HW: The REAL Hawks

[Andrew Gilham]

>- The  years between 1982 and 1984 were HAWKWINDs dark years
>- Hardcore fans know that this was the time when punker NT played with
>   HAWKWIND
>- During this time HW was absolute unproductive. No new ideas, no spirit
>  in their music (just listen to the tapes and you'll know what I am talking
>  about)

Well...  I agree that the early '80s were Hawkwind's darkest hour, but I'm not
sure it's right to put the blame on Turner.  I think it was a time when Brock
himself seemed to lose interest in the band - he wasn't writing much, he hid
behind his synths as much as possible, and he just didn't look as if he was
enjoying himself.  As you say, Hawkwind had no new ideas or spirit - and I
don't have to listen to any tapes, I was there!

The curious thing is that in roughly '80-'82, Nik had been in the utterly
godlike Inner City Unit, who were a much more credible and creative outfit
than HW at the time - but things that had worked with ICU (who were so much
more than "Turner's backing band") fell flat with HW.  And then when ICU
re-started in '85, they were great again.  And even Lemmy's half-hearted
semi-return - at a time when Motorhead, like ICU, were in suspended animation
- didn't really work.

I tend to think the moment that crystallized HW's decline was that sleeve note
in _Sonic Attack_, that goes something like "we didn't get a keyboard player,
because me and Harvey could do it"...  and even at the time, when I still
tried to believe Hawkwind could do no wrong, I always skipped side one, track
one when playing that album...  _SA_, from the title down, was a real signal
that they'd run out of ideas, in fact.  The _Black Sword_ thing was the real
act of desperation, though - a ten-years-on attempt to recapture the glory of
_Warrior_ - and it wasn't until _Xenon Codex_ that they stopped the rot.
(IMO!)

>HAWKWIND is a SPACEROCK band and not a PUNK band.
>We all want to hear good spacerock music and not punk music

Hey, I like a lot of punk music!  (But actually, I dislike genre labels.)

- Andy