LONDON ASTORIA

21.12.03

FAN REVIEWS AND DAVE'S OVERVIEW

So Hawkwind brought their year to a close with a Christmas party show at London's Astoria venue last Sunday (the 21st). Below you'll find three very fair but before you get on to them I'll give my little overview.

Now over the last 12 months I've managed to catch the band 4 times, namely Walthamstow this time last year, Cambridge and the Astoria in may and of course this most recent gig. Previous to that it had been over 10 years since I has last seen them and that particular show in Cambridge in 92 left me completely cold and so hence my long "lay off".

I've actually come to the conclusion that for die hard fans such as myself it does  get quite difficult to be totally objective when reviewing shows without falling into either "over critical" or "they can't do a thing wrong" modes and instead just give a fair  and balanced version of events as you see them. This isn't helped by the fact that the band seem incredibly tight at the moment which is quite frightening when you think that they are only playing one off gigs at present, what are they going to be like when they do a proper tour again?, without getting too over excited it could be very special.

So what of last Sundays gig, well from a personal point of view I didn't think it was as good as the May show at the same venue, well, at least that's what I thought  as I left on Sunday night, but having had time to digest proceedings I'd have to say that it's a pretty close run thing. I mean is it even fair to compare the 2 shows, for a start the set was quite different as was the line ups with neither Arthur Brown or Simon House being present on Sunday night. What I did feel was lacking this time was a "defining moment". For what it's worth when the band played in May they did the trio of tracks that are "Assault and Battery", "Golden Void" and "Where are they now" and to me that was "it" probably as good as I've ever heard them play in the 20+ years that I've been going to watch them and as good as Sunday's show was their wasn't in my opinion a moment that lived up to that. I think it's also worth noting at this point that another "absentee" this time around was keyboard and synth man Keith Kniveton who to me is one of Hawkwind's "unsung heroes". Whilst he may not have the profile of Tim Blake or Harvey Bainbridge for that matter, from my experience he's the one who really gets the whooshes and spacey noises going that give the band a classic Hawkwind sound

Okay so I've been a bit nit picking so far about Sunday but you really can't be that critical when long time Hawkwind associate Huw Lloyd Langton gets up mid set and does a quick acoustic interlude. Non electrical instruments are in short supply at Hawkwind gigs these days, especially guitars so this made for a very unique event. I also understand that Huw has not had the best of times over the last couple of years what with breaking his arm and leg so it was great seeing him look so well and whilst he may have seemed a bit apprehensive I think it's fair to say that all of the 2000 or so in the audience where willing him on every step of the way that in reality he was never likely to fail. The only shame was that he didn't come back for an "electric wig out" later in the gig.

The last thing I'd like to pick up on is the new song Angela Android, this was the second time I'd heard the number (it should  have been 3 but I ended up talking to Kris at Cambridge (mind that name drop doesn't fall on you!)) so I'm pretty new to it, but have to say that to me at least it came over as very latter day Primal Scream, the fact that they are another one of my favourite bands and I'm forever telling people how much they sound like the hawks then I have a feeling that this is going to become a firm favourite with me at least, well fair enough it's a pretty crap title but it's the music we're worried about isn't it?.

Anyway enough of my inane ramblings, I'll hand you over to people who know far more than I do and let them have their say. Thanks to all of you who have contributed and if you feel like adding anything then please feel free to
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As ever your views are welcome

Just for the records the set was

Arrival in Utopia
Angela Android*
Assault and Battery
The Golden Void
Where are you now
New Instrumental
Another New Instrumental
The Right Stuff
Paranoia
Hurry on Sundown
Acoustic Set by Huwie: 5th Second of Forever
Solitary Mindgames
5th Second of Forever
Waiting for Tomorrow
Wings
Ejection* Lene's Robot
Heads
Sun Ray
Brainbox Pollution

Encore:
Spirit of the Age*
Master of the Universe
Welcome to the Future

(* Lene Lovich - Vocals)

NICK LEE

Another cracking good night out last night!

After a brief hello to Colin outside the venue I headed off to the Angel and met up with Mike H and co. Shortly to be joined by Ian, Alan's Linsley and Taylor, Jill, Bernhard, Alfred and many others. A few pints of Sam Smiths later we decamped to the Moon Under Water for some food. Was that Avid Merrion I spotted in there? Was he at the gig too? Bo Hawkwind!

Inside the venue was full of the usual familiar faces, Merrick and Julie, the Assassins crowd, Neil and Marie, Keith, Dibs. Had a good chat with lots of folk and managed to find my old University friend Roy, over from Oz for the gig. Get accosted by another guy who remembers me from Sheffield. It seems to be a very small world tonight.

