HW: NEWS FLASH !!!!

[Carl E. Anderson]

> As it happens, I'm suprised that so many people think Doug is out to stop
> the band making money, as this is his main role for band.

        Well, you have to understand that for quite some time when the
list saw one Hawkwind screw-up after another we tended to heap the
blame on the manager.  It's sort of become tradition at this point
(and takes the heat off Steve Swann, otherwise Official Scapegoat).

        The practice really reached a head on the US Hawkwind tour
last year when none of the list-fans were surprised at the audience
turn-out and enthusiasm for merchanise shown by HW starved US fans
(perhaps numerically small in number by *highly* enthusiastic).
        A lot of us went *ballistic* when we arrived at somewhere like
the NYC gig of the tour and discovered that there were _no_ T-shirts
or items of any kind because the demand had been underestimated.  And
we went even *more* ballistic when we realized that there was a pretty
sizeable crowd at NYC and if they had been able to buy merchandise on
the scale that the punters at the previous gigs had (before the toys ran
out) that Hawkwind would have made _thousands_ of dollars at the NYC
show alone (and that's in _profit_, considering costs associated with
getting the shirts).  And if they'd kept that up for the whole tour
they actually would have _made_ a handy amount of money on the US
tour instead of _losing_ money.

        And yes, Griffin screwed up by underestimating demand as well,
though they didn't _ask_ us ;) and probably should have ;)  But
with a firm I on OUR band's (as concerned fans) bottom line we
callously decided the manager should have been more on top of the
situation and been there to do something about it.  And as it was
we were watching with some annoyance as Hawkwind staggered about the
States with a very poor idea of where they were driving themselves,
without the means to make money, and playing gigs that were barely
longer than an hour to audiences who had in many cases travelled hundreds
of miles (if not thousands) to see them.  A short set and no souvenier!

        So heaping abuse on Doug Smith really reached a peak at that
point.  It might not be fair, but life isn't fair.

        Other grumbling came from rumors that DS had blocked release of
the Orb's cover of _Silver Machine_ and the rumor that he was blocking
gigs/tours with the Ozrics.  Whether this was true or not it didn't
help a disgruntled fan base looking for someone to pin the tail on.

        Mind you, my own deeply jaundiced views have been improved
somewhat by the amazing EMI re-masters and the solstice gig with the
Ozrics.  Now if everyone was really on top of it there should be a
joint HW/Ozrics US tour since demand is high for both and there are
a great deal of crossover among the fans actually.

        Better yet would be for HW to take the offer of a tour with
Monster Magnet and set up for a Lallapalooza-type space-rock road
show with the Ozrics and gods-know-who-else in the States.  That
would be brilliant.
        And I say that even knowing I would miss it by not being in the
States anymore ...

Cheers,
Carl

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Carl Edlund Anderson                            *  "Ar det inte ett
cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk                             *   fritt land?"
http://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~canders/hem.html    *
Dept. of ASNAC Studies, Cambridge U.            *   -- Pippi Langstrump
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