HW:Moor and NT

[Scott Heller]

The MOOR and Nik Turner at Molotow, Hamburg 11/1/98

WOW! What a day this was, both before and after the show.  The Molotow is a
small club right in the heart of the local prostitute hang outs and the
strip and gambling joints, pretty seedy!  Very nice people run the place
and we (Christian Mumford and I) got there early and hung out until the
band arrived and we helped them load in the gear and chat. They were all
really nice folks.  They arrived at 7:30, 1.5 hours late, so everything got
off to a late start.  By 8 or so Christian and I had Nik cornered in a tiny
room and we chatted with him for 45 minutes and he was quite frank and
spoke a lot about his new record label, his new Allstars project CD, the
possibility of a 1999 tour (with or without Brock and Lemmy), and other
things.  You will read it later in Aural Innovations (issue #2 or 3).

        I had been reading Julian Cope's Krautrock sampler and I am
listening to Unknown Deutchland: The Krautrock Archive Vol. 1 right now,
but at the club the DJ had awesome taste, playing Guru Guru, Can, Scorpions
(first record 1972 on Brain!!), Grobschmitt, etc.. It was the best preshow
music I had ever heard and it really got you in the mood for the show,
which was totally different!  The MOOR opened up with a Calvert poem, and
one new song, followed by Nik coming out with his blue face paint, and that
wild suit that he wore in Chicago at JJ Kelly's in September. He entered
the room playing the sax, walking through the crowd (about 60 people) and
up onto the stage.  Then went into one of their own new songs, followed by
a very cool version of Watching the Grass Grow.  The MOOR created their own
type of groove, different from the ICU or Pressurehed backing band grooves.
It was much slower and spacier but worked very well.  The band working with
Nik stretched most tunes out to around 10 minutes or so.  Some of the best
material was when they played material from Nik's 1978 lp, Xintoday.  The
bass/keyboard player switched over to a tabla style drum, as did the
excellent drummer, and Knut played tambourine.  This was great as with Nik
chanting and playing the flute you had a really awesome mid east feel, not
the heavy rock versions of the tunes that were on Sphinx or played with
Pressurehed.  Excellent!  More of the MOOR material followed with the
occasional Calvert poem throw in.  They did a long encore of several HW
tunes, Children of the Sun, Brainstorm with a bit of Steppenwolf in the
middle and that was not enough, he few people remaining demanded more and
Nik played solo Silver/Washing Machine and the band heard what he was doing
and they came back out and it turned into another massive jam.. The 20 or
so people left loved it.  I think more people would have been at the show
had it not been so late (started at 11 pm) on a sunday night!  The band
played for 126 minutes! The recording came out excellent.

I really liked the show a lot. The MOOR's new material is very dark, gothic
rock, with synthesisers and Nik playing the sax over the top really adds a
unique element. The guy who read most of the lyrics for the MOOR did not
have that great of a voice when he tried to sing at all (Which was not
often). He mostly did like spoken word stuff. The lyrics seem quite good
and socially conscience type stuff.  Great band, nice people, and a good
time, except after the show.  We roamed the streets of Hamburg trying to
avoid the prostitutes (who were everywhere) looking for a youth hostel,
which was closed, so we crashed in the train station until 4 am and took
the train back to Kobenhavn, having spent only 12 hours in Germany!  I had
a great time for the most part.

I think that Christian will have a totally different take on the event (but
he was in a totally different state of mind ( I did not drink or smoke
anything).

scott

R. Scott Heller PhD
Hagedorn Research Institute
Niels Steensensvej 6
DK 2820 Gentofte Denmark
(45) 44 43 91 96  or 44 3 91 38 Phone
(45) 44 43 80 00 Fax
shll at hagedorn.dk  or  heller at hagedorn.dk
Http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/stage/7713