NEWSLETTER NO 3
As I'm sure regular visitors will be aware a Hawkwind museum newsletter is far from a common occurrence, the site has now been up and running for over 18 months and in that time I've managed to produce three, if you include this one, of the little blighters. Originally it was my intention to produce them on a far more regular basis but to be honest with the "Rolling News" service that is available online via this site, www.hawkwind.com , www.starfarer.net , as well as the BOC-L and YAHOO newsgroups there often seems little point in replicating it here. However there comes a time, now being one of them that there are a few odds and ends that need clearing up and the easiest way is by putting it all down here.
So, on to business and first off it's more great news as far as the site is concerned as the month of July was yet another record breaker. Over that 31 day period visitor numbers came to 5816 with 13838 pages viewed, the highest monthly totals in both categories, as well as this the overall total visitor numbers since the site's humble beginnings back in January 2003 is fast approaching the 50,000 mark which I for one feel is another major landmark in the history of the museum. Anyway, before I get too carried away it just leaves me to say once again for your fantastic support since the site's inception and as long as you keep supporting it I'll do my best to keep new stuff coming on a regular basis.
In a similar vein I also think that now is as good a time as any to clear up the actual running of the Museum. I'm sure those who have been here from the start will be aware that it was started by myself, Dave and my "co-curator" - Simon, however as time has gone on I think it's fair to say that both our lives and hence situations have changed and for that reason alone I now run the site on my own, there's no big story to this, first and foremost undertaking such a project is "bl**dy hard work" and with Simon deciding to go back to part time study as well as holding a job down I'm sure you'll see that he had very little in the way of spare time. However with this in mind it's my intention to remove his personal details as well as all links to his e-mail in the near future, that said all his contributions to the site itself will like everything else remain in place, thanks for your assistance in the early days of the site and you're always welcome to come back or contribute some stuff in the future. And whilst on that subject that of course goes for the rest of you, if you ever feel like putting pen to paper and you think what you are writing is suitable for the site then don't hesitate to get in touch, as ever by -
Moving on to some news and information actually concerning the band themselves. In what looks like being a very busy, exciting and ultimately expensive next few months for Hawkfans, this has now started in earnest with the release of Ian Abrahams book, Hawkwind - Sonic Assassins at the end of last week. I received my copy this Monday and am now in the process of reading it so I can do a review for the site. Initial impressions are very favourable but I'll reserve judgement till I'm a lot further into it. Now I'm sure that most if not all of you have either got your mits on a copy already or are paying a little bit more attention to your daily postal delivery than usual, however for those "stragglers" out there I just thought I'd mention that as well as Amazon and the publishers SAF you can also order direct from Ian himself via a link to e-bay which you can access by simply -
One advantage of this is that you can request your copy to be signed if you so wish, which will no doubt add value to the publication when Ian is a best selling author ;-), oh and while you're at it please feel free to mention the Museum in any correspondence ;-)))
Now there is the old adage that you wait for ages for a bus, only for two to come along together and I guess it's fair to say that you can now also apply that to books on Hawkwind. Hot on the heels of Ian's publication comes the soon to be released "The Saga Of Hawkwind" by Carol Clerk, for more details -
Now above and beyond that I really can't add a lot more information. What I do know that while I think it's fair to say that Carol may well be a new name to many Hawkfans it is worth noting that not only does she write for the critically acclaimed magazine "Uncut" but she's also written books on amongst other Ozzy Osborne and the so called "Queen Of Pop", Madonna. Another point of note is that both of these books are technically "unofficial" is so much as neither was commissioned or sanctioned by the band themselves, that said I do know that Ian's has been produced with the full co-operation of most of the major players in the story, I am less sure of how Carol has researched her information so we'll have to wait and see how she approaches things. I'm sure at the end of the day both books will have something of interest for the avid Hawkfan and in most cases I'm sure it'll be a case of "personal taste" as to individuals favourite of the two.