The Hawks were, I thought on excellent form. Dave's guitar very prominent in the mix and he seemed to be playing a lot tonight as well. Utopia works well as an opener but bringing Angela Android to the from of the set was a bit of a surprise. Lene Lovich seemed to be right in the spirit of things, coming across not totally unlike Bridget. Highlights of the set for me were Angela Android, the triple treat of Assault & Battery/Golden Void/Where Are They Now, Brainbox Pollution, Huw's mini-acoustic set, Hurry On Sundown, Spirit of the Age and Heads (this went to new dimensions compared to previous versions, as the familiar synth pattern gave way to a full-on blanga guitar extravaganza). The sound was very clear and the interplay between Dave & Keith worked really well, particularly on Sun Ray (surprised to hear that without Arthur, but Alan made a pretty good job of singing it). Lene rejoined the band at a few points, doing a sort of Robot piece towards the end of Ejection. Lovely solo from Dave towards the end of Spirit of the Age. The synth into to Masters was a bit different but when it took off they really tore into it. Nice to finish on Welcome once again, especially fitting for an end of year gig.

After finally getting thrown out, despite protestations from our elected spokesperson Mike that we were waiting for passes to the party, I headed off to the 12 Bar with Roy and spent a while catching up with him. I do wish I'd either left sooner or stayed a fair bit later as when I got to Euston I'd just missed a train and had to wait an hour nearly for the next. Doh!

As mentioned before a very sociable gig, and great to see so many familiar people, and always nice to be able to put a couple of faces to names.

Roll on the new album & tour!

Nick

IAN ABRAHAMS

Can you believe this, in the 21st Century there are no scheduled trains from Cornwall on the last Sunday before Christmas? Makes you wonder why we ever got mixed up with the English in the first place. So, its a drive to Exeter and then train to London.

Arrive at hotel about 2pm, to meet-up with Hawkwind-virgin Keith Topping (motto: "kill the hippies" or on good days "why did we fight the Punk wars again?") and settle down in the lounge in front of a very welcome log fire and await the arrival of Bernhard and Andreas, who we've sorted out accommodation for. The Germans duly arrive, and we make the Angel by about 5pm.

Great to see a lot of the list crowd, Alan Linsley, Alan Taylor, Mike Holmes, Jill Stobridge, David Law, Chris Purdon, Nick Lee et al - people who I didn't know this time last year and many of who are now great friends. Interesting chat with Mike about various of his Glastonbury and Stonehenge experiences. We all try to remember the name of the Tory MP who played in a Hawkwind tribute band, and nobody can come up with it - any takers here?

Grab some food in the Moon Under Water (serious lack of table space nearly prevents this) and then on to the gig.

Grab a quick chat with Colin then stand back to watch the support band. Hmmm, not quite my taste but o/k - sort of expect to see Huw do his acoustic numbers before the main act and start to wonder where he is.

Hawkwind set. The trio, plus Keith B and Lene Lovich.

I still see this, no disrespect to Keith, as a trio gig. I know Colin explained what to listen out for, but I still struggled with my non-musician's ear to pick out what bits Keith was playing. Now, nothing wrong with a trio gig - by nature they are very tight and well defined musically and produced two of my favourite albums. But, sometimes I feel that they still need a Huw, or a Simon House or a Keith K to produce something a bit more random, a bit more unexpected. It can be a bit like a mis-produced Cadbury's Creme Egg - nice to look at, tasty on the outside, but with a bit of the fondant centre missing.

Still, a great show none-the-less - there's been some set-lists posted already, so I'll just pick-out the highlights as being the new material (roll-on the new record), Lene Lovich who looked and sounded pretty damn weird, Brainbox Pollution and the very cute dancers. Unreconstructed male, me.

Boy was Davey giving it some on the bass! But also a lot more keyboards than at Exeter a couple of months back, so not such a gritty, grungy sound. Alan playing synths for the first time since he came back (?), and Keith B as well, which gave a richer texture to the wall of sound - very much in favour of this.

Huw's bit came mid show and would have been better as an opener, I thought but: Marvellous to see Huw in such good form, played really well and looked so much better than the pictures from Hawkfest revealed - lots of nice comments going around the audience - I think everybody was relieved to see this. Nice to see Dave sat on stage listening to some of Huw's stuff - showed a bit of support, I thought.

Amused to see Dave singing Spirit of the Age without having to play guitar as well - its the first time I've seen him just stand up and sing a song - and it showed, because he certainly didn't know what to do with his hands!

