HW: Brock intervew

[Doug Pearson]

On Tue, 2 Mar 1999 17:11:23 +0000, Dave Berry <daveb at HARLEQUIN.CO.UK> wrote:

>At 16:35 02/03/99 GMT, M Holmes wrote:
>>[Nik Nik]
>>
>>I'd have to pick D-Rider as his best song with Dying Seas a close
>>second, though I'll admit the alternative lyrics MotU was pretty good.
>
>I don't see why people like D-rider so much.  I don't hate it or anything,
>I just don't regard it as a highlight.

I used to feel that way, based on the studio version, and even the '1999
Party' version is merely pretty adequate.  But when I saw "D-Rider"
performed on the '94 tour (w/Helios Creed), I was thoroughly blown away by
that song - it was easily a major highlight of that set.  Incredible
dynamics to that one, and some fantastic flute playing, too.

>Kadu Flyer, on the other hand, is excellent.

Yes, another favorite of mine; great keyboard work by Simon House on the
studio version (I don't like the '95 tour version very much - Len Del Rio
is a great synth player, but he's no Simon House when it comes to melodic
keyboards) ... I didn't even know it was a Nik song until fairly recently.

>I agree that Dying Seas is good, and I like Children Of The Sun
>too, in a very hippy sort of way.

The semi-acoustic version of "Children of the Sun" on the '97 tour
w/Farflung was great - I loved hearing that, and it reminded me that I wish
Dave would pull out an acoustic guitar from time to time (how about: Dave -
acoustic 12-string, vocals; Jerry - synth; Ron - audio generator; Richard -
tablas) for a song like "Children of the Sun" or "Mirror of Illusion" or
"The Demented Man" or even the first half of "Space Is Deep" (and the rest
of the band switches back to electric guitar/bass/drumkit w/sequenced synth
sweeps for the second half).

>Thinking about it, I guess he did do his fair share of the songwriting when
>he was in the band.  Obviously not as many songs as Dave, but more than
>most of the rest of the band at the time.

I think that Nik filled the essential "secondary songwriter" role (that's
subsequently been held by Calvert, Bainbridge, Davey, and now
Richards/Chadwick/Tree) for Hawkwind very well while he was in the band.

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com