HW: In Your Area

[John Majka]

I think you've summed up very effectively the situation in which Hawkwind
find themselves.  Of course I have no personal knowledge of the financial
situation in the Hawkwind camp, but I am guessing that like most aging
musicians of the non-mainstream variety, Brock and the rest do not have the
more financially secure retirement income that a typical worker has.  Many
musicians wind up digging themselves into a hole which requires them to be
constantly scrambling to make ends meet, and I can only imagine the
situation as Hawkwind gets older and expenses become higher while interest
in the band gets ever smaller.  Probably the "raw skills" factor in
Hawkwind has never been at a weaker point than it is right now... of course
Brock is Brock (our genius in residence), and Richard is probably the
strongest drummer they've ever had, but Ron as a bass player, although
passable, leaves something to be desired after all those years with
virtuosos Alan and Lemmy.  Captain Rizz, in my opinion, adds nothing fresh
or interesting to the band...rather, sadly, I consider him a nuisance I
hope will go away promptly!  Jerry Richards is a good guitar playing but,
let's be honest, he's no Huw-Lloyd Langton....either in aesthetic style or
in technique.  The Hawks have a lot of weak areas right now....their
musical direction seems unfocused, unclear, and although I think Dave and
Richard are very very strong musically, it's just not enough to carry the
rest of the band.  The keyboard playing in particular has become extremely
dull and simplistic.  How much i miss Harvey Bainbridge!  I feel as though
the band may be splintering before our eyes, unable to pull together into a
cohesive unit, and so we see the many many many
recycled/re-written/live/half-baked half-assed noodling on recent records.
And as for that story about Distant Horizons being some unfinished demo
tapes that Doug Smith released....I don't mean to be cynical, but I'm not
buying it!  I find it hard to believe that Hawkwind is so "out of control"
that they can't even control the content of a new album.  Every other band
on earth seems to have total and utter control over what they put onto the
market as a "new album" and I expect Hawkwind has the same.  I am of course
not speaking of the bootleg and other material (Acid Daze, Yuri Gagarin etc
etc) that floods the catalog.  To claim Distant Horizons was a
half-finished demo sounds to me like rationalizing to explain its dearth of
material.  Of course I'd rather have at least a so-so album rather than no
album at all, but still....
John Majka
flossbac at nlci.com
At 12:01 PM 1/27/99 +0000, you wrote:
>I think we'd have to say this is exactly as expected. Without
>wishing to be too down on it, it's an accurate reflection of
>where the band are at the moment: the difficulty of coming
>up with strong new material and the consequent retreads;
>the lack of a lyric writer; the execrable Capt Rizz; the poor
>quality control. But what they hell, they still sound like no-one
>else, there's some good back-catalogue there to reprocess,
>and at least there *is* new product.
>
>We'd all like Brock to write some good new songs. I would
>doubt that that's just a matter of his being arsed to do it. The
>problem seems to be spreading the available inspiration over
>the volume of product that appears necessary to sustain the
>band. The result is albums that have enough good tracks
>to fill an EP, with their impact diluted by perfunctory synth
>efforts for which "slight" would be the most generous word I
>could find (the commendable "Elfin" aside). Personally, I'd
>prefer it if they waited until they had enough decent material
>for a proper album; I think the need for product can be (and
>often has been) filled by live material, remixes, even some
>good old-fashioned improvisation ....
>
>Alun
>
>