In a final twist to the subject of Hawkwind in the written media, I'm sure many of you will remember that some months ago I was actively encouraging folks to get involved in the poll that Classic Rock Magazine was running to ascertain their readerships top live albums of all time. I suggested that as Hawkfans first and foremost we put personal preferences aside and as one got behind the "Space Ritual" album for the simple reason that when all is said and done it would probably be most peoples definitive live Hawkwind album. Now I have to say that I was getting somewhat disgruntled with the aforementioned publication, as an avid reader of said magazine I waited expectantly each month for it's appearance and with it hopefully the poll results. As the months passed I presumed that the idea had been quietly shelved for whatever reason (lack of interest?), that was until the other day when I was made aware of the following story that appeared on the
Eighth place, 7000 votes polled over the whole survey, up amongst such heavyweights of the rock world as Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Led Zep etc, don't know about you but to me this seems like a pretty impressive standing for "Our Boys" and whilst I'd like to think that the album would have fared well without my "banging on" it would be nice to think the museum and it's loyal visitors did indeed have some influence over the final result! Now the magazine is due out today (3rd August) but my local W H Smith has yet to get it's copies so I don't know how much coverage the poll has actually received within it's pages, but I for one work on the philosophy that "any publicity is good publicity" so the bands top ten standing can only be a good thing.
This actually leads me on rather nicely to Hawkwind themselves. Having spent a fair few weekends during June and July gracing the stages of various European festivals, attention must now surely switch to the (I assume!) imminent release of the bands all new studio album "Take Me To Your Leader". As I often mention regarding such matters the only place that has the "Official line" on what the band are up to is
And at the
time of writing no further information has surfaced. However the story doesn't end
there as we also have the preceding single to look forward to, a re-recorded version of
the classic Hawk track "Spirit Of the Age", featuring the vocal talents of huge
Hawkfan and daytime TV star Matthew Wright. I'm sure a lot of you will be aware that a
short snippet of the accompanying promo video was aired on his show "The Wright
Stuff" last Friday and according to the man himself the track was due for release on
the 23rd August, so now less than three weeks away. Assuming that it does appear on that
date I feel this is another opportunity for us as fans to act as one and in doing so
hopefully we can get the song into the charts. I for one do not think this is by any means
over ambitious as the simple fact of the matter is that these days you don't have to sell
that many records to get a chart placing. Already this year we've seen successful singles
from both Marillion and The Alarm (admittedly there's was released under a different name
to stop any adverse prejudice), two acts I'm sure many would consider as "well past
their sell by date!" but who, by co-odrinating and motivating their fan bases managed
to up their status in the eyes of the general public no end. If nothing else look at it
like this, with a respectable chart entry comes the possibility of an appearance on Top Of
The Pops, think how embarrassing you can be in front t of your kids saying things like -
"I can remember the original of this when it came out over 25 years ago"
"Now this is proper music, it's got a good beat, something you can tap your toe along
too"
"Blimey, the captain looks a lot older on TV than he does in real life, and that's
saying something!"
( The Hawkwind Museum accepts no responsibility for offspring's, siblings etc permanently
dis-owning you should such an event occur)
Well, I think that just about wraps things up, I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed putting it together. One thing I'm very aware of is that whilst I'm in the very privileged position to still be sitting on material that has yet to be rolled out, a lot of this stuff simply involved transcribing articles which I hope you enjoy reading. It has to be said though that often this can be very laborious and from my point of view not particularly satisfying, this on the other hand has given me the opportunity to get my (albeit somewhat basic!) creative writing juices flowing once more.
So to round things up please feel free to drop me a line if you feel like it, there's plenty of e-mail links all over the site so getting in touch is not difficult and also don't forget that there's a guestbook attached to the site, so if you haven't signed it already then you can do so by
Oh, and just one last thing, can I take this opportunity to wish the Captain of the ship, the Hawklord himself, Dave Brock a very happy birthday for the 20th of this month. I'm sure I speak for all Hawkfans when I say have a good one, have a glass of smoke of whatever takes your fancy on us (metaphorically speaking!) and we all look forward to seeing you and the rest of the band on the tour to promote the new album, here's to a successful few months for yourselves and the authors of the two Hawkwind books!