took away the things that I looked for, and It is the Business of the Future was the first one I didn’t buy. It was a valid progression for the band, but it didn’t appeal to me. I saw them on the Business Trip tour (in Plymouth, neatly enough) and it was really flat, so that was it. Oddly enough, I quite like the live album from the tour, though the cheesy abomination that is ‘Quark, Strangeness and Charm’ remains pretty painful (though at the beginning, so easily skipped).

So, a pretty obvious next question: "how did you climb back on board the ship?"

Well, I was browsing in a sale & saw a couple of the Weird Tapes CDs cheap enough to replace the rather aged cassettes. When I got them home, I was amazed & not too pleased to find one of my photos, uncredited & fairly poorly messed about with, inside the cover. This was before the Cleopatra stuff, so it was, as I said, the ‘abandoned dream’, only horribly screwed up – didn’t have my name on it and looked like poo! Fortunately, I vaguely knew Rob from Voiceprint from way back – definitely one of the good guys – and got in touch, where it was settled amicably. Seems the design company he used had just ripped it off from the internet… one of the problems of things appearing on-line & it’s not the first time it has occurred! Whatever, the whole business got me thinking about Hawkwind again, put me back in touch with Rob, & suddenly I’m ‘back on board’, as you put it.