Downside, I thought the backdrop projections were spoilt from where I was standing by the fixed Astoria multi-coloured lighting that swamped out some of the images - a shame because what we did see looked really cool (a few clips of the Reefer Madness film in there?) and would have been really effective with the big screen to show them on.

Best bit? Blagging our way into the 12-Bar on Denmark Street after the show via Mike Holmes' "Let us in - we're the hardcore fans". Laugh - well, yes, I did! Only bit afterwards of note was chatting to Martin Griffin at the party - quite a character!

Yep, Good One. For my particular Hawkwind taste, preferred Bristol early in the year with Simon and with Arthur Brown's theatrics, but this was a damn good expression of Hawkwind as well and made particularly exciting by the amount of new material going around.

Ian

ROB (DREAMWORKER) note this review also appears on starfarer's site

Absolutely astounding gig. All musicians on top form. From both the balcony and towards the back downstairs the sound was superb. We could hear all of them really clearly.

The core trio were joined by Keith Barton on guitar who came over exceptionally well last night. Couldn't see round the corner from where we were but it sounded like Keith Kniveton was also there, hidden away to the right of the stage (as you look at it from the audience). Lene Lovich took the stage for lead vocals on one song and backing vocals on a few others will have divided opinion I'm sure. I thought she was great and really fitted in (more subtly than Arthur) and most people I spoke to felt the same, but at least one was not happy.

Hopefully someone will post a full tracklist soon, but they opened with Arrival in Utopia and finished with Spirit of the Age (with the Welcome epilogue) which were both stunners. Other highlights included a sort of techno first verse of MoTU segueing into a blistering full blown rendition of the song and a superbly performed acoustic slot by Huw that mellowed us out in the middle of the Hawkwind set. Heads made a welcome return.

All in all that was a stunning performance, building on the sound and set that we saw in Amsterdam. Astoria 03 is going to go down in history as one of the real classics imho.

Saw loads of familiar folk and met loads of others I know from the lists but have never met in person. This has to have been one of the most sociable HW gigs ever. The Hawkfests have done a lot to encourage and support the friendships that many of us have made over the net.

There was a limited edition (500) CD of part of the Walthamstow 2002 gig on sale last night - it's nearly 75 mins and the quality is as good as Canterbury 01 from what I've heard so far. Tracklist for that is: Earth Calling; Aerospaceage Inferno; Angels of Death; Out of the Shadows; Time Captives; Master of the Universe; The Gremlin Song; Time and Confusion; Hurry on Sundown; Lighthouse; The Watcher; Assassins of Allah; Do That; Earth Calling

Cheers. Rob.

BERNHARD POSPIECH

Well, I did it again. Made it from Germany to the UK with my mate Andreas to see our favourite band again: HAWKWIND.

And we were not disappointed

It all started at 11:00h on 21.12.2003 in the morning when I was driving to Andreas and then drive to a local airport to catch a cheap flight to Stansted.

With my handy I was in contact with Ian, Rob and Alfred who were already in London. We arrived in our hotel at 16:30h where Ian Abrahams and his mate Keith were waiting. Thanks again Ian for organising the hotel for us.

15 minutes later we 4 made it to the Angel pub where we met Mike Holmes, Jill Strobridge, Alan Linsley, Alan Taylor, Rob Dreamworker (thanks for the tickets Rob !!), Nick Lee, Nicky Carroll, Dennis Regenbrecht plus his sister and Alfred Koessl (and all the folks I forgot to mention here). We had some interesting chats. Its always great to meet these very friendly folks.

2 hours later some of us went to a Chinese restaurant and then to the Astoria Theatre. Inside the Astoria we bought (of course !!) the new Walthamstow 2002 live CD and had some chats with Keith Barton and Eddie Jobson. Then we made it into the theatre. Hawkwind started exactly at 09:00h.

Now I will try to give my comments and feelings from my memory to every track that was played.

The band started with:

- Arrival In Utopia
A straight song. No special surprises. A good starter

- Angela Android
A song from the forthcoming album. With Lene Lovich on vocals. Very
interesting. Good guitar playing by Dave and Keith

- Assault & Battery
Nothing special about this song

- Golden Void
Same here. Very short played. Good guitar by Dave

- Where Are You Now
Again: Nothing special here. Short and good !

- Out There We Are
Another new song. In fact the band played 2 instrumentals. The 1st one
sounded like "Wave Upon Wave" and the 2nd one was a rhythmic
instrumental. Not bad.
I'd say the band played 2 songs but Colin said it was one. OK, why not
For my taste both tracks were to long and they stole some drive from
this gig. I'd have place them on 2 different positions

- Right Stuff / Paranoia
Fast and heavy played. Dave on vocals. He made his job much better than
Alan who is a great bass player but not the best singer. The song faded
into Paranoia.

- Hurry On Sundown
A very good and fast version. Except Brixton 2000 it was the best one
I've heard

- 5th Second Of Forever / Solitary Mind Games / Waiting For Tomorrow
Then a (positive) break in the set. Huwie appeared on stage and played
an acoustic set.
Perfect guitar playing. Perfect singing. Huwie in top form !!

- Wings
Huwie left the stage and the band went on with Wings
A good version. Much better than in 1990/1991. Good vocals by Alan

- Ejection / Lenes Robot
Great played. With very heavy guitars. Alan on vocals. The song faded
into a song I call "Lenes Robot". Lene Lovich performed a Robot. It is
not comparable to Calverts ROBOT but it has to do with robots and their
behaviour. And the basic rhythm was "Robot-like"

- Heads
The highlight of the evening. At 1st I had problems to recognise this
song but then it floated over me. Very different to the 1988-1992 one.
Dave and Keith played FANTASTIC guitars. What a great song !!!! Started
slow and ended heavy and fast!. WOW !!!

- Sun Ray
Another one from the forthcoming album. Again with Lene who were doing
some "noises".
I enjoyed that song.

- Brainbox Pollution
The 2nd highlight. Though to short it was a great performance. Very
heavy

- Hassan I Sahba / Space Is Their / Hassan I Sahba
Well, what should I say about this song. Very simple: I do not like
it..except the middle part (Space Is Their). Hawkwind played it very
good tonight. With Dave and Keith doing good guitar work

This was the end of the main set
The encore started with:

- Spirit of The Age
The 3rd highlight of the evening. My favourite Hawkwind-song!! One of
the best performances of that song I've ever heard. Again both
guitarists played like there was no tomorrow. That's it !!!

- Master Of The Universe
A very unusual performance of that song. It started with Richard singing
and after about 2 minutes it went into the song we all know. Not bad !

- Welcome
Nothing special about this one.

The gig ended with this song. 115 minutes were gone
I couldn't believe it. About 2 hours have gone!!!

Well, overall I must say that it was a good gig. Not the best one but
one of the better ones.
Unfortunately it could have been better if the band had changed the
positions of the slower tracks

After the show some folks were invited to a Voiceprint party in the 12
Bars club.
Unfortunately the band did not appear and Rob Ayling (from Voiceprint)
did not appear as well. Some fans made it (about 8 or 10). And we had
the luck to talk to Martin Griffin. He told us some funny stories about
Hawkwind doing support for Krokus on their German tour in 1982 (my very
1st Hawkwind gig) and about Robert Calvert in 1978. Martin is a very
friendly person.

Then we left the pub to go to our hotel.
Next morning we had breakfast with Ian and Keith and talked mainly about
his Hawkwind book which will be released in 2004

Then we assaulted to record and book stores of London. For my wife I had
to buy some English Tea at Harrods. I did it.

After spending some money we flew home.
I was at home at 23:00h in the evening. Exactly 36 hours after starting
this amazing trip.
Met great folks, saw a great gig. I was tired but I would to it again
and again

Bernhard

DR M

First off I have to say how refreshing it was to be able to watch Hawkwind from 4 rows away without anyone climbing on my back or having to surround the moshpit with all its attendant flailings to get a view from the floor. I can only conclude the audience is ageing as gracefully as the band!

The gig kicked off with the slightly unexpected opener of Arrival In Utopia, which suits this more minimalist line-up. They did a solid enough version, though not having heard it since the ‘80’s, I feel it seemed a bit fuller back then – certainly one of the more interesting tracks on Choose Your Masques.

The band was joined by a pair of unusually lissome dancers, who were a definite improvement over some of their predecessors and who managed to interpret the various soundscapes with complementary movements. The sound was also much clearer than at many previous gigs, where it often dissolved into an undistinguished and indistinguishable wall of noise.

Lene Lovich’s first guest spot was up next, where she contributed the "robot noises" (one assumes) that punctuate Chadwick’s vocals on Angela Android. She did look remarkably as she did in the early ‘80’s, with fragments of black lace tied onto a dreadlocked hairpiece and black lipstick, while providing the trademark warbles and burbles across the same vocal range that I recall on her singles from back then. Aside from the novelty of Ms. Lovich, this one didn’t do a lot for me as the rhythm/tune seemed somewhat repetitive, although I don’t think I’ve witnessed Richard singing while playing the drums before – good trick if you can do it!

One of the highlights of the gig followed and while the keyboards made a valiant attempt to fill in the atmosphere of Assault & Battery and the Golden Void, I couldn’t help but feel their full majesty was lacking, especially since Simon House wasn’t there to provide his ethereal violin. Still, both were spirited versions, with Alan tackling Lemmy’s bassline head on and some chilled guitar from Keith Barton at the end. There may even have been a short solo from Dave, a rarity throughout the twenty plus years of live performances that I’ve attended.

The Golden Void floated into what I can only assume is called Where Are You Now. I have been informed that this is a very old space chant from the vaults, when at the time I had thought it to be part of the recent catalogue I hadn’t heard, though I couldn’t help but notice that the main riff appeared to be lifted from the middle of PXR5. I found the sequencer recreation of that catchy instrumental bridge somewhat repetitive and so it had worn a bit thin by the time it had meandered into another synthy piece which was quite pleasant, but for me went on too long. This interlude was concluded by more sequencer driven track, which sounded familiar from Dave’s back catalogue.

This sequencer/synth interlude seem too full of space for me, but was followed by a brisk version of The Right Stuff, sung by Alan while he showcased his Lemmy-esque playing style. Halfway through I was disappointed that the impetus was lost by moving into a pointless sequencer piece, followed by loud grinding guitar from Dave counterpointed by a spacier sound from Keith, before returning to The Right Stuff.

An upbeat version of Hurry On Sundown came next and I was interested to note (given recent hostilities towards most of the original musicians) that this had the warmest reception from the crowd all night, and I could feel the floor flexing as the audience sang along while dancing exuberantly. I don’t think I was alone in thinking Huw wasn’t going to appear after all, as I had expected him to be present for Hurry On Sundown, but he came on next to do a solo acoustic spot, fortunately not looking as fragile as recent reports have suggested. Playing what appeared to be an Ovation, he was a revelation on an acoustic guitar and these next few songs were another highlight of the show. He began by playing the haunting lead from the beginning of Dust of Time, which merged seamlessly into Solitary Mind Games. He sang that and then Waiting for Tomorrow strongly and tunefully, while playing both lead and rhythm lines on the acoustic, before finishing with a reprise of Dust of Time as the outro.

Huw’s set was very well received although some people weren’t polite enough to keep their noise levels down in keeping with the acoustic material. This high point was followed by what I gather from others’ setlists and reviews to be called Wings. I found this number ploddingly typical nouveau Hawkwind and with a somewhat dirgy sound and unintelligible vocals from Alan. Following a synth bridge, the band launched into Ejection, which was also inexplicably split by a sequencer interlude, this time featuring Lene Lovich on vocals. The lyrics seem to have been adapted from some of Robot but combined with new material and were placed against a repetitive bass/synth sequence, somewhat reminiscent of the start to Lighthouse.

After returning to Ejection, the band moved on to Heads, which is an interesting blast from the past, considering I was around at its inception. This began in a familiar way, with Dave intoning the lyrics in a suitably sinister manner, but morphed into something different than I remember from original late Eighties performances. The overall sound seemed heavier than the original more atmospheric soundscape. Heads was apparently followed by Sun Ray (according to published setlists), one I know Arthur Brown has performed previously with the band, but new to me. Alan was doing a walking bassline while Keith weighed in on guitar, but other than that, not so memorable, as despite there being lyrics it didn’t leave much of an impression.

After Sun Ray was Brainbox Pollution, which sounded authentic, with driving Lemmy-esque bass and vocals from Alan. This was followed by another favourite, Hassan I Sabha, although I don’t feel Hawkwind do it justice these days. Still, it was a forceful version, trying to make up for the missing violin while Alan sang it straightforwardly and appears to have given up trying to unsuccessfully mimic Bob’s original vocal ululations.

It was around this point that the Security Mafia hauled off some unfortunate next to me for the heinous crime of snatching a few shots with a digital camera. My memory became somewhat hazy, as I recollect Spirit of the Age as being the last song of the set, before an encore of Master of the Universe and Welcome to the Future, but I’ll stand corrected. It was during Spirit of the Age that a final bit of drama was injected, when my other half was hit square in the eye by one of the dancers’ garters, closely followed by his neighbour’s hand as he tried to catch it…but I’m glad to report no lasting damage was done and said neighbour was most apologetic. After a solid Master of the Universe, it was just left for Dave to intone Welcome to the Future before the gig was over and the Astoria staff began encouraging everyone to leave. All in all, not the most blinding Hawkwind gig I’ve ever seen ("a shadow of their former selves" has been the opinion in some quarters) but certainly an enjoyable Solstice night out.